President Trump unseated Representative Thomas Massie, a top Republican critic in Congress, and also got his way in other primary contests.
President Trump’s approval rating is drooping. His party is poised to lose seats in the House and is worried about the Senate. And yet Republican primary voters remain so loyal that they have no tolerance for Trump dissenters.
Republicans backed by the president won or were in first place in primaries on Tuesday in Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky, where Representative Thomas Massie, the House’s most prominent G.O.P. critic of Mr. Trump, was sent on his way out of Congress.
Hours earlier, the president’s endorsement of Ken Paxton in Texas was viewed as a hammer blow to Senator John Cornyn’s hopes of retaining his seat ahead of a runoff election next week.
In all, it was the latest evidence that even though Mr. Trump is in his second term, is nearly 80 years old and has led his party into political danger ahead of the midterms, Republicans are still firmly in his thrall.
Here are eight takeaways from the primary contests across six states on Tuesday:
Massie learned there’s no place in the G.O.P. for a Trump skeptic.
By now, the lesson for Republican politicians in primaries is clear: Oppose Mr. Trump at your own risk.
In Kentucky, Mr. Massie met the same fate on Tuesday as Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana did on Saturday night and several Indiana state senators did this month after resisting Mr. Trump’s redistricting push. All lost their primary races after Mr. Trump endorsed Republican rivals and urged voters to toss out the incumbents.