Super Tuesday 2018 Primary Elections Results: Gavin Newsom, Cindy Axne Among Big Winners

Several Democratic candidates, particularly women, were among the big winners in Tuesday night’s “Super Tuesday” primary elections in eight states including California, races that are said to be good indicators of the potential results of November’s midterms.

Super Tuesday 2018 Primary Results

California’s Lieutenant Governor  Gavin Newsom will take on President Donald Trump–backed Republican John Cox in November in the race for governor of California. Newsom was widely predicted to win the Democratic primary.

California has a special system for primaries, partly due to the crowded races filled with dozens of contenders. Candidates from both parties are grouped together in the same primary, and the top two vote-earners advance to the general election.

Other winners in the Golden State included Audrey Denney, a Democratic educator and farmer who advanced in the race for California’s first House district after getting 17.5% of the vote, while Republican incumbent Doug LaMalfa took nearly 52 % of all votes.

Also advancing to the general election are 30-something national security strategist Jessica Morse, a Democrat who previously worked at both the State and Defense Departments. Morse took nearly 20% of the votes in California’s fourth congressional district. She will take on incumbent Republican Tom McClintock, who earned 52% of all votes.

In California’s 39th district, which counted a whopping 17 candidates for its race, the top two vote-getters were GOP former Assemblywoman Young Kim (21.9%) and Democratic philanthropist and Navy veteran Gil Cisneros (19.4%).

Democratic women also won in several other states including New Mexico and New Jersey.

In Iowa, two liberal women won their races. State Representative Abby Finkenauer (67%) and small-business owner Cindy Axne (58%) won the first and third congressional district’s Democratic primaries, respectively. Finkenauer, 28, will thus take on incumbent Rep. Rod Blum —a Trump-supporting Tea Party Republican and House Freedom Caucus member — in November and could become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

Axne beat out two male opponents, including progressive former Bernie Sanders campaign aide Pete D’Alessandro, and will face incumbent Republican Rep. David Young in November.

In South Dakota, Republican Congresswoman Kristi Noem is now one step closer to becoming the state’s first female governor after winning 56% of all votes. She will take on Democrat Billie Sutton in November.

In New Mexico’s first House district, Debra Haaland won the Democratic primary with 40.6% of all votes to become one step closer to being the country’s first Native American congresswoman.

In Montana, state auditor Matt Rosendale won the Republican primary for governor with 33.8% of all votes. He will take on incumbent Democrat Jon Tester, the ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee who has criticized Trump many times, as well as former White House physician Ronny Jackson, who had been named the nominee to lead the VA until a series of allegations against him — including drinking on the job and handing out prescription medications to other White House staffers — surfaced earlier this year.

In Alabama, incumbent GOP Rep. Martha Roby won the second House district’s primary with 39% of all votes. She will face Democratic primary winner Tabitha Isner — a Disciples minister and sheep herder — in November.

Roby will advance to a July 17 runoff election against Bobby Bright — a former Democratic congressman who is now running as a Republican — given that she did not earn at least 50 % of the votes on Tuesday.

Roby drew the ire of many Republicans after she announced she would not vote for Trump in the 2016 election. At the time, she cited the surfacing of the infamous “Access Hollywood” bus tape as her reason not to endorse Trump.

“I cannot look my children in the eye and justify a vote for a man who promotes and boasts about sexually assaulting women,” Roby said.