After the wreckage, Day going to Alabama with a primary defeat on his knee

More primary coverage has been published while we slept. The Mankato Free Press says in Davis tops Day in GOP primary:

Making his first run for public office, Davis used superior fundraising, a larger campaign organization and the advantages that come with being the Republican Party’s endorsed candidate to win by a two-to-one margin. . . .

. . .Davis is hoping to come up with one more victory over a sitting lawmaker on Nov. 4.

“We are certainly working hard toward that goal,” he said Tuesday night, crediting his primary victory to a hard-earned bond with the Republican Party base. . . .

Senator Day sees the effort to cement that bond as a problem in the general:

Day said he has concerns that Davis’ attempt to win over the GOP base will make it harder for him to compete with Walz when Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans show up on Nov. 4.

“I tried to just hold on to being an ordinary guy in the middle and Brian just went to the right and the right and the right,” Day said. “I don’t know how he’s going to get out of being way over there and then come back (to the middle).”

Nor will Day be helping him. But don't cry for Day--he's heading to Alabama for some hot NASCAR action:

“No, no, no, no,” Day said. “I don’t have so much trouble with him as I do with the party. They said some pretty nasty things. ...”

Instead, Day said he will be doing what he likes at least as much as politics — heading to Alabama for a stock car race.

“I’m probably going to go to Talladega and see a car race and enjoy my fall,” he said.

KTTC captures all the excitement at Davis headquarters.

The Winona Daily News reports:

With about three-quarters of the precincts reporting at 11 p.m., Brian Davis was leading Dick Day by about 30 percentage points, 15,188 votes to 7,879.

Davis, a political newcomer, buried Day in Winona County, collecting 1,328 votes, or 76 percent, to Day’s 409 votes, or 24 percent, with all Winona County votes counted.

Davis staked out staunchly conservative positions in his first run for office to earn the Republican endorsement in March against Rep. Randy Demmer of Hayfield.

Day, a self-described political maverick, shunned what he called a noninclusive nomination process and skipped the GOP endorsing convention, taking his case directly to voters in Tuesday’s primary.

In No primary surprises, the Worthington Globe reports:

Three endorsed Republican candidates for Congress each faced a primary. Brian Davis was declared the winner in southern Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District GOP contest, where he held a 62 percent to 38 percent advantage over Dick Day with more than half of precincts reporting.

CQ Politics writes:

In the 1st Congressional District, which takes in Rochester and other southern Minnesota areas, oncologist Brian Davis led state Sen. Dick Day by 62 percent to 38 percent in the primary to decide the challenger to freshman Democratic Rep. Tim Walz , who scored an upset in 2006 over Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht. Davis ran with the endorsement of the district’s Republican Party organization. CQ rates the general election race as Leans Democratic.

Politics1 says of Minnesota:

In  the US House race, no particularly competitive primary races.  In the CD-1 primary , physician Brian Davis defeated State Senator Dick Day by a 2-to-1 margin. Freshman Congressman Tim Walz (D)  is favored over Davis in November.

Update: MPR reports in Davis beats Day for Republican endorsement:

Political analysts offer a variety of reasons that Walz would be hard to beat, beyond his record and name recognition: he's widely regarded as a centrist, the National Rifle Association endorses him and he's open to drilling for oil in Alaska. [ Ollie's note: Walz doesn't support drilling in ANWR, but wants more drilling in other areas of the state; Walz supports expanding offshore drilling]

Walz's campaign spokesperson Chris Schmitter said he congratulates Davis on his win, but added this:

"Dr. Davis has shown in just the last two weeks he's run a negative TV ad that several newspapers have called misleading. And he's trying to adhere to his party's platform and use that Washington negative party playbook and it's just not going to resonate with the people in southern Minnesota."

Photo: NASCAR action like this wreck at Talladega probably helped Dick Day get through his primary defeat last night. While we're more of a fan of combine demolition derbies, we do have a couple of friends working on campaigns who will be jealous of the senator's trip to the track. They know who they are.