4 Takeaways From Tuesday’s Primary Elections

It was a night of rebellion among Democrats and loyalty for Republicans: Liberal activists upended the Democratic establishment in multiple primary races Tuesday, while Republican voters backed candidates anointed by President Donald Trump. The night broke the pattern of the last few years, when Republicans often challenged their leaders and Democrats usually fell in line.

Here are some of our takeaways:

A political revolution — or something like it — just rippled through New York City.

The defeat of Rep. Joseph Crowley in a Democratic primary qualifies as an unheard-of event: A powerful lawmaker, who controlled the Queens Democratic Party and was seen as a potential speaker of the House, crumbled against a challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old liberal activist and first-time candidate who was backed by a few national progressive groups.

Her victory is a stunning illustration of the energy on the left this year and an echo of the Republican primaries in 2014 that saw another aspiring speaker of the House, Eric Cantor of Virginia, felled by an upstart on the right.

But Ocasio-Cortez was not the only liberal insurgent — or the only young candidate of color — to rattle the entrenched Democrats in the city. In Brooklyn, Adem Bunkeddeko nearly unseated Rep. Yvette Clarke, a veteran incumbent from a local dynasty; he lost by barely 1,000 votes. And Rep. Carolyn Maloney drew less than three-fifths of the vote against another first-time candidate, Suraj Patel.

Establishment-backed Democrats fared better elsewhere, including a contentious House primary in Colorado. But the unrest in New York City is a landmark moment: For all its cultural liberalism, the city is usually a politically rigid place — a tough arena for newcomers given the party machines and election laws that discourage competition. On Tuesday night, the ossified Democratic institutions got a new kind of scare.

And one of the very methods New York’s Democratic establishment uses to maintain its grip — separating federal and state primaries to better control the electorate — could now come back to haunt them. Ocasio-Cortez’s triumph will deliver an injection of money and energy into Cynthia Nixon’s challenge to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, offering her the sort of momentum going into the September primary that she might not have had were it not for the state’s bifurcated nominating process.

For congressional Democrats who are eager to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the rest of the septuagenarian House leadership team, Crowley, at 56, had offered the promise of a generational transition.

That hope vanished with his defeat and now the race to replace Pelosi — whether this year or in the future — is wide open.

On the surface, Crowley’s exit means Pelosi has one less potential rival looming in the wings. But the vacuum he has created could also present new challenges to the California Democrat’s grip on the House caucus, which is already threatened because so many of her party’s candidates have promised not to back her.

Other younger, ambitious lawmakers may fill the void left by Crowley — and that list seems bound to include Democrats who are not white men. With Crowley and second-in-command Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-N.Y., Pelosi knew who could threaten her. Now it is not clear where an insurgency may come from.

A stunning thing happened in New York, yes — just not where many assumed it would.

Former Rep. Michael Grimm’s redemption run for the House — which took him from federal prison to a strong public polling lead in his bid to reclaim his old seat — was supposed to be another data point in the meme-able Trump-era political conceit that “nothing matters.”

Grimm had gone to jail. The president endorsed his opponent, Rep. Dan Donovan. Virtually every other meaningful Republican in the area did, too. Donovan held a sizable fundraising advantage in their primary. And yet, many assumed Grimm was the favorite, neutralizing Donovan’s advantages with his Trump-style swagger and relentless ubiquity at diners and borough functions.

But on Tuesday, at least some of those other factors seemed to matter. At the polls, some voters cited the Trump endorsement as decisive in their choice; others said they worried about Grimm’s viability in the fall against the Democratic nominee, Max Rose, a well-funded veteran.

Whatever the reason, there was something striking about an entirely explicable outcome for a change: A generally unassuming incumbent defeated a disgraced former officeholder by a considerable margin. A sitting president made a difference for a current member of Congress. It all added up, in one corner of the city at least.

After a disappointing showing at the Utah Republican convention in April — and amid sporadic concerns that his past attacks on Trump might alienate some voters in Romney’s adopted state — the former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate won his Senate primary handily, clearing the way for what is expected to be an uneventful general election contest in a solidly red state.

With the upcoming retirements of Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, and the recent Republican primary loss for Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, the next Congress seems likely to have fewer notable skeptics of Trump in the Republican ranks. Barring a major surprise before November, Romney will have the opportunity to fill the void, if he is so inclined.