Voters in four states and Washington, D.C., gathered at the polls as the president’s extraordinary role weighed heavily on various campaigns.
Watch Ossoff criticize Trump and his opponents on anti-corruption platform
Sen. Jon Ossoff is using the Atlanta rally to build his re-election campaign around fighting corruption in Washington.
President Donald Trump’s continued efforts to gain an edge in the Republican primary ran into its first major pushback on June 16, when he opposed Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s endorsement in a crucial U.S. Senate race.
Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the president successfully purges his Republican opponents, particularly in the South, by ousting longtime incumbents from Congress.
But Georgia Republicans remain sluggish after losing multiple Senate battles to Democrats while fielding candidates closer to President Trump than their own governor. The rumored White House candidate is popular with moderates and liked by conservatives, despite previous feuds with the president.
Other elections around the country have shown how Trump’s weight can affect election results, including the first-ever ranked race for mayor of Washington, D.C.
Two disparate Democrats, City Council member and self-described democratic socialist Janice Lewis George, and more moderate former City Council member Kenyan McDuffie, watched as Trump weighed his front-runner against Louis George. This support didn’t seem to hurt Louis George, who was leading 53% to 37% with 66% of the results counted.
Here are the key takeaways from Tuesday’s race.
Trump vs. Kemp: Who is best suited to defeat Ossoff?
Mr. Trump’s falling out with former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene last year was partly due to the president’s desire to run for a more powerful U.S. Senate seat in Georgia in 2026.
If Republicans can unseat Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff in Georgia, it will be easier for them to maintain their Senate majority this year, but the primary battle has largely been about who is best for the job.
Kemp felt that a personal friend and former college football coach, Derek Dooley, was a better candidate. He put his entire political network behind Mr. Dooley, pitching him to Peach State voters as an outsider better suited for the general election.
The president made a last-minute endorsement of Congressman Mike Collins, and like Kemp, Dooley declared that Joe Biden had won the 2020 presidential election, noting that this is a no-no for a candidate seeking Trump’s approval.
As a result, Collins clinched the nomination less than an hour after voting ended. He is an immigration hardliner who is popular among conservatives for authoring the Laken-Reilly Act, the first bill Trump signed after returning to office.
But he could also become a lightning rod for Democrats, as he did when he suggested Bishop Marian Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, who directly implored President Trump to show mercy to immigrants in a January 2025 sermon, should be added to the deportation list.
Trump and Kemp agree on Georgia gubernatorial race, but lose
Things got a little dicey between Trump and Kemp when it came time to choose a Republican successor to take on former Atlanta Mayor Democrat Keisha Bottoms in this fall’s gubernatorial race.
Both supported Lt. Gov. Bert Jones, who joined President Trump in trying to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, but their combined efforts were not enough.
Georgia Republican voters ultimately supported Rick Jackson, the wealthy health care CEO backed by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) in a huge runoff.
“Tonight, you made your voices loud and clear,” Jackson told his supporters on June 16, after announcing his election.
He was a big shot, spending more than $100 million of his own money on the race, more than double Jones’ spending. He also relentlessly attacked Georgia’s lieutenant governor, arguing that his business background makes him uniquely qualified to tackle the state’s problems in foster care and other areas as an outsider.
The two companies spent a total of about $162 million on primary advertising, according to marketing analytics firm AdImpact.
Voters ignore President Trump’s warning; democratic socialist sworn in as D.C.’s new mayor
President Donald Trump did not hesitate when asked on June 16 if he would agree with electing Janice Louise George, a self-described democratic socialist, as mayor of Washington, D.C.
Trump quickly shot back, telling reporters in the Oval Office last week: “I don’t like that. And we’re probably going to take back Washington and run it on a federal basis. We won’t put up with it.”
Nevertheless, voters in Washington, D.C., appear ready to put the 38-year-old City Council member and his left-leaning agenda, which emphasizes universal child care, public housing and stronger labor unions, in charge of the nation’s capital. Louis George’s grassroots campaign has been compared by supporters and critics alike to last year’s elections of other democratic socialists, including New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson.
This may explain why President Trump is leveraging the only wedge available to the White House: the 1973 Home Rule Act, which gives the federal government some authority over the governance of Washington, D.C.
“The threats we’ve heard from President Trump are not empty if he works with Congress to further interfere in how D.C., which is not a state, is governed,” Amy Bruno, executive director of DC Vote, a D.C. state rights group, told USA TODAY. “The residents of Washington, D.C., should have the right to choose their own elected officials without interference from the president or Congress.”
Louis George will win if he receives more than 50% of the votes in the first round. If not, it would proceed to an instant runoff based on voters’ sub-preferences, redistributing the votes of those who ranked the leading candidate first.
Oklahoma voters reject raise to $15 an hour
On the Oklahoma ballot, voters said openly that raising wages for the poorest workers was the driving force behind them going to the polls on June 16th, in a number of races across the state.
Congress has not raised the national minimum wage (which remains at $7.25 an hour) in nearly two decades, even though it is a widely held belief among Americans across party lines. According to the 2024 Data for Progress survey, 86% of likely voters, including 84% of Republicans, don’t think it’s enough to live on.
“I think this ($7.25) is a little crazy,” Oklahoma Democrat Eric Acosta told the USA TODAY Network.
At least 28 states and Washington, D.C., including conservative states like Florida, Missouri and Alaska, have raised the minimum amount minimum wage workers can receive through ballot initiatives since 2014.
But with more than 95% of Sooner votes counted, the ballot initiative, which would have phased in the wage increase to $15 an hour in 2029, failed by a decisive margin. About 56% of voters opposed the increase, while 44% supported it.
Trump-fueled Moore defeats Hudson in Alabama Republican Senate runoff election
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville is leaving Congress to run for governor, leaving Alabama voters with two candidates in the runoff to replace the former Auburn head football coach.
As in other Republican primaries across the country, rank-and-file Republicans followed the president’s direction and supported Congressman Barry Moore over former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson. It’s a surprising reversal, given that some statewide polls have shown Moore with a lead of up to 10 points, but it underscores the importance of Trump’s support.
Moore’s primary victory in such a deep red state makes it almost certain that he will become Alabama’s next senator in the fall.
Contributions: Eileen Wright, Terry Collins, James Powell
