Former President Donald Trump emerged from two primaries that he was heavily invested in on May 10 with a win and a loss. In West Virginia, Trump-endorsed Rep. Alex Mooney defeated Rep. David McKinley in an unusual primary battle between two Republican incumbents. In Nebraska, however, Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster was narrowly defeated by rival candidate Jim Pillen for the Republican nomination.
Big win for Trump in West Virginia
Both states are reliably conservative, so the winner of the Republican nomination in each of these important races is expected to win in November as well.
West Virginia’s unusual contest pitted two Republican incumbents against each other due to a redistricting forced by a population loss that deprived the state of one of its seats in the House of Representatives.
McKinley was seen as the more moderate of the two candidates and as a supporter of bipartisanship in D.C. That reputation earned him an endorsement from West Virginia’s resident moderate Senator, Joe Manchin.
Manchin, a Democrat, was unable to outweigh the Trump endorsement. Mooney, a Freedom Caucus member, is the more conservative of the two representatives.
Mooney called his rival a RINO and a liberal who has supported the January 6 investigation and Biden’s gargantuan infrastructure spending bill.
McKinley and Manchin depicted Mooney as an opportunist who was primarily interested in his own career, rather than representing the state of West Virginia. Mooney lived in Maryland until 2014, when he moved to West Virginia to seek a House seat.
Minor loss for Trump in Nebraska
Unlike the West Virginia race, the Nebraska primary was a contest between two frontrunners with solidly conservative platforms.
Hog farmer and veterinarian Jim Pillen managed to defeat Trump-endorsed businessman Charles Herbster and Brett Lindstrom, a state senator generally seen as the moderate option.
The deciding factor in the Pillen win was likely fallout from the sexual assault allegations faced by Herbster late in the race. At least one of the women who accused Herbster is a well-known conservative and some Nebraska Republicans felt that the allegations were credible.
Trump’s endorsement for Herbster was also weighed against the endorsements Pillen received from an array of leading Republicans in Nebraska, including popular incumbent Governor Pete Ricketts.
Pillen’s stated commitment to fighting against critical race theory, abortion, and open borders is also in line with other conservatives who have been winning their primaries lately, with or without the Trump endorsement.
Overall, the West Virginia and Nebraska races will serve as a reminder to other Republican candidates that the Trump endorsement can be very powerful, but isn’t necessarily a guarantee of victory.