Politico: Top takeaways from the first big primary of 2018

Republicans can exhale now.

Convicted coal magnate Don Blankenship’s surprise third-place finish in Tuesday’s West Virginia GOP Senate primary sidestepped yet another debacle for the party after consecutive meltdowns in special elections in Alabama and Pennsylvania. Instead, party leaders celebrated state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey‘s win, which capped the first multi-state primary of 2018.

The night saw Republicans pick three of the 10 candidates who will take on Democratic senators in states President Donald Trump won, and the first House incumbent go down in a primary in 2018.

Here are POLITICO’s seven takeaways from Tuesday: