4 Lessons From The 2018 Primaries So Far - ANALYSIS

Here are the four big messages voters have been sending with their votes so far in the 2018 midterm primaries:

1. The Republican Party is Trump's party now
President Trump continues to dominate news coverage and wields more influence in his party than anyone else — and Republicans running for office know it. Anyone who thought Republicans, fearing Trump's historically low approval ratings, would run away from this president were wrong — in primaries, anyway.

That may change in the fall when some of these candidates need to tack to the middle, but, right now, they're with their president. Why? Because GOP voters approve of Trump at record levels.

Several GOP candidates have hitched their wagons to Trump, sensing that's what their voters want, from candidates in Indiana who tried to out-Trump each other, to one in West Virginia who said he was "Trumpier than Trump" after the president told GOP voters to vote for anyone other than him. And speaking out against the president can present dangers. Look at Rep. Martha Roby in Alabama, who drew a crowded primary field because she criticized the president after the Access Hollywood tape came out before the 2016 election.

That has meant a Republican Party that is increasingly fashioning itself a party of one. "There is no Republican Party. There's a Trump Party," former House Speaker John Boehner said last week. "The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere."

One of the men vying to become the next House speaker, California GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy, told CNN that the party's evolution is a good thing. "Well, I would think it's changed for the better," he said in response to Boehner's comment.

McCarthy cited the country's relative peace and prosperity under Trump. And Trump has certainly benefited from that, as well. His approval rating, for example, has gone from 37 percent in December to almost 45 percent now, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls.

The question is whether that improvement will be enough for the Republican Party and its candidates, who are facing historical midterm challenges because so much of the enthusiasm is with the party out of power. - More, NPR

4 Lessons From The 2018 Primaries So Far