Has anyone of Jeff Sessions’ stature ever done this badly in a primary?

[Tekken_Guy]

A former U.S. Senator and U.S. Attorney General only got 31% in his primary. Has anyone else of this stature ever done so poorly in a statewide primary?

[Roll Roons]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_Senate_election_in_Indiana.

A six-term incumbent Senator, who was almost universally respected on both sides of the aisle, lost reelection in the primary to a nutjob by 20 points. 

[TrendsareUsuallyReal]

Janet Reno lost a gubernatorial primary to a random lawyer

[StateBoiler]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_Senate_election_in_Indiana.

A six-term incumbent Senator, who was almost universally respected on both sides of the aisle, lost reelection in the primary to a nutjob by 20 points. 

Last time the Democrats won statewide.

[MarkD]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_United_States_Senate_election_in_Wisconsin#Democratic_primary


Congressman Jim Moody of Milwaukee was supposed to win the primary in 1992 easily, until a millionaire businessman named Checota got into the race too. Both Moody and Checota assumed each other to be their main rival for the nomination and they went at each other savagely, ignoring the three other "minor" candidates in the race, one of whom was a state senator named Russ Feingold. Moody's and Checota's negative attack ads on each other only succeeded at making most Democratic voters dislike both of them, and so they both ended up with about 14% of the primary votes, and Feingold won with a whopping 70%.

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

Janet Reno lost a gubernatorial primary to a random lawyer

Reno had never won (or even ran, I don’t think) statewide. Plus, polls showed she would lose badly to Jeb. Sessions has won statewide several times by large margins, and no one thinks he can’t beat Jones.