Republican state delegates nominated resident to run for the US Senate seat being vacated by retiring US Sen. Joe Lieberman in the upcoming November election during the state Republican Convention in Hartford Friday night.
According to a report in the Hartford Courant, McMahon, the former CEO of WWE, garnered 730 votes, or 60.4 percent (a greater margin than in the three-way race 2010, when she ran for former Sen. Chris Dodd's seat) while her rival, former US congressman Christopher Shays, netted 389 votes, or 32.2 percent.
Shays has vowed to primary, which will happen in mid-August. The other three candidates in the five-way race for the party nomination were Brian K. Hill of Hartford, Kie Westby of Southbury and Peter Lumaj of Fairfield — each of whom did not receive enough votes to primary.
Either McMahon or Shays will likely face Democratic nominee and current Congressman Chris Murphy in the November election. Murphy won convincingly at the Democratic State Convention on May 12, garnering 1,378 out of 1,842 delegates to secure the Dems' nomination.
Meanwhile, in the Fourth Congressional District race, Westport businessman convincingly beat his rival Chris Meek to gain the Republican endorsement to run against incumbent Democratic Congressman in the fall. However Meek also earned enough votes to force a primary.
Richard Wieland of Redding came in third but did not get enough votes to force a primary, according to a CT Post report.
