Trump loyalists vs. GOP establishment prepare for primary battles in six states on Tuesday

Extremist right-wing supporters of former President Donald Trump will face off on Tuesday against mainstream conservatives in a new round of Republican primaries in six key states including Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Washington.

Election denier Kari Lake, a former TV anchorwoman, is running for Arizona governor with Trump’s backing against Karrin Taylor Robson, a more moderate choice, in one of the nation’s most tightly contested states.

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In Michigan, several GOP candidates are scrambling for the right to take on Democratic incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer while redistricting has teed up some closely fought congressional races.

Trump promised Monday to make an endorsement in the fractious Missouri Senate primary, where scandal-tarred ex-Gov. Eric Greitens has been seeking the MAGA mantle against two candidates who are considered less extreme.

Former President Donald Trump embraces Republican candidate for Arizona governor Kari Lake at a "Save America" rally in support of GOP candidates on July 22, 2022 in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Arizona's primary election will take place August 2. (Mario Tama/)

Two mainstream congressional Republicans hoping to fend off far right-wing challenges in Washington State while Kansas voters are deciding on a constitutional amendment that would allow a ban on abortion.

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So far, Trump has had a good but mixed record in the Republican midterm primary campaign.

His handpicked Senate candidates won in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but he took a black eye in Georgia where his nemesis Gov. Brian Kemp crushed a challenge by ex-Sen. David Perdue.

Democrats are mostly watching from the sidelines having already mostly consolidated support behind their chosen candidates.

Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson (Justin Sullivan/)

But in some cases, Democrats have controversially waded into GOP primaries to boost the MAGA candidates, hoping to set up more winnable general election contests against candidates they can tie directly to Trump.

“The reemergence of Donald Trump has brought him back to center stage,” David Axelrod said on CNN, noting that the rightward lurch is helping Democrats “defy [political] gravity to some extent.”

The Democratic meddling is on display in the reelection effort of Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), one of just 10 GOP lawmakers to vote to impeach Trump, in a swing district centered around the Democratic city of Grand Rapids.

Spending big bucks boosting John Gibbs, a pro-Trump election denier, the Democrats hope to knock off Meijer and give Democrat Hillary Scholten a better shot of winning in November.

Former President Donald Trump and Kari Lake, whom Trump is supporting in Arizona's gubernatorial race, speak during a rally at the Canyon Moon Ranch festival grounds in Florence, Arizona, southeast of Phoenix, on January 15, 2022. (ROBYN BECK/)

In Washington, GOP impeachment supporters Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Rep. Dan Newhouse also face stiff competition from the right although the state’s election system, in which the top two candidates advance regardless of party, will likely give them solid paths to reelection in November.

Kansas Republican Kris Kobach is running for attorney general as he attempts a political comeback following losses in races for governor and U.S. Senate in previous years. Kobach, the state’s former secretary of state, served as vice chairman of a short-lived Trump commission on election fraud after the 2016 election.

And Ohio is also holding a primary for state legislative races on Tuesday, three months after its statewide and congressional contests — a split system that resulted from legal wrangling over redistricting.

Trump himself is still mulling whether to launch his own 2024 presidential campaign before the midterms.

Most Republican leaders want him to stay on the sidelines to allow the GOP to focus as much attention as possible on the uncertain state of the economy and President Biden’s unpopular rule.

Democrats believe that Trump’s open return to the White House campaign trail will fire up their base and get some voters to the polls who would otherwise stay home.