Melissa Harris-Perry: Okay, y'all, it's The Takeaway. I'm MHP with you. Now, Tuesday was yet another primary day and there were some key races for the GOP, including in Wyoming and Alaska. In Wyoming, incumbent representative, Liz Cheney, lost her primary bid to Harriet Hageman, a candidate handpicked by former President Trump.

Harriet Hageman: Today Wyoming has spoken.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Alaska held its special election yesterday. It may be days or even longer before we know the outcome in Alaska's special election to fill the late Don Young's seat in Congress. The contest between former VP candidate and Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, Republican Nick Begich, and Democrat and Alaska native Mary Peltola. Here to walk us through and talk us through the results of yesterday's primary is a national correspondent for The New York Times, Trip Gabriel. Welcome to The Takeaway, Trip.

Trip Gabriel: Hi, Melissa.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Trip, what can we take from Liz Cheney's loss last night?

Trip Gabriel: It certainly was a landslide. Hageman has about 66% of the votes and Liz Cheney under 30%, so that's an even larger margin than the polls were showing. On the other hand and Cheney pointed this out in her concession speech last night that she herself had won the state two years ago with over 70% of the votes. Part of that reason that Hageman didn't quite hit that number is that Democrats that crossed over to vote for Liz Cheney in Wyoming as they're allowed to do, but what it really shows is that the Republican party today is the party of loyalty to Donald Trump. Liz Cheney is as Conservative on issues as you can get but she lost in a landslide.

This was an election that was really a referendum on whether Republican voters were loyal to Donald Trump and specifically over the events of January 6th. Of course, Cheney is the vice chairwoman of the House special committee investigating the riots and the attempted insurrection and she also voted, of course, to impeach Donald Trump. She's the last of the 10 Republican members of the House that voted to impeach Trump. He's gone to war against almost all of them. The results have not been pretty from their perspective, only two are moving on to a general election, either survived primaries or decided not to retire.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Certainly, Liz Cheney did frame in her speech last night this sense of her race and others in this primary season being part of this fight for the soul of the Republican Party and has named checked Abraham Lincoln last night. If this is that kind of fight, what's in Liz Cheney's political future and how would you frame where the party is beyond that capacity for Trump to bring the names, to bring the money? Is there any real meaningful resistance?

Trip Gabriel: The primary season actually broke down into two halves. Early on, the candidates that Trump opposed actually came through their primaries in Georgia but August has been a bloodbath for Republican candidates who oppose Donald Trump, or at least just buck him on some of the issues around election denialism and the events of January 6th. In the Arizona all his candidates, very far to the right, have won Wyoming, obviously and we've also seen it in the governor's primary up in Wisconsin on the Republican side. The gateway to his endorsement has been embracing his lies about the 2020 election in January 6th.

Is there room in the Republican Party for an opponent of Donald Trump? I don't think you can say that there is, no. Liz Cheney's future is a big question mark. She raised a boatload of money for this campaign and didn't spend very much of it so she's entering whatever comes next for her very well funded and with probably the second highest profile of any Republican in the United States right now after the former president. There's been speculation she might run for president either to challenge Trump in Republican primaries, or even as an independent candidate, which also seems to be at least very far-fetched.

In her speech last night which some people probably found grandiose, she invoked Martin Luther King in terms of the arc of history bending toward justice, and she compared herself to not just Abraham Lincoln, but Ulysses Grant in a speech that portrayed the country as edging toward tearing itself apart over the attempt to subvert the 2020 election by Trump and his supporters.

Melissa Harris-Perry: All right, let's go a little farther west to Alaska. We do not have results there yet. Could be quite some time with counting all of those mail-in ballots that are coming but this was the first primary election with new rules. Can you help us understand what those rules are?

Trip Gabriel: Sure. Alaska voters a couple of years ago, by initiative, voted to really overhaul the way they conduct elections. The bottom line is that their new system is better or favors more centrist candidates that was certainly the goal behind it and it probably favors Democrats to a certain degree as well. They eliminated partisan primaries, all the candidates from all the parties and including cast from no parties run in one so-called Jungle Primary. Then the top four finishers in that larger primary field advance to the runoff for the general election and so it becomes a top four runoff election. Then the runoff election is conducted by a ranked choice.

As I say, it's meant to encourage more centrist candidates and that seems to be what we've seen so far in Alaska from the preliminary returns. There was actually two elections in Alaska, Don Young, their longtime member of Congress died this year so there was a special election to replace him. That primary took place in June and there was a run-off yesterday between the top finishers in the special election to replace Young.

At the moment Mary Peltola, who's a Democrat appears to have a narrow lead over Sarah Palin, and Nick Begich, who is another Republican in the race. The ultimate winner will be chosen by this rank choice method. Then there was a regular primary to fill the same seat beginning in 2023. Whoever wins the special election runoff will only actually be in office for a few months until the new Congressional term begins in January.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Help us to understand because obviously, Sarah Palin brings us certain kind of attention. What kind of Republican is she running as here? Our point about the way that these primaries have been shaping up. She's certainly Trump-backed, but she wasn't an incredibly vocal member of the party, just even in a media sense during the Trump term.

Trip Gabriel: No. Palin is a fascinating figure. A lot of people think of her as a bridge to Donald Trump, going back to when she ran as vice president in 2008. She was a Trump-like populous candidate who became a celebrity and she's a figure of controversy in Alaska. She quit in the middle of her first term as governor in 2009 to pursue her national stardom at that point. She divides Alaska, even the Alaska Conservatives and Republicans, a lot of folks feel that she cares more about national stardom and that she's really had a career outside the state, or at least the profile outside the state as a Conservative commentator, occasional reality TV star.

She hasn't promoted or advanced or worked for the Alaska Republican Party in a long time, and so that's why some other alternative Republicans who voters may feel are more authentically representative of the state's Republican constituency, again, are very much in the mix in these two elections. Nick Begich who actually is the Nick Begich III scion of one of the most prominent Democratic Parties in the State of Alaska, who's now a Republican is challenging Palin and also Mary Peltola, the Democrat in the race to make it into the general election runoff.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Okay, let's come back East for a moment. Looking ahead to August 23rd, we will have primaries in Florida and New York. These are going to be key states moving forward, not only for the generals in this year's midterms but obviously, in presidential politics going forward. What are you expecting to see in these primaries?

Trip Gabriel: We're moving toward the end of the primary cycle. In Florida, there's a Democratic primary to challenge Ron DeSantis who's running for reelection. Charlie Crist who is a former Republican governor is up against Nikki Fried, who is the Agriculture Commissioner, I think, is her title. They're looking for the Democratic nomination and then Senator Marco Rubio is also up for reelection and he's facing probably Val Demings, who's the Democratic favorite to challenge him.

Up in New York, there are several prominent Democrats are going to face off in member-on-member, house primaries around the New York City area after the redistricting of the state which was a bloody messy process that went in between the legislature and the courts in New York State. You're going to see, like, for example, in Manhattan Representative Jerrold Nadler is facing Representative Carolyn Maloney.

They're both pretty well-known, very well-known Democrats. They're up in their 70s at this point, I guess. There's also a pretty good race between Sean Patrick Maloney who's the Chair of the Democratic House Campaign Committee in Westchester and north of the city who's going to be facing a progressive challenger in those suburbs.

Melissa Harris-Perry: All right. We are in fact sliding out of primary season and into the fall, which means midterms. The midterm general election is right around the corner. Trip Gabriel, national correspondent, The New York Times. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Trip Gabriel: Thank you.

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