tonight, the nation is turning to pennsylvania, a major battleground in american politics, from the three rivers in pittsburgh, to the striking green home of the capitol building in harrisburg, heart of government in the commonwealth, to historic independence hall in philadelphia, those across pence im , pennsylvania, are making choice to influence the presidential race. i m jake tapper and we re standing by for results in what is sure to be an eventful election. the political spotlight on key primary races in pennsylvania, north carolina, kentucky, idaho and oregon. in phil pennsylvania, north carolina republican senators retiring seats, tonight, we ll bring more to the direction of the two major parties, also a significant new test of former president trump s grip on the republican party and president biden s sway over the democrats. as both weigh a potential rematch in 2024. perhaps the biggest test of the trump factor is his pick in pennsylvania republican former tv dr. m
incumbent madison cawthorn, been under fire from some of the state s top republicans despite having trump s support, cawthorn facing multiple challengers including state senator chuck edwards and central, bynes is trump s pick for the new congressional district, his most well known opponent is well known congressman elmers, first results in north carolina just minutes away, to the headquarters now, republican candidate ted budd, how much help does bu ddd expect to get tonight from trump s endorsement? reporter: well, jake, congressman ted budd heads into election night feeling pretty good and the clear favorite to take on democrat sherry beasley in the general election. he actually was endorsed by the former president almost a year
know, nobody is tracking the win-loss more closely than donald trump himself. so let me ask you, because i hear all this and you re saying wow, 55% of gop, you know, want trump to lead their party. 50%, his endorsement, extremely important to be influential in their vote. those numbers sound enormous yet months ago it was 80% of the republican party supported donald trump so do you see this as wow these numbers are big or do you see it differently? they re not insignificant, but tonight s going to be revealitory about the future of the endorsement power, i ll be looking at pennsylvania where former officials like mike pompeyo endorse against the former president, if that s successful, chips away at the power of that endorsement and one thing i note about ted budd in north carolina he had the perfect storm of endorsement with an early endorsement but also the very powerful club pro quo, so he benefitted from both sides where most candidates didn t have that.
on. will the trump endorsement make you more likely to support a candidate? this university pom says overall with the entire electorate says only 18% say the trump endorsement makes them more likely to support a candidate but among republicans, 45% of republicans say trump endorsement makes them more likely to support a candidate. and then, we wanted to take a look at sort of the importance of the candidate support for trump in a republican primary and this is an interesting split. if you look at extremely important and very important, that 27% and 23%, that adds up to half, 50% say it s extremely or very important for their candidate to support trump. whereas 28% say somewhat important, 22% say not at all important. again, half, so half the republicans say extremely important, very important, and this is in the state of pennsylvania, make sure, this is the fox news poll in
carolina. cnn projects that congressman ted budd wins the republican senate nomination. that s a key victory for a candidate endorsed by former president trump. budd defeating two political veterans, including the state s former governor. budd will face the winner of the democratic primary cheri beasley for the seat being held now by richard burr. in the house of representatives, congressman madison cawthorn is facing serious headwinds in his race for re-election. he is losing right now with 36% of the vote in to state senator chuck edwards. chuck edwards with 37.8% of the vote, 3,944 votes ahead of inin incumbent cawthorn. that is a significant moment for madison cawthorn. he better hope trends do not