By Associated Press

Published: 02:37 BST, 27 June 2018 | Updated: 02:37 BST, 27 June 2018

BALTIMORE (AP) – Some incumbent Democrats have felt heat this election cycle as they faced self-styled progressive challengers from the left. Ben Cardin, a popular and well-funded U.S. senator in Maryland, was never one of them.

On Tuesday, Cardin handily won a primary in his bid for a third term, beating convicted leaker Chelsea Manning and six other challengers.

The Democratic primary was never widely perceived as a competitive contest. There were no debates, few candidate forums and hardly any polling.

A woman places her purse at her feet as she prepares to vote at a polling place, Tuesday, June 26, 2018, in Silver Spring, Md. Former NAACP President Ben Jealous and Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker lead a crowded Democratic gubernatorial primary field to win a nomination to face popular Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in the fall. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

A woman places her purse at her feet as she prepares to vote at a polling place, Tuesday, June 26, 2018, in Silver Spring, Md. Former NAACP President Ben Jealous and Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker lead a crowded Democratic gubernatorial primary field to win a nomination to face popular Republican Gov. Larry Hogan in the fall. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Manning ran an unorthodox and largely under-the-radar grassroots campaign. She sought to gain traction by arguing that Cardin had been an establishment Democrat in Washington for so long that he’d lost the plot.

But her candidacy failed to resonate with many voters in a blue state that’s home to federal employees and defense contractors. She made few appearances in Maryland. Her platform included closing prisons, freeing inmates and eliminating national borders.

Days after tweeting in May that the primaries were “rigged” and there was no point in voting, Manning made headlines after a photo on her Twitter account apparently showed her on an upper-story window ledge. Kelly Wright, a friend who also served as her campaign communications director, told The Associated Press at the time that the candidate needed the “space to heal” but would stay in the race.

Manning and fellow candidates Jerome Segal and Rikki Vaughn wrote a June 7 opinion piece in The Washington Post, trying to push Cardin “to engage with us in a vigorous debate.” They asserted he’d been “missing in action.”

Cardin responded that their “joint op-ed came literally seven days before voters started going to the polls, which makes you wonder the sincerity of their effort.”

Cardin has major name recognition within the state; he served 20 years in the U.S. House before becoming a senator in 2006.

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