Two noteworthy elections happened on Tuesday in Ohio and South Carolina.
A special election in Ohio turned out to be an eye-opener in what should have been a drama-free race in Ohio’s deep-red 6th Congressional District.
- Deep-red turned out to be more than a bit watered down.
When Rep. Bill Johnson retired suddenly in January, a special election was to be held for a candidate to finish the rest of Johnson’s term. Johnson had been in his seat since 2011, and most recently won re-election in 2022 by 35 points. Johnson retired to become President of Youngstown State University.
The Republican candidate, a state Senator, won by 9 points, with the Democratic candidate overperforming, shifting the race 20 points to the left.
The two candidates will face off again in November.
In South Carolina, Kevin McCarthy’s revenge tour took a nosedive against Rep. Nancy Mace.
- Rep. Nancy Mace held out against a well-funded opponent on Tuesday in South Carolina, winning her third term by what was 27 points near the end. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy targeted Mace in a revenge campaign against the eight who voted to oust him from leadership.
“I want to send him back to the rock he’s living under right now. He’s not part of America. He doesn’t know what hard-working Americans go through every single day. I hope I drive Kevin McCarthy crazy.”
NYT
Mace, 46, won a Democratic seat in 2020 by portraying herself as a moderate. She later made a hard right move toward Trump when she realized he was the key to her mealticket.
On Tuesday the former Waffle House waitress ordered hash browns at a Waffle House in Beaufort, but barely ate any of them.
Mace told an interviewer she had lost 30 pounds since a breakup with her fiancé. During this same time, she was forced to overhaul her Washington office when staffers dropped like flies, and then later made claims that Mace inappropriately talked about her sex life. “I don’t talk about my sex life in private because it’s nonexistent,” Mace said, calling the stories B.S.
