WASHINGTON–All of the candidates who had the backing of credit unions in yesterday’s primaries either won their races or are now headed to a runoff.
Primaries were held in eight statesAlabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.
In the races in which CUNA, its Credit Union Legislative Action Committee (CULAC) or the respective state associations were involved:
- In Alabama’s second district, incumbent Martha Roby (R) won 39% of the vote while challenger Bobby Bright won 28%, meaning the two are headed to a runoff. Roby had the support of CUNA and the League of Southeastern Credit Unions.
- In California, as expected, incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) won her primary race by a wide margin with nearly 44% of the vote. In California, which uses a unique ballot system in which all candidates regardless of party run against each other, with the top two moving on to November’s elections, CUNA and the California/Nevada leagues had supported Feinstein.
- In California’s 10thdistrict, incumbent Rep. Jeff Denham (R) won 37.7% of the vote.
- In Mississippi’s third district, CULAC and the Mississippi Credit Union Network bet on Michael Guest to win the primary race for an open seat, but Guest failed to win more than 50% of the vote (44.9%) and is now headed to a runoff on June 26 against second-place finisher Whit Hughes (22.2%).
- In New Jersey’s second district, Jeff Van Drew (D) won his primary with 55.4% of the vote. Van Drew had the backing of the New Jersey CU League and CULAC.
Prior to the elections, CUNA’s Trey Hawkins had said CUNA/CULAC would be remaining neutral in numerous races around the country in which there were open seats, including in two of the three seats in New Mexico and South Dakota’s single House seat (where Democrat Tim Bjorkman will face off against Republican Dusty Johnson).
“We will work with the respective leagues in coming weeks to identify the strongest candidate for credit unions to back,” said Hawkins.