A week ago, Democrats, backed by liberal national organizations and running on left-of-center positions, won 4 of 6 contested primaries for the U.S. House in Pennsylvania.
That same day in Omaha, Neb., community organizer and first-time candidate Kara Eastman scored a major upset over moderate former Rep. Brad Ashford for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. House district held by freshman Republican Rep. Don Bacon.
On Tuesday, the trend of the modern Democratic Party moving left continued in nominations for governor in Texas and Georgia.
By 53 to 47 percent, Texas Democrats picked former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez over Houston high-tech businessman Andrew White. Valdez, 70, now faces Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Valdez (who is open about being a lesbian) took a strong pro-choice position on abortion and refused to rule out support for raising taxes.
In sharp contrast, White, son of the late moderate-conservative Gov. Mark White, never mentioned abortion and focused instead on his background in business and ability to attract new business to the Lone Star State.
White, 53, emphasized that he “wanted to continue my dad’s legacy,” which included competency tests for public school teachers and finding alternatives to oil to diversify the Texas economy.
“Texas Democrats demonstrated they were more concerned about access to abortion than about winning,” veteran Texas GOP consultant Beth Cubriel told Newsmax.
Georgia Democrats gave their nomination to succeed termed-out Republican Gov. Nathan Deal to Stacey Abrams, thus making her the first black and first woman gubernatorial nominee in the Peachtree State.
“Stacey Abrams took extreme positions,” Phil Kent, Atlanta-area public relations expert and former editorial page editor of the Augusta Chronicle, told me. “She echoed Bernie Sanders [who endorsed her] in wanting a larger and expensive Medicaid expansion, gun control, benefits for illegal immigrants, and higher taxes.
Kent also pointed out Abrahms is on record wanting to “sandblast away” the carving of Confederate leaders on at the Stone Mountain memorial.
Georgia Republicans will hold a run-off between the top two vote-getters in their primary for governor: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp, both of whom opposed sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants and support maintaining Confederate monuments.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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