Republican incumbents easily won their party primaries Tuesday in Idaho, where the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is based.
Meanwhile in Kentucky, the GOP House of Representatives member representing DOE’s Paducah Site also won his primary easily.
Longtime House Appropriations Committee member and INL backer Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) carried more than 63% of the GOP primary vote in Congressional District 2, with the rest of the votes being split between two other Republican challengers, according to morning-after election results.
Simpson will square off in the November general election against Democrat Ellie Gilbreath who won 82% of the votes in her party’s primary Tuesday.
Idaho is a very red state. Only about 27,000 people voted in the district 2 Democratic Primary, while on the Republican side, Simpson alone garnered more than 63,000 votes.
In the U.S. Senate primaries, incumbent Jim Risch (R), a member of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, won 67% or 156,000 votes in the Republican primary. Three other GOP candidates split the rest of the primary vote.
Risch is headed toward a November general election matchup with Democrat David Roth, who won 62% or 30,000 votes in the blue primary.
If there were an election consolation prize for most memorable name on the ballot in might go to the Democrats third-place finisher, Nickolas 007 Bonds. 007 Bonds only won 7% of the vote in the Democrats Senate primary.
The Idaho numbers come from voteidaho.gov.
Across the country, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) the House of Representatives incumbent whose district includes the DOE’s Paducah Site, easily won a Republican primary Tuesday night in Kentucky.
Comer, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, won 88% of the vote in the GOP primary for Kentucky’s first congressional district, according to results posted by WLKY.
The November general election will pit Comer against Democrat Megan Wingfield, who won her party’s primary with 51% of the vote, finishing ahead of two other Democrats.
Comer fared better than another Kentucky congressional incumbent, Rep. Thomas Massie (R), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, best known for his opening of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Massie lost 55% to 45% to Ed Gallrein, a former Navy Seal endorsed by President Donald Trump.
In the November general contest, Gallrein will now face Democrat Melissa Strange, who won 72% of the vote in her party’s primary for the 4th congressional district, according to WLKY.