Christian candidates show mixed results in primaries

Several conservative Christians running for major offices during last week’s primaries in several states posted mixed results. Virginia evangelical pastor Ryan McAdams posted the lone victory, although South Carolina gubernatorial candidate John Warren advanced to a runoff.

A resident of rural Charles City County, Virginia, McAdams won the Republican Party’s nomination for the 4th congressional district with a landslide 73-27 percent margin over his opponent.

However, Bishop E.W. Jackson placed a distant third in the state’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate. A former Democrat who switched parties in the 1980s, Jackson is the pastor of Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake, Virginia. The winner, Corey Stewart, drew attention for championing Confederate memorials.

In Maine, gubernatorial hopeful Garrett Mason, the Senate Majority Leader in the state legislature, ran a distant second (23 percent) to businessman Shawn Moody (55 percent) in a four-way race for the Republican nomination.  

South Carolina businessman John Warren only received 28 percent of the vote in the Republican gubernatorial primary. However, he advanced to a June 26 run-off election after Gov. Henry McMaster failed (42 percent) failed to win a majority of the votes.