Republicans reject 'Trumpier than Trump' Senate hopeful

Republican primary voters in West Virginia rejected a brash outsider who ran a racially charged campaign in favour of an establishment candidate on Tuesday, choosing the state's Attorney General PatrickMorriseyas their choice to run for the Senate this fall.

Ex-coal executive Don Blankenship conceded defeat shortly after 10 p.m., having placed third with roughly 20 per cent of the vote.

Blankenship said he "didn't get it done" and "failed West Virginians," but he warned that "the Republican Party needs to be careful about being hijacked."

Establishment Republicans and U.S. President Donald Trump warned voters not to back Blankenship, who spent time in federal prison for his role in a 2010 mine explosion that killed 29 miners.

Blankenship told supporters that he believes he was railroaded and mistreated by federal prosecutors.

Morrisey, thevictor,also outdistanced congressman Evan Jenkins and three others in Tuesday's race.

Morrisey will face incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin in November. Both parties view the general election as key to Senate control for the next two years.

The primary became a test of Trump's clout. He came out strongly against Blankenship saying on Twitter earlier this week there was "no way" he could win the Senate race.

A two-term attorney general, Morrisey promoted his record of challenging policies under the administration of former president Barack Obama.

Morrisey deflected criticism of his past lobbying ties to the pharmaceutical industry and his roots in New Jersey, where he lost a 2000 congressional race.

Pence's brother easily wins

The key Senate contests headlined primary elections across four states on Tuesday that will help shape the political landscape in this fall's midterm elections. Control of Congress is at stake in addition to state governments across the nation.

In Indiana, Republicans chose businessman Mike Braun as their candidate to face Democratic incumbent Sen. Joe Donnellythis fall.

Braun, a multimillionaire owner of a national auto-parts distribution business who lent more than $5.4 million of his own money to his campaign, credited his victory to voter disenchantment with "business as usual."

Another Indiana contest was less contentious.

Greg Pence won the primary for the congressional seat his younger brother, Vice-President Mike Pence, once held. Greg Pence is a marine veteran and owner of two antique malls who once ran the now-bankrupt chain of Tobacco Road convenience stores. He'll be the favourite to win the seat in November.

In a possible sign of party unrest, however, Rep. Robert Pittenger lost in North Carolina toRev. Mark Harris, a Baptist pastor he narrowly beat two years ago. Pittinger is the first incumbent to lose his seat this primary season.

Trump accuser running locally in Ohio

In Ohio, U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, with Trump's support, won the Republican primary to challenge Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in November.

On the local level, a woman who accused Trump of sexually harassing her more than a decade ago claimed the Democratic nomination in a race to represent an area southeast of Toledo in the state House of Representatives. Democrat Rachel Crooks, a 35-year-old university administrator, ran unopposed, but must next win a November general election to become the first Trump accuser to hold elected office.

A bright spot for Republicans in swing-state Ohio: Republican turnout was considerably stronger than Democratic voting in the open governor's race. With nearly two-thirds of the vote counted, 567, 000 Republicans cast votes, to 412,000 Democrats.

Yet none of Tuesday's other contests was expected to have more impact on the midterm landscape than West Virginia, where Blankenship had embraced Trump's tactics casting himself as a victim of government persecution and seizing on xenophobia, if not racism.

Trump and his party invested significant time and resources to attack Blankenship in recent weeks. The head of the Senate Republican campaign arm highlighted Blankenship's criminal history. And a group allied with the national GOP, known as Mountain Families PAC, spent more than $1.2 million in attack ads against Blankenship.

The retired businessman was released from prison less than a year ago for his role in a 2010 mine explosion that left 29 men dead. Blankenship led the company that owned the mine and was sentenced to a year in prison for conspiring to break safety laws, a misdemeanour.

Battle for party's 'soul'?

He has repeatedly blamed government regulators for the disaster, casting himself as the victim of an overzealous Obama-era Justice Department an argument Trump regularly uses to dismiss federal agents investigating his campaign's ties to Russia.

Blankenship used race and ethnicity to appeal to supporters in the campaign's final days, just as Trump did throughout his campaign.

The Senate candidate took aim at Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, in an ad claiming that McConnell has created jobs for "China people" and that his "China family" has given him millions of dollars. McConnell's wife is U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who was born in Taiwan.

Blankenship also called McConnell "Cocaine Mitch" in a previous ad. That reference stems from a 2014 magazine article alleging drugs were found aboard a commercial cargo ship owned by Chao's family.

Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, a frequent Trump critic, suggested that Blankenship presents a moral problem for his party, not just a political one. He had said he wasready to donate to Manchin's campaign if Blankenship becamethenominee.

"You get somebody like that in the Senate, you might get us one seat but you lose your soul," Flake said.

Republicans have long seen the state as a prime opportunity to expand the party's two-seat majority in the Senate by defeating Manchin.

On paper at least, the Republican prospects look good: No state gave Trump a larger margin of victory than West Virginia, where Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by 42 percentage points.