Rubio, McCain, Wasserman Schultz win primaries, CNN projects
Story highlights
- Arizona Sen. John McCain faced a Republican primary challenge from Kelli Ward
- Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz faced Tim Canova in Florida
Washington (CNN)The
incumbents won the night in several highly watched races Tuesday night.
CNN projected Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and John McCain
of Arizona and Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida all
won their primary races Tuesday night.
Rubio, a first-term senator,
faced off against wealthy businessman Carlos Beruff -- while on the
Democratic side, Rep. Patrick Murphy defeated Rep. Alan Grayson and will
take on Rubio in November.
Wasserman Schultz bested her Bernie Sanders-backed rival.
And
McCain faced a test from Kelli Ward, a conservative 33 years McCain's
junior who had suggested his age (he turned 80 on Monday) means he's too
old for a sixth term.
Going
into the night, four incumbents had already lost this year -- with
Republican Reps. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, Randy Forbes of
Virginia and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and indicted Democratic Rep. Chaka
Fattah going down in primaries.
Arizona Senate race
McCain had a clear
lead of 55% to 29% over Ward in a CNN/ORC poll of likely voters two
weeks ago -- with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage
points.
But even years after his
choice of Sarah Palin as his 2008 presidential running mate helped
inspire the tea party movement, McCain still must defend his
conservative credibility against a hardline opponent.
And
his party's presidential nominee, Donald Trump, has called McCain -- a
Navy veteran and prisoner of war in Vietnam -- weak on veterans' issues.
Ward, a physician, has used McCain's 80th birthday to call him "old" and "weak" in national interviews.
"John
McCain has stayed in Washington, D.C., for way too long -- almost four
decades," she told CNN's Brooke Baldwin last week, saying that McCain
and his own family members had reservations about his age. "The Arizona
voters will decide if they want an 80-year-old senator or not."
Ward
hit the same theme Monday in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer,
saying: "I do want to give him the best 80th birthday present ever: the
gift of retirement."
Wasserman Schultz's test
Already
on thin ice with her party's left wing -- mostly Sanders supporters who
believed she favored Hillary Clinton in the primary -- Wasserman
Schultz was imperiled when the Wikileaks hack of Democratic National
Committee emails became public.
But she was able to defeat her opponent nonetheless, despite her difficulties.
She
was forced to announce her planned resignation on the eve of the
Democratic convention in Philadelphia, suffering a major public
embarrassment a little more than a month before her primary.
Sanders lent his mailing list to Canova, though he didn't campaign with him in the weeks preceding the primary there.
"We've
really got so much grassroots energy coming our way right now. The
momentum is all on our side," Canova told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in a Monday
interview.
Florida Senate primaries
Since
Rubio reversed his decision to retire, he and Murphy, the Democratic
congressman, have been largely focused on each other -- each expecting
to sail through primaries.
Beruff spent $7 million of his own money, but never closed the gap with Rubio.
Grayson,
meanwhile, had a hard time winning over voters amid reports he abused
his ex-wife. He was also badly outraised by Murphy.
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