Ten House Republicans Voted to Impeach Trump — What happened?

Of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, only two have survived their primaries to make it to the general election in November, each of them in states that use a top-two primary system.

Reps. David Valadao from California and Dan Newhouse, Washington both advanced to the general election. They are running in the two states with a top-2 primary. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowsi from Alaska, which voted in Trump’s second impeachment case, has advanced with Republican challenger Kelly Tshibaka. Kelly Tshibaka campaigned alongside Trump during a top four ranked primary. (RELATED: Liz Cheney, After Losing By 37 Points, Says She Is ‘Thinking About’ A Presidential Run)

Republican Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, John Katko of New York and Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio all opted not to run at all this year. Jaime Herrera Beutler from Washington, Tom Rice in South Carolina, and Liz Cheney in Wyoming lost their primaries due to Trump-endorsed opponents.

Valadao likely benefited from being the only impeachment supporter not facing a Trump-backed challenger, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. As a result of the primary containing two Trump supporters, voters who support the former president were split between two candidates, leading Valadao to edge out Chris Mathys by just 1,310 votes, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Newhouse also faced off against a pair of high-profile Trump supporters: Trump-endorsed Loren Culp and Navy veteran and retired NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler, The New York Times reported. Newhouse, who narrowly came out on top of the crowded field ahead of Democratic businessman Dough White, raised $1.6 million, while Sessler had raised $508,900 and Culp just $310,700, the NYT reported.

Only three states use top-two primaries for congressional and state-level elections, with California, Nebraska and Washington using a top-two format and Alaska using a top-four variant, according to Ballotpedia. Ballotpedia reports that all the candidates in a top-two format are placed on the ballot, regardless of their political affiliation. The two most popular candidates advance to the general elections.

Alaska’s top-four version follows the same principles, but the top four candidates advance. Ballotpedia also reported that the ranked choice format allows voters to rank the candidates according to their preferences. In this ranked choice system, voters rank candidates based on who they most prefer, with the candidate with the least support being eliminated and their supporters’ second choice votes added to the remaining candidates until a winner emerges, Politico reported.

Ranked Choice Voting in Alaska is a topic of special interest. According to Politico, advocates claim that this system encourages positive messaging campaigns, as they must be listed at second or third choice by significant numbers of voters.

“It immediately changed three things [in Minneapolis]: who decided to run, how campaigns were run and who could be elected,” said advocate James Massy to Politico, referring to the system’s impact on Minneapolis, where it has been used since 2009.

Spokespeople for Murkowski and Newhouse did not respond immediately to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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