Results of Tuesday's Republican Senate primaries — the first significant data set of the 2018 midterms — suggest that the GOP is poised to repeat its successful 2014 midterm performance, and to avoid the weak Senate nominees that emerged from the 2010 and 2012 primaries in states like Indiana, Delaware, Missouri and Nevada.
Republicans went to the polls on Tuesday to choose nominees in three key Senate races on one of the biggest primary days of 2018 -- and they did not squander a trio of their best pickup opportunities. While ambitious House Republicans elected since the 2010 Tea Party wave did not fare well in their bids to move up, Republican primary voters stayed away from the problematic candidates who have already cost them several special elections since President Donald Trump took office. Most obviously, the nomination of accused sexual predator Roy Moore in Alabama allowed Democrat Doug Jones to win a Senate seat in one of the nation's most conservative states. Because of Moore's loss, Republican only hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate heading into this fall's midterms.
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