(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The eyes of the world are watching two candidates backed by Donald Trump in Senate primaries from yesterday, which test the strength of the former president's coattails.
The Illinois primary remains too close to call, while the former president's pick in Ohio won handily. Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Ohio, AP projects.
Moreno will take on incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown in November, in a race that could swing the balance of the Senate to the GOP. Trump came to town last week to support Moreno and the candidate categorized the race as one "between the America-First Republican Party and the broken-down RINO establishment."
In Illinois Wednesday morning, incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Bost narrowly led former Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey in Illinois 12th congressional district, and the Associated Press has not called the race. Bost is Trump's pick for the seat.
In Ohio, which had what pundits consider one of the top two Senate races, the Trump endorsed candidate is Bernie Moreno. ABC News reported with 96 percent of the expected vote reporting, Moreno led with 51 percent of the vote over state Sen. Matt Dolan’s 33 percent and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose at 17 percent.
Interestingly, the story in both the Illinois and Ohio races is one where Trump picked an unlikely winner and pushed them over the finish line.
Moreno was an "also-ran" in 2022 who "made it to the GOP nominee in one of the two top Senate races on the map, beating an uber-rich state senator and a two-time statewide officeholder in the process. But Moreno’s toughest path lies ahead, against well-funded incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown," ABC News reported.
In Illinois, when Darren Bailey lost the Illinois governor’s race in 2022, he was left without a place to sit when the music stopped. That’s where five-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Bost comes in.
Bailey, a former state lawmaker and a farmer from Clay County, tried to re-enter elective office by attempting to out-conservative Bost.
Bailey blasted - literally - the state budget in his gubernatorial campaign commercials. Bost, as a state lawmaker, famously punched a sheet of paper while screaming, “Let my people go!” in a rant over then-House Speaker Mike Madigan’s control of the chamber.
Bailey said Bost, of Murphysboro, is part of the "swamp" and part of the problem, too liberal and too entrenched in Washington.
The Southern Illinoisan reports that he said his opponent has been a Congressman for 10 years and served 20 years in the Illinois House, but has not brought jobs and business to southern Illinois and brought up the fact that Bost voted to give amnesty to undocumented immigrants.
However, Bost has vastly outspent Bailey and has the endorsement of former president Donald Trump.
The 12th Congressional District includes almost all of southern Illinois.