Voters in Alabama, Maine, and Texas went to the polls on Tuesday, finalizing key Senate match-ups this November and delivering another huge victory for the criminal justice reform movement.
Less than five years after he became the first senator to endorse Donald Trump for president, Jeff Sessions’ political career ended on Tuesday with a humiliating loss.
Sessions’ defeat in Alabama’s Senate primary runoff, while arguably the most newsworthy result of the evening, was far from the only consequential outcome on Tuesday, when voters in Alabama, Maine, and Texas went to the polls. In casting their ballots, they helped finalize key Senate match-ups this November and delivered another huge victory for the criminal justice reform movement.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries:
Jeff Sessions, Once ‘Trump Before Trump,’ Loses Due to Trump’s Attacks
Sessions, who represented Alabama in the Senate from 1997 to 2017 before becoming Trump’s first U.S. Attorney General, was once one of the Republican party’s most conservative and controversial figures, even being called “Trump before Trump.” On Tuesday, Sessions lost 61-39 to Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn University football coach who had the support of the president. Sessions’ defeat ends a long political career marked by frequent allegations of xenophobia, homophobia, and racism.
Sessions and Trump were once close allies, but Sessions’ role in allowing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election caused Trump to sour on the former senator. Trump’s antipathy toward Sessions culminated in November 2018, when the president forced him out as Attorney General. Since then, Trump has continued to blast Sessions, calling him a “total disaster,” “an embarrassment to the great state of Alabama,” and “very weak and very sad,” ending with his full-throated endorsement of Tuberville in March.
Sessions tried to ignore Trump’s attacks and paint himself as a staunch ally of the president, but his efforts fell far short, with local Republicans pointing to Trump’s attacks as the reason for his loss.
“People in Alabama voted against Jeff Sessions because Donald Trump told them to,” Angi Stalnaker, a Republican strategist in Alabama, told the New York Times. “If it had been Donald Trump saying, ‘Go write in Mickey Mouse,’ 50 percent of them would have gone to write in Mickey Mouse.”
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Sessions said he was leaving elected office with his “integrity intact,” before adding: “This chapter of my life is closed.” But even during his concession speech, Sessions refused to criticize the president. If Trump “gets on message, and stays on it,” he said, “I think he’ll be in a position to come back and win this election” in November.
Tommy TubervilleWhile Sessions’ political career is over, Tuberville’s is just beginning. He will now face Democrat Doug Jones, the most vulnerable incumbent senator, in the November general election.
Susan Collins Gets Her Challenger
Sara Gideon officially became the Democratic nominee in Maine’s Senate race, paving the way for her to potentially unseat incumbent Republican Susan Collins.
“This campaign is about all of us, and about how we can build a stronger future together,” Gideon said during an acceptance speech broadcast on Facebook. “After 24 years in Washington, Sen. Collins has become part of that broken system, putting special interests and her political party first, and Mainers know it and feel it.”
Sara GideonGideon, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives who was backed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, earned 70% of the vote on Tuesday, defeating challengers Elizabeth Sweet and Bre Kidman. Gideon has proven a formidable fundraiser, bringing in more than $23 million in campaign donations, compared to Collins’ $16 million. Gideon will also gain access to $3.7 million from a crowdsourced fund for Collins’ challenger that was created during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings.
Collins, who has fashioned herself a defender of women and reproductive rights, voted to confirm Kavanaugh despite allegations of sexual assault against the judge. Kavanaugh assured Collins he would respect precedent as it relates to abortion, but has since voted to limit abortion rights, giving Democrats ample firepower to target Collins.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report has rated the race a tossup, and the election has already become the most expensive in Maine history. Collins, who cruised to victory in 2014 with 69% of the vote, now finds herself in the political fight of her life.
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Collins has long positioned herself as an independent who aimed to find bipartisan compromise, but her popularity has plummeted in the Trump era. A January Morning Consult poll found Collins was the most unpopular senator in the country, and an April Critical Insights poll found her underwater with voters, with only 37% approving of her performance and 52% disapproving.
Her falling popularity has given Gideon an opening, and a new Public Policy Polling poll found her leading Collins by four points.
Texas Democrats Pick MJ Hegar to Take on John Cornyn
While Maine’s Senate race is considered to be a more realistic one for Democrats to flip, Sen. John Cornyn’s seat in Texas is also quickly becoming a top target. On Tuesday, Texas Democratic voters selected their candidate of choice to take on Cornyn: U.S. Air Force veteran MJ Hegar.
Hegar, who was also backed by the DSCC, earned the highest share of the vote in the March 3 primary, but failed to clear 50%, leading to Tuesday’s runoff against state Sen. Royce West. On Tuesday, Hegar earned 52% of the vote to West’s 48%, narrowly earning a spot on November’s ballot.
MJ Hegar“As a working mom who’s lived many of the challenges facing working families across the state, I’m so proud to lead the effort to take back our state from politicians like John Cornyn who are more D.C. than Texas,” Hegar said in a statement following her victory.
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While Cornyn is considered a significant favorite in November and holds a sizable cash-on-hand edge over Hegar ($14.5 million to $1.6 million), recent polls have shown the presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden in a statistical tie with President Trump, giving Democrats hope that they can flip Cornyn’s seat as well.
A recent YouGov poll showed Cornyn with an 8-point lead over Hegar, but Democrats believe those numbers could narrow over the coming months in rapidly changing Texas. The state has seen more than 2.1 million new voters register there since 2016—a trend that Democrats believe could benefit them. They also point to former Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s narrow 2.6-point loss to Texas’ other senator, Ted Cruz, in 2018 as further proof that the state is trending blue. But whether Hegar becomes the first Democrat to win statewide office in more than 25 years remains to be seen.
A Progressive Prosecutor Wins in Austin
In the weeks since George Floyd’s death at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers, the Black Lives Matter movement has once again been thrust into the spotlight, and alongside it, efforts to dramatically reform America’s criminal justice system.
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The reform movement received a boost on Tuesday, when Texas progressive José Garza unseated incumbent Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore in a runoff. Moore quickly conceded after initial results showed Garza up by 36 points.
Garza credited his decisive victory to the surge in support for criminal justice reform following Floyd’s death and the nationwide protests that emerged in June. “The incredible energy we’ve seen is because people have been outraged for a long time,” Garza said.
Garza, a former public defender who currently works as a labor and immigrant rights attorney, earned endorsements from progressive stalwarts Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the Working Families Party, and various labor unions. During his campaign, Garza promised he would not prosecute drug possession or sale cases for quantities under one gram and would bring all police shootings before a grand jury.
He and local advocates also criticized Moore for decisions to file charges over low-level drug cases and non-violent offenders, her failure to hold police officers accountable, and her mishandling of rape cases.
Garza will now face off against Republican Martin Harry in November, but is the heavy favorite in deeply blue Travis County, which includes the city of Austin. Should he win, he’ll join the growing ranks of progressive prosecutors in cities such as San Francisco, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Keya Vakil Keya is a reporter at COURIER, where he covers everything from healthcare to climate change. Prior to joining Courier Newsroom, Keya worked as a researcher in the film industry and dabbled in the political world.
