Labor Day weekend, the traditional kick-off of the fall campaign, brought us a pair of Special Congressional Primary elections this Tuesday.
These primaries were caused by the resignations of Democratic Rep. David Cicilline (Rhode Island) and GOP Rep. Chris Stewart (Utah), which set up enticing opportunities for fellow partisans in each of their districts. Given the tilt of both districts, the winners in these primary contests are heavily favored to win their November general elections.
Rhode Island’s 1st – Democratic Primary
Looks like Gabe Amo will be exchanging his job at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue for a job at another. Amo, the former Deputy Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, won the Democratic primary to fill the open seat in Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District.
Just how surprising was this result? Well, even Amo’s internal polling had him in second place behind former State Rep. Aaron Regunberg.
Clearly Amo benefitted from his time in the Biden and Obama Administrations – not to mention his past service with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and former Gov. Gina Raimondo – as well as the endorsement of the Congressional Black Caucus PAC.
Conversely, this is a tough result for Sen. Bernie Sanders and the progressive wing of the party, who were backing Regunberg. It was also a devastatingly poor showing from Lt. Governor Sabina Matos, who fell all the way to fourth place after a scandal involving her petition signatures. Considering that RI-01 has a larger Hispanic population than Black population (14.7% to 9.0%), Matos should’ve held the edge here yet campaign quality ended up being more consequential.
With nearly all precincts in, Amo is out ahead with 12,905 votes (32.51%). Regunberg trails behind with 9,906 votes (24.95%), followed by State Sen. Sandra Cano at 5,541 votes (13.96%) and finally Matos’ 3,194 votes (8.05%).
Amo will go against Republican nominee Gerry Leonard Jr. on November 7th, with Amo as the heavy favorite in this D+12 district.
Utah’s 2nd – Republican Primary
Coming into Election Night, former State Rep. Becky Edwards was the nominal front-runner in this race, although her primacy was definitely shaky. After all, Edwards ran to Mike Lee’s left in a 2022 Senate challenge and even publicly announced that she voted for Joe Biden in 2020.
Therefore, it shouldn’t be a surprise that she couldn’t consolidate the party behind her. Certainly it didn’t help when Congressman Stewart threw his support behind his aide Celeste Maloy. On top of that, RNC Committeeman Bruce Hough (father of reality TV stars Julianne and Derek) also tossed his hat into the race.
Ultimately, with almost all of the precincts in, Maloy prevailed with 29,335 votes (38.31%) edging out Edwards’ 26,904 votes (35.14%) with Hough finishing a decent third at 20,332 votes (26.55%).
Despite Edwards’ winning the portions of Utah’s 2nd Congressional District that contained Salt Lake City, Maloy ran up the score enough in the district’s rural areas to pull off the win.
Maloy will go on to face Democratic nominee State Sen. Kathleen Riebe on November 21st, with Maloy set up as the favorite to prevail in this R+11 district.