WASHINGTON — Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln defied a national anti-incumbent juggernaut and piles of union cash to win her party’s nomination last night — while Nevada’s Tea Party-backed Sharron Angle won a primary to take on embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Lincoln, a party moderate, turned back a stiff challenge from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, beating him with just under 52 percent of the vote.
In Nevada, Angle, a former state legislator, beat back Sue Lowden, who had strong party establishment backing, and Danny Tarkanian, son of famed UNLV hoops coach Jerry Tarkanian.
Top state Democrats consider her the weakest candidate against Reid.
If Reid were to fall, New York’s Sen. Charles Schumer would have a shot to succeed him in the powerful Senate post.
A big winner last night was the Tea Party movement, which helped pick conservative winners in South Carolina, Georgia and California.
In Arkansas, Lincoln got a last-minute boost from Bill Clinton, who campaigned for her. But unions had targeted her because of her opposition to the public option in health-care legislation and to a bill that would make it easier to join a labor organization.
In the gutter-politics race of the season in South Carolina, Republican State Rep. Nikki Haley fell just shy of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff for the gubernatorial nod, after fighting off two allegations that she had extramarital affairs.
She faces state Rep. Gresham Barrett in a runoff June 22.
Also in South Carolina, Republican Rep. Bob Inglis was forced into a runoff with prosecutor Trey Gowdy after capturing just 27 percent of the vote.
In California, Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman won her party’s gubernatorial primary after spending a stunning $80 million to defeat state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, and will take on former Gov. Jerry Brown in November.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina won the GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.
In the Nevada Republican primary for governor, scandal-tarred incumbent Jim Gibbons fell to challenger Brian Sandoval, who will take on Rory Reid, Harry Reid’s son.
In Georgia, state Rep. Tom Graves knocked off former state Sen. Lee Hawkins in a special election to replace Republican Rep. Nathan Deal, who resigned.
In Virginia’s sprawling 5th District, state Sen. Robert Hurt fended off Tea Party-based challenges from six other candidates in a crowded Republican primary to face first-term Democratic Rep. Tom Perrielo in November.