BUCKNER, DWAYNE DUKE
Candidate for Senate
South Carolina
ID: S0SC00321
REPUBLICAN PARTY
(CNN)Voters in two of the most liberal cities in America sent a clear message to the Democratic Party on Tuesday: they want their leaders to refocus on the most basic functions of government by ensuring their safety, protecting their quality of life and restoring order.
For months now, voters in San Francisco and Los Angeles
have voiced their concerns that daily life in their cities appears to
be spiraling out of control. Residents in San Francisco have been
contending with a rise in burglaries and car thefts, as well an alarming
spate of hate crimes directed against Asian Americans. Los Angeles
residents have witnessed a sharp increase in violent crime, while city
leaders have been grappling with a homelessness crisis that has led to
the proliferation of tents and trash across parks, sidewalks and public
spaces, while exposing an untreated mental health emergency on their
streets.
On Tuesday, San Francisco voters registered their disquiet by recalling District Attorney Chesa Boudin
amid concern that he was advancing progressive policies as a national
criminal justice reform advocate at the cost of their safety. It was a
move that signaled just how far the political pendulum has swung since
the 2020 election cycle when many Democratic voters cited police
accountability and criminal justice overhauls among their top concerns
-- a debate that reached a crescendo following the police killing of
George Floyd in Minneapolis.
On
the same night, voters in the overwhelmingly progressive city of Los
Angeles signaled their unease with Democrats' handling of crime and
homelessness by elevating billionaire shopping mall magnate Rick Caruso,
a former Republican who became a Democrat earlier this year, into a runoff race to replace term-limited Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Six-term
US Rep. Karen Bass was once viewed as the frontrunner in the mayor's
race, but Caruso mounted an unexpectedly strong challenge against her,
spending $40 million to push the argument that city leaders have failed
to keep people safe and have proven inept in finding solutions to house
some 41,000 people living on the streets.
Bass,
a Democrat who led the House negotiations on legislation to increase
police accountability after Floyd's death, has promised to make public
safety a priority. She pledged to restore the Los Angeles Police
Department to its authorized force of 9,700 officers, in part by hiring
more civilians to free up 250 officers to return to street patrols. But
she has not gone as far as Caruso, who has promised to hire 1,500
additional officers and to bring on some 500 sanitation workers to clean
up the streets -- proposals that his critics say the city cannot
afford.
For
months now, the crosswinds facing Democrats nationally as they struggle
to find an effective message on crime and inflation have been apparent
in races across California, where Democrats currently hold all the
statewide offices and dominate the congressional delegation.
The new map that was drawn by the state's nonpartisan redistricting commission last year yielded as many as ten competitive House races in California, where Democrats were bullish about the potential for pickups.
But those ambitions have been tempered by the fact that Golden State voters are contending with the highest gas prices
in the nation, unsettled by the spike in violent crime and frustrated
by the fact that they see no improvement in homelessness even though
billions of dollars are flowing to build housing and shelters. All those
issues have surfaced in close races in the state, emboldening
Republicans who are advancing the notion that Democratic policies are
leading to chaos.
The low turnout in Tuesday's elections in California and New Jersey
was another sign that Democrats are failing to energize their voters in
states that will be key to their hopes of holding control of Congress.
Despite
an array of competitive House races -- where the top two vote-getters
regardless of party will advance to the general election -- only 19% of
California ballots had been returned as of Tuesday even though they were
mailed to nearly 22 million voters weeks ago, according to ballot tracking data from the California-based firm Political Data Intelligence.
Voters also cast ballots in Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota
on Tuesday in primary contests that offered a window into how much
voters intend to blame the party in power for their dissatisfaction
about the state of the economy and the country.
Several
California Republican incumbents faced their own challenges as the
various factions of the GOP continue to wrestle for dominance. Rep.
David Valadao, one of ten GOP members who supported Trump's 2021
impeachment, faced a challenge on his right in his Democratic-leaning
Central Valley seat -- the new 22nd District. Former Fresno City
Councilmember Chris Mathys said he decided to run because of Valadao's
impeachment vote, but Trump has not gotten involved in the race.
GOP
Rep. Young Kim confronted strong competition from her right flank in
the newly drawn 40th District in Orange County from Marine veteran Greg
Raths, another Trump loyalist.
On
the flip side, Democrats hope to use GOP Rep. Mike Garcia's ties to
Trump against him in California's 27th District after redistricting made
his northern Los Angeles County seat more Democratic. (Garcia voted
against certifying the 2020 presidential election results in Arizona and
Pennsylvania.) Former state Assemblywoman Christy Smith, a Democrat,
will advance to a runoff in the district with Garcia, CNN projected.
Iowa Democrats delivered an upset
on Tuesday night by rejecting a onetime star in the party, former Rep.
Abby Finkenauer, in her bid to take on veteran GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley
in November.
Following
Finkenauer's recent blunder -- where she almost failed to qualify for
the ballot when a judge found that she had not met the signature
requirements -- as well as her loss two years ago to Republican Rep.
Ashley Hinson, Democrats in the Hawkeye State went in a different
direction. They chose retired Navy Adm. Mike Franken to go up against
Grassley, the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, who will win
his party's primary as he seeks an eighth term, CNN projected.
Finkenauer
served for one term in Congress after she won a district in 2018 that
former President Donald Trump had carried two years earlier. At that
time, she was the second-youngest woman ever elected to Congress, at the
age of 29.
Elsewhere
in Iowa, one of the most competitive races is in the 3rd District,
where Rep. Cindy Axne, the only Democrat in the congressional
delegation, hopes to hold her seat in a district that Trump would have
won by less than half a point. CNN projected that state Sen. Zach Nunn,
an Air Force veteran, will win the Republican primary in the Des
Moines-area district.
The
other two competitive House races in Iowa are set. GOP Rep. Mariannette
Miller-Meeks will face Democratic state Rep. Christina Bohannan in the
new 1st District. In the 2nd District, Hinson will face Democratic state
Sen. Liz Mathis, who is also a former local TV news anchor.
There
were also several high-profile congressional races in New Jersey. In
the state's 7th District, a battleground that became more Republican in
redistricting, CNN projected that Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski and
Republican Tom Kean Jr., the former state Senate minority leader and son
of former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, will face off in the general
election.
In
the 8th District in northern New Jersey, Democrat Rob Menendez Jr., son
of New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, will win the Democratic primary, CNN
projects, as he runs for the seat of retiring Democratic Rep. Albio
Sires.
GOP
Rep. Chris Smith, who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill,
fended off an array of primary challengers in the 4th District in
central New Jersey, including Mike Crispi, a talk show host endorsed by Trump allies such as Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani.
In Montana, Trump backed his former Interior secretary Ryan Zinke -- despite his history of controversy -- as the candidate attempts to return to Congress.
The state won a second congressional seat following the 2020 census
results. Zinke faced four other candidates in the GOP primary, including
former state Sen. Al Olszewski and pastor Mary Todd, as questions swirl
about Zinke's residency.
In
South Dakota, Rep. Dusty Johnson will win the GOP primary for the
state's only congressional seat, CNN projected. He faced a primary
challenge after voting to certify the 2020 presidential election
results. CNN also projected that South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem,
a potential 2024 contender, will defeat her primary challenger, state
Rep. Steven Haugaard, who had accused her of being insufficiently
conservative and spending too much time as governor tending to her
ambitions for higher office.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
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