6/23 A Tale of Two Primaries

Last week’s primaries featured some big news for Ukraine.

Yevgeny Vindman, the Ukrainian-born candidate, won in Virginia 7.

Vindman and his brother were involved in the first Trump impeachment. Vindman has also come out as a strong voice in support of Ukraine. Several Ukrainian communities have done fund-raisers for him raising at least 100k.

According to the NY Times, “his name recognition, along with that of his identical twin, Alexander Vindman, helped him raise over $5 million, more than the rest of the field combined.”

Not mentioned in the NYTimes report but visible on Ballotpedia, Vindman spent $4,149,246 in his primary victory to garner 16,573 votes. He now has less $1mln in the bank for the general election.

His Republican opponent spent $682,540 to garner 15,470 votes in the primary. Overall, 12% more voters came out for the Republican primary than in the Democrat primary.

Virginia 7 is a competitive district, rated Dem +1 in the Cook Political Report. We will need to wait to November to see if Vindman is elected.

Also on Tuesday night, Rep Tom Cole of Oklahoma won his primary.

Rep Cole is 14-term Congressman and the head of the Appropriations Committee. Every spending bill in Congress goes through Appropriations. Rep Cole played a key role in getting the $61billion Ukraine Supplemental passed in April. It is not too much to say, the bill would not have passed without his support.

As a result of his support for Ukraine. Rep Cole faced a primary challenge from a self-funded isolationist candidate, who made Rep Cole’s support for Ukraine the centerpiece of his campaign.

Rep Cole was outraised $5mln to $3mln. AmUkrPAC was the only pro-Ukraine organization who donated to his campaign.

Rep Cole won his primary on Tuesday. Oklahoma 4 is +42 Republican district. Rep Cole won in 2022 with 70% of the vote. Either way, this district is voting Republican: only a question of a pro-Ukraine Republican or isolationist Republican.

The Ukrainian community can look forward to Rep Cole serving in Congress in November and continuing to play a key role in future Ukraine spending bills.

Please consider donating to AmUkrPAC to support Congressmen who support Ukraine.