Tuesday marks the unofficial start of the second part of primary season.  Problems caused by redistricting have altered the normal calendar. with many states going out of their usual order.  Normally, there is a good break between the Spring primaries (typically ending by mid-June) and the Summer primaries (typically starting in early August).

Maryland which starts off the Summer primaries this week is a good example of that.  It was supposed to be at the tail end of the Spring primaries.  Instead, it got moved back three weeks.  It and the postponed state runoffs in North Carolina the following week are serving as a bridge between what is typically a five to six week break between the two halves.

The regularly scheduled primaries start the following week with Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington on Tuesday (August 2) and Tennessee on Thursday (August 4).  Arizona, Michigan, and Missouri all have races on their ballots which are best described as total chaos on the Republican side.  Michigan may be in the worst shape as several of their strongest candidates for Governor failed to make the ballot leaving a real clown car of a race.  The results from these three states will help frame the big question on the Republican side for this fall — how off the rails full on Trumpist will the Republican candidates be this fall.  The Democrats in same of these early states have our typical establishment vs. the Squad vs. Bernie Sanders vs. working class populism battles.  That struggle will also help define what the issues will be in the fall. Continue Reading...