4 takeaways from Tuesday's primary night in half a dozen states

Trump-backed candidates won Republican primaries, with Kentucky standing out as Rep. Thomas Massie lost to a Trump-backed challenger. Trump and allies spent tens of millions on television ads targeting Massie, making the Kentucky House primary the most expensive in history at $33 million total. The results reinforced Trump’s influence within the Republican Party, with additional setbacks for other Trump opponents. Rep. Thomas Massie’s defeat came with a double-digit margin. The losses followed earlier primary defeats for other Republicans, including Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who had refused Trump’s 2020 election pressure. The outcomes suggest GOP voters are punishing figures seen as resisting Trump.

"There, Rep. Thomas Massie lost to a Trump-backed candidate after the president and his allies blitzed Massie with tens of millions in ads. In fact, this was the most expensive House primary in history with $33 million total spent on TV ads and a lot of it aimed at Massie, according to NPR ad-tracking partner AdImpact."

"Trump made it clear again that he's the alpha dog in Republican Party politics. Massie became the latest, high-profile political casualty Tuesday night. Trump said all he needed was a "warm body" to pluck the thorn-in-Trump's-side that Massie had become. And in Ed Gallrein, who served in the Navy as a SEAL officer, Trump said he got that warm body with "a big, beautiful brain.""

"In the end, it wasn't a very close race, a 10-point margin. Following Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy's primary loss in Louisiana on Saturday, this week has been a punctuation mark on Trump's strength with the party. In addition to Massie and Cassidy losing, another Trump foe, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, also did not advance to a runoff for Georgia governor Tuesday night."

"Raffensperger was at the center of the 2020 presidential election controversy in the state when Trump pressured him to overturn the election results there that saw Democrat Joe Biden narrowly win the state. Raffensperger refused to go along and now joins a list of Republicans whose political careers were shortened because GOP voters punished them"

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