Our Best Stuff From a Week of Revealing Primaries

The Democrats back Peter Meijer’s challenger in Michigan, and a pro-life referendum fails in Kansas.

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Hello and happy Saturday. I was on duty Tuesday night to monitor the results and edit our coverage of the primaries in Wisconsin, Missouri, Arizona, and Washington. (If you want to know what that looks like in a remote bureau as compared to a newsroom, it involves a comfy couch, news on the TV, Twitter on my phone, a 60-pound dog on my lap, and approximately 37 open browser tabs on my laptop.)

The Missouri GOP Senate race we were watching was over quickly, with one Trump-endorsed Eric (Schmitt) beating Rep. Vicky Hartlzer and the other Trump-endorsed Erc (Greitens). Arizona’s and Washington’s polls didn’t close until 11 p.m. ET, so that meant most of my attention was on the Peter Meijer-John Gibbs race in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District.

Meijer (if you missed our preview) was a freshman representative just days into his new job on January 6, 2021. He made an immediate name for himself by voting to impeach Donald Trump a week later, and solidified his reputation over the last 20+ months as a pragmatic moderate and critic of MAGA shenanigans.

Gibbs, on the other hand, worked in the Trump administration, thinks Trump was the best president of his lifetime, and claims that the 2020 election was illegitimate. For good measure, he’s also accused Democrats of participating in Satanic rituals. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Julie from Texas

    You summarized the problem with Dem support of Meijer's opponent perfectly. I really, really wish--against all odds--that we could have more races with competent, sane folks who just debate perspective and policy. As the Beach Boys said, wouldn't it be nice?

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    Synchronize Your Dogmas (Bill B)

    C'mon guys... did I miss the well-deserved schadenfreude we could have dined out on in the Alex Jones trial?

    "When Jones tried to argue that he believed he was telling the truth, Gamble clarified the difference between an alternative reality media world and a court of law. In the law, she told him, truth was actually a real thing.

    “You believe everything you say is true, but it isn’t,” she pointedly told him. “Just because you claim to think something is true does not make it true. It does not protect you. It is not allowed. You’re under oath.”"

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    Sgrantsm

    "37 open browser tabs on my laptop" - totally get that Rachael!

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  4. Randall Briggs

    Rachel: There's some more blame to pass out for Peter Meijer's loss. First, there's Meijer himself, who tried to pretend that there was never an impeachment vote. Second, there's the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, which abandoned him. And so did his Republican colleagues and the Republican leadership in the House. We can't blame the Democrats for that.

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      Stephanie

      Maybe Meijer should have stood up for what he believed in and taken his lumps he had coming in any case. Better to go down fighting.

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  5. j. Fisher

    One point of contention about Michigan’s 3rd - like all Michigan primaries the election is open, I.e. nonpartisan. There is no party voter registration in Michigan. I am nominally a democrat and voted for Meijer in the primary because I believed he was an honorable and decent man who happened to be grounded in reality. Unlike his competitor.

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    I noticed that Meijer lost by less than 1,500 votes, out of about 70k cast. There's a lesson here. Invest in GOTV. Good candidates can persuade volunteers to knock on doors, spreading the message virally. Bad candidates complain about the opposition.

    Meijer's family is wealthy, they could have countered the DNC campaign in a heartbeat. They tried to win cheap...Although if you ever shop in a Meijer, they prefer that cheap look, actually.

    We'll see if Gibbs is any good by the campaign he runs. he needs to take the Dem commercials and own them, to fuel his GOTV efforts.

    If Gibbs wins, Meijer ought to put up a billboard asking 'hey Pelosi, miss me yet"?

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    1. Avatar photo
      Sgrantsm

      Really! How do you know the Meijer campaign didn't invest in GOTV? That's electoral politics 101!

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      Stephanie

      Most likely she will be missing being Speaker so Gibbs will be McCarthy’s cross to bear.

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    Frank Lee

    A political party spending to back a candidate from the other party is anti-democratic, disgusting, vile, dirty and immoral.

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  8. KIttye

    Peter Meier’s defeat is not good. We need rational people like him in Congress, no matter the party.

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  9. Avatar photo
    Victor Clairmont

    Thank you for the round up!

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  10. Avatar photo
    Stephanie

    I'm so curious about lavender cookies! What do they taste like?

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    1. Karin

      They are usually shortbread with a hint of lavender

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      1. Avatar photo
        John Robert

        Perfume flavored cookies, umm, sounds good! Are you kidding? Calls to mind the comment of an unnamed Senator when JFK was murdered, "At least we can go back to drinking bourbon instead of those &*$?* daiquiris."

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        1. Karin

          Interesting. I think of lavender as a flower and a scent rather than as a perfume. Similarly, I think of vanilla as a flavoring rather than a perfume, but it is often used as one. Ditto many fruits - peach, strawberry, banana, and of course coconut! - are just a few examples - that are used on the face and body for their scents. I’ve always found that weird myself.

          On the other hand, I do enjoy lavender cookies, and lavender lemonade, and lavender ice cream. Also lavender yoghurt, which I first encounter some 35 years ago in England.

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          1. Avatar photo
            John Robert

            And this morning I saw something about mayonnaise flavored ice cream and people putting mustard on watermelon. Chacun à son goût!

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    2. Avatar photo
      Victor Clairmont

      Lavender.

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