Lessons and takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries and what lies ahead for both parties

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• Judy Woodruff:

  There were intense and expensive contests up and down the ballot and across the country, in yesterday's primary elections. Voters hit the polls in seven states, with congressional races testing the influence of Donald Trump. But the race drawing the most attention today was local.

  In San Francisco, voters recalled progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin in a contest where crime and public safety were key issues.

  President Biden, before boarding Air Force One, said he saw a lesson in the results.

• President Joe Biden:

  I think the voters sent a clear message last night. Both parties have to step up and do something about crime, as well as gun violence.

• Judy Woodruff:

  For more on the lessons and takeaways for both parties ahead of November, we turn to Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Marisa Lagos with KQED in San Francisco.

  Welcome to both of you. Some interesting races to talk about.

  Amy, I'm going to start with you.

  You were telling us earlier that you didn't see one overriding headline from all of this, but you did see what — I think what you called a similarity among the Republican winners.

• Amy Walter, The Cook Political Report:

  Yes.

  For Democrats, the goal that they see from these primaries, at least on the Republican side, what they'd like to see is the less-than-ideal candidate on the Republican side come out of those primaries. And we have seen a couple of examples of that, I think most notably in Pennsylvania, where the candidate who was considered probably the most out of step with that swing state won the primary.

  But in other races across the country yesterday, what we saw were the candidates who pretty much fit those districts, the candidates that Republican strategist think are the better fit for those candidates — for those districts win there. So this was a pretty good night for Republicans in terms of putting up the stronger of the candidates to face Democrats.

• Judy Woodruff:

  So, from their perspective, here we are early June. That's what it looks like.

  So, Marisa, in your state of California, it's the results in the local races, as we said, that are drawing the most attention, a San Francisco DA race, the Los Angeles mayor's race. Tell us about those.

• Marisa Lagos, KQED:

  Yes.

  Well, here in San Francisco, I mean, this recall has really dominated headlines for months. And this was a very progressive DA. He was a former public defender. His parents spent decades in jail as members of the radical Weather Underground for a robbery they took place in that included two police officers who were killed.

  So, in some ways, Chesa Boudin was never well-liked by law enforcement here. But I think there was a series of missteps he made and also just the reality of the past two years, the pandemic, the George Floyd protests, the sort of strange crime rate changes we saw over the pandemic.

  And that also is really playing in Los Angeles where, Rick Caruso, a billionaire developer, spent $40 million just in this primary to boost his name I.D., and it worked. He is now in a run-off with U.S. Congresswoman Karen Bass, who's going to be the more sort of traditional Democratic candidate. That is a nonpartisan race.

  But it's important to note that Caruso was a Republican. Then he was a no party preference voter, and then he re-registered as a Democrat just a few months ago.

• Judy Woodruff:

  So it's interesting, Amy, listening to what Marisa is saying.

  I mean, the — there's always a desire at the national level to say, aha, we see a trend, but she's saying it does has to do with the individual circumstances, with the candidates and with what was going on in that race.

• Amy Walter:

  Right. We have seen the nationalization of politics now for quite some time. But there is also a truth to all politics being local.

  But I think what Marisa pointed out too is very important, that, while the issue of COVID is no longer a front or top issue for voters, the way it was, say, in 2020, a top number one issue, its impact is still being felt. It sort of has the downstream effects on crime, on mental health, on our children and their schooling.

  And so we're still seeing the aftershocks of this pandemic. And, in some ways, it's playing out in these local races, right, where people are feeling frustrated with the way the city has or hasn't sort of come back since the pandemic, but it's also playing a part in federal races as well.

  We're seeing, just nationally, 75 percent of Americans believe the country is off in the wrong direction. A lot of that, of course, is about the economy. But I think it's the sense we're still pretty destabilized.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Yes.

• Amy Walter:

  This pandemic may be officially over, but its impact is still here.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Marisa, how did you see that in California, I mean, in terms of the voter interest in these races and turnout, and how animated voters were by what they were watching and listening to?

• Marisa Lagos:

  Well, unfortunately, voter turnout was very low, although it looks like, in San Francisco, slightly higher than statewide.

  But I think Amy hits on a really good point, which is that people had a lot of time to sit at home during the pandemic and think about what they didn't like. And we have really seen the spate of recalls in California. Again, there's always going to be individual issues in each race, local issues, but I do think that there's a sense of anger with what is not happening out there in the world, whether it is tents on our streets and homeless folks or increases in crimes.

  I mean, it's ironic, though. In a city like San Francisco, we saw a far less of an increase in violent crime than most major cities did, Republican- or Democratic-led.

  And yet people vote with their hearts, right? Statistics is not what matters. And I just think there's a real sense of, at the local level, that incumbents are not getting the job done. Statewide, however, we saw Democratic incumbents, Governor Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, just easily coasts into those run-offs, so maybe not as angry at the state level officials.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Amy, just quickly staying on this question about crime and what people — whether people feel safe.

  Is there some kind of national message from this?

• Amy Walter:

  Well, I think we're seeing it play out not just in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but also we saw it in the New York mayor's race. Again, these are really local issues, but Democrats still feeling — as you heard from President Biden, feeling somewhat wary of the fact that Democrats had been labeled now for the last couple of years as being for, say, defunding the police, not as strong and pushing back on criminals, electing more progressive DAs.

  And so Democrats have been trying for the last two years to shed that image and to support policies and candidates that are stronger on those issues.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And we have even heard President Biden saying, we're not for defunding, trying to push that.

• Amy Walter:

  That's right. That's right.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And, just quickly, I do want to come back to you, Amy, because there were a number of House Republicans who we know voted for an independent commission to look into what happened on January the 6th.

  Some of them have been pushed or have left politics.

• Amy Walter:

  That's right.

• Judy Woodruff:

  But we looked at — there are, what, a number of them who were in primaries yesterday. And what do we see from the results here?

• Amy Walter:

  Yes.

  Overall, Judy, we know that, in the next Congress, there are going to be fewer members, either by — because they retired or resigned or they lost in a primary, fewer Republican members who either voted to impeach the president, voted for the January 6 Commission, even some who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

  In other words, supporting Donald Trump still is a major issue or showing fealty to Donald Trump is still a major issue in these primaries. So what we have in Mississippi, one of the Republicans there, Republican — Republican Guest — Representative Guest, is likely in a run-off with a Republican who ran to his right in the primary, saying, basically, he's just not a real Republican. He's a so-called RINO, in part because of his support for the January 6 commission itself, nothing else, but for the January 6 commission.

  And so when we talk about Trump's hold on the party, he may not have the same influence that, say, he would like to have, but in terms of the kinds of people who are coming back to Washington in 2023, very few of them will have stood up to Donald Trump.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Very, very — yes. And that's telling when you put it all together.

• Amy Walter:

  Right. Right.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Amy Walter and Marisa Lagos, thank you both. We appreciate it.

• Marisa Lagos:

  Thanks, Judy.