ELECTIONS/GOP/HOUSE OF REP/SENATE/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Bitter Republican U.S. Senate races in West Virginia and Indiana featuring candidates who have fought to prove their loyalty to President Donald Trump will highlight a slate of high-stakes party primaries in four states on Tuesday [5-8-18]. Voters in Ohio and North Carolina also pick candidates on Tuesday for November’s congressional elections, when Democrats must pick up two seats in the Senate and 23 in the House of Representative to recapture control of Congress and blunt Trump’s agenda. All four of the states holding primaries were won by Trump in 2016, and Republicans have made Democratic incumbents Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana – states that Trump won by double-digit margins – two of their top U.S. Senate targets in November. But Republican Senate prospects in either state could be hurt by bruising party primaries that have seen the top contenders battle to show who is closest to Trump or less like a conventional Washington politician.”
-John Whitesides, “Republican races in Indiana, West Virginia top primary voting in four states,” Reuters, May 8, 2018 3:05 am