President Donald Trump’s preferred congressional candidate has fallen 20 points behind a competitor who dropped out of the race, reports show.
This GOP primary underperformance Tuesday night represents a “strong signal,” some said, of how the midterm elections may pan out.
Republican candidate and former law enforcement officer Amir Hassan secured Trump’s endorsement in June in his bid to represent Michigan’s 8th Congressional District. While the race has yet to be called as of 6 a.m. ET, Hassan is projected to lose after receiving around 33% of the vote.
Hassan’s GOP opponent, retired engineer Thomas Smith – who had previously dropped out of the race – received more than 50% of the vote as of Tuesday morning.
With Trump recently boastingabout his 2026 primary season endorsement record being 100%, the rejection of Hassan by GOP voters despite the president’s backing, Semafor journalist David Weigel suggested, was a strong indicator of things to come.
“This is it, folks,” Weigel wrote Wednesday in a social media post on X. “We’re getting 1) a suspended campaign winning the nomination, 2) Trump’s endorsed candidate losing, and 3) NYT not having a headshot of the winner.”
Weigel’s assessment was echoed by Sam Kolins, a data scientist and online content creator, who suggested Trump’s influence on GOP voters had finally waned.
“If this isn’t a strong signal of what November might look like for Republicans, I don’t know what is,” Kolins wrote Wednesday in a social media post on X. “This is the closest anyone will ever get to *literally* losing to Generic Democrat.”
This is it, folks; we’re getting 1) a suspended campaign winning the nomination, 2) Trump’s endorsed candidate losing, and 3) NYT not having a headshot of the winner https://t.co/9HA2CkHVgt pic.twitter.com/l7HYQ75xAi — David Weigel (@daveweigel) August 5, 2026
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