Voters in several states head to the polls on Tuesday in the final major primary election night before a few big elections upcoming in August, with Republicans hoping to keep momentum growing ahead of November and Democrats clamoring to hang on to the slivers of power they still have.
Several big states like New York, Illinois, and Colorado will select GOP and Democrat nominees in primaries on Tuesday, while other states like Utah and Oklahoma will do the same. Mississippi will hold a runoff election for the GOP primary for the district of Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS), who was surprisingly much weaker than expected in the primary’s first round a few weeks ago with challenger Michael Cassidy earning more votes than Guest the first go-around. Establishment Republicans have gone all in for Guest and tried to turn the tide against Cassidy, so Tuesday’s results will show whether they were successful or whether Cassidy was able to harness his shocking first round performance into a formal nomination win.
The first primary elections since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade nearly 50 years after the Court first made the ruling will also provide evidence as to whether or not the left has newfound energy heading into this all-important midterm election season.
Voters in New York will select a GOP nominee for governor. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) is easily the favorite but faces several challengers, including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani’s son Andrew Giuliani and businessman Harry Wilson. The winner of the GOP nomination for governor is likely to face incumbent Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul in November. Hochul rose to the position when her predecessor Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace.
Several congressional primaries in both parties are worth watching here, too, as Republicans battle to succeed retiring Rep. Chris Jacobs (R-NY) upstate, and downstate Democrats have an internecine member-member primary battle between Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)–two committee chairs forced to run against each other due to redistricting.
In Illinois, Republicans will select nominees for both the governor and Senate races–which could become competitive in November with the current environment. Republicans have won statewide in Illinois in recent years, so that remains a possibility. But more importantly, GOP primary voters will decide a member-member primary caused by redistricting between Reps. Mary Miller (R-IL) and Rodney Davis (R-IL). Former President Donald Trump has gone all in for Miller and hosted a rally with her this weekend.
Colorado voters will decide several key primaries, including who the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate will be. In Utah, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) aims to hold off a primary challenger while he prepares for a general election battle with Never Trumper Evan McMullin–and Democrats appear to be colluding with McMullin to influence the outcome of the election in a desperate ploy to beat Lee.
Oklahoma, meanwhile, has both U.S. Senate seats up this year with the looming retirement of Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) aims to hold off a primary challenger, while Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) appears from public polling to be the frontrunner in the GOP primary to succeed Inhofe.
The polls close in Mississippi, Illinois, and Oklahoma at 8 p.m. ET, New York and Colorado at 9 p.m. ET, and in Utah at 10 p.m. ET. South Carolina also has runoffs scheduled for Tuesday–and the polls close there at 7 p.m. ET–but there are no major races of national political importance there this week.
Follow along here for live updates as the results pour in from across the country.
UPDATE 8:30 p.m. ET:
In the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in Illinois, Kathy Salvi holds an early lead with 4 percent reporting. Her more than 10,000-vote lead is nearly 30 percent better than the second highest vote-getter Peggy Hubbard at this time.
UPDATE 8:26 p.m. ET:
With 1 percent reporting in the 15th district GOP primary in Illinois, Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) has a slight lead over Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL). This is a banner race GOP primary between two members.
UPDATE 8:13 p.m. ET:
The very first results are pouring in from across the country. In Mississippi, with less than 100 votes in, Guest has an early lead.
In Illinois, Trump-backed Darren Bailey has a sizable lead with 1 percent reporting. In South Carolina, where there is a runoff for the Democrat nomination for U.S. Senate, Krystle Matthews currently leads. In Oklahoma, Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) has a huge lead in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate with 3 percent reporting.
UPDATE 8:10 p.m. ET:
From Trump’s team, this is the list of endorsements he has on the line tonight:
Colorado-03: Boebert, Lauren
Illinois-Governor: Bailey, Darren
Illinois-12: Bost, Mike
Illinois-15: Miller, Mary
Illinois-16: LaHood, Darin
Oklahoma-Governor: Stitt, Kevin
Oklahoma-01: Hern, Kevin
Oklahoma-03: Lucas, Frank
Oklahoma-04: Cole, Tom
Utah-Senate: Lee, Mike
Utah-02: Stewart, Chris
Utah-04: Owens, Burgess
UPDATE 8:02 p.m. ET:
The polls have closed in Mississippi, Illinois, and Oklahoma. Results should be coming in imminently in each place.
