Trump saves endorsement record in SC as Mamdani dominates in NYC

President Donald Trump’s last minute double endorsement of both candidates in the South Carolina Republican runoff helped him to avoid what would have been a crushing defeat on Tuesday evening.

At the same time, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s preferred candidates managed to dominate their Democratic primaries and even oust prominent members of the conference. Mamdani’s wins seem to have established him as an increasingly potent force in shaping the direction of the Democratic Party moving forward while Trump’s merely reasserted his kingmaker status within the GOP.

South Carolina

In South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson decidedly beat Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, R, for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in the Tuesday runoff. Wilson triumphed by almost a 2-1 margin after placing second behind Evette in the first round.

Trump initially endorsed Evette, helping her to claim the top spot in the first round, though Wilson placed a close second. The first round saw the elimination of Rom Reddy and Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace.

Polling data showed Wilson poised to pull well ahead of Evette in the runoff and Trump ultimately endorsed both candidates over the weekend. The move saw him avoid a repeat of the Georgia GOP gubernatorial primary, in which voters bucked his choice of Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, R-Ga., in favor of businessman Rick Jackson.

Utah

In Utah, Trump endorsed incumbent lawmakers Reps. Blake Moore and Celeste Maloy, both of whom faced primary challengers. Despite Maloy and Moore both being the more moderate candidates in those races, fitting closer to a traditional Republican mold, Trump opted for the safer bets in those contests.

Moore’s survival was perhaps the more surprising result, given he lost a delegate ballot at the state convention to state Rep. Karianne Lisonbee before decidedly winning on Tuesday evening.

New York

Mamdani scored two wins against Democratic incumbents on Tuesday evening. Former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was projected to decisively defeat Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., in a race that saw Israel take center stage.

Darializa Avila Chevalier, another Mamdani-backed candidate, managed to narrowly beat out Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

State Rep. Claire Valdez, D, also managed to win her primary in the Seventh Congressional District, though she did not face an incumbent. 

All three of those races represented wins for Mamdani and the socialist wing of the Democratic Party, though all three races were inside Mamdani’s general New York area.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent for Just the News. Follow him on X.