The latest round of primary elections gets underway Tuesday in four states: Maryland, New York, South Carolina and Utah.
The midterm elections in November will determine control of both chambers of Congress and will also see the election of dozens of governors and other state and local offices. Before then, voters must choose nominees for each of these offices, making their picks in primary elections throughout the spring and summer in all 50 states.
Maryland: All eight of the state's congressional districts will hold contested primaries. In a state that typically leans left (only one district is led by a Republican), the primaries often determine the general election winners. Gov. Wes Moore seeks the Democratic nomination for a second term.
New York: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is looking to shape the city's congressional delegation through a series of endorsements, including in districts 10, 13 and 7. Meanwhile, several Democrats are seeking the party nomination in District 12, including Trump critic George Conway and Kennedy family scion Jack Schlossberg.
South Carolina: Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Attorney General Alan Wilson are vying for the Republican nomination for governor, and President Donald Trump said on Friday that either contender would be a good pick despite initially endorsing Evette earlier this month.
Utah: Voters will nominate congressional candidates using a new map that created a Democratic-friendly district in Salt Lake City.
Here's the latest:
Voter says military experience helped tip the scales for Wilson in South Carolina governor’s race
Alan Wilson has served in the South Carolina Army National Guard for 30 years, including a deployment to Iraq. That service, coupled with his 15 years as attorney general, made him John Potter’s pick in the GOP runoff.
“It seems like he’s been doing a good job, as far as I know,” Potter said Tuesday after casting his ballot in Elgin.
As for his other possible choice, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, Potter said she had campaigned as wanting to be a change agent, despite having served in the state’s No. 2 job for nearly eight years.
“They could have made some changes — fixed the roads, lowered taxes — and why haven’t they done it previously?” he asked about Evette.
Mamdani’s endorsement looms large in New York’s 7th District
Jenna Staub, a 31-year-old Brooklyn resident, only learned that Claire Valdez was running for Congress after bumping into the state assemblymember on the campaign trail with Mayor Zohran Mamdani last week.
“I was a little bit celebrity star-struck,” Staub said of Mamdani. “But I didn’t want to make an impulsive decision.”
After researching the other candidates, Staub said Valdez’s anti-corporate views aligned closest with her own, earning her vote on Tuesday.
Anton Ljunggren, 46, was similarly swayed by Valdez’s endorsement from Mamdani, along with her support from Sen. Bernie Sanders. “I know I should do the research, but I trust them,” said Ljunggren, who works in sustainability. “What do I know that they don’t?”
Meanwhile, Brian Cleary, a self-described liberal Democrat, said Mamdani’s backing of Valdez was a “big push” behind his decision to vote for her opponent, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
“I’m not just going to follow the current winds,” said Cleary, 56. “I feel like I’m still adjusting to all of these progressive policies.”
This Republican supports Cox for Maryland governor
Jason Mangen, a lifelong Republican, said he was supporting Dan Cox in what would be a rematch against incumbent Gov. Wes Moore.
“Maryland’s got a big budget problem,” he said. “You look at the economy and hopefully get a governor who can guide the legislature and get a good budget. I think Dan Cox is good on the budget.”
Mangen, 60, said being a Republican in the heavily Democratic state often means coming up short.
“I live in Maryland, so I know what that means. That’s the nature of living here,” he said. “But I choose to live in Maryland.”
A Mamdani-backed challenger faces off against a veteran congressman in a Manhattan Democratic primary
U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat faces a primary challenge from community organizer and graduate student Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist endorsed by the city’s popular mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
The race has become a contest over age, experience and how to best confront the Trump administration in Washington.
Avila Chevalier was a college protestor at her alma mater, Columbia University, which is in the district. She says her candidacy is about electing new leadership to Washington and has called for greater economic support for the district’s working class residents.
Espaillat is the first formerly undocumented person elected to Congress, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and an outspoken critic of the White House’s immigration enforcement tactics. He has warned that Avila Chevalier is a candidate of transplants to the district’s historic neighborhoods like Harlem.
Wilson’s ‘law and order’ stance wins over South Carolina voter
Pam Helton, who also said she supported Wilson in South Carolina’s gubernatorial primary two weeks ago, said it was the longtime attorney general’s approach to “law and order” that made him her choice in Tuesday’s runoff.
Wilson’s campaign platform includes criminal justice reforms like ending cashless bail and creating stricter mandatory minimum sentences for child sexual abuse material.
After voting at a precinct in Elgin, Helton said she didn’t really know much about Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who has been elected twice on a ticket with Gov. Henry McMaster but never run atop her own campaign before this year’s elections.
“The other lady, I haven’t really seen anything about her,” Helton said. “I don’t know what she has done. I just like Alan Wilson.”
This Maryland Democrat voted against the favorites
Norma James, 64, said she was initially excited to vote for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the state’s first Black governor, but public sentiment and research have changed that.
“The taxes have gone up,” and other questions about his honesty have come up, she said. “Public sentiment that I’ve found is he hasn’t fulfilled his promises. I did end up voting for Eric Felber.”
James said she was glad to see the 5th District seat open for the first time in decades, but she had questions about the candidate with the highest profile, Adrian Boafo. She went with Rushern L. Baker III, a two-term county executive.
James said she braved the weather because of those races and the sacrifices that people made for voting rights that are under attack. “I read that only one in four residents in Prince George’s vote. That’s appalling.”
Who will replace the longest-serving Democrat in the US House?
Rep. Steny Hoyer is a congressman. But he’s also a Democratic institution.
The lawmaker has served in Maryland’s 5th District for 45 years, including two decades spent as the party’s No. 2 in the chamber.
Now that he's retiring, voters will have a chance to reflect on his leadership — and decide what they want for the future.
The candidate field offers a wide range of options, from one of his former staffers to a progressive attorney and a former Capitol police officer. The winner could offer a clue into what the state’s Democrats want the next generation of their party to look like.
Voter picked Stumbo for South Carolina attorney general ‘because I just liked his name’
That’s what Elgin voter John Potter said about casting his ballot for 8th Circuit Solicitor David Stumbo in the GOP runoff for South Carolina’s top prosecutor job.
Voter Lynn Strickland said she picked Stumbo, too: “I don’t know much about him, but I like him.”
Pam Helton said she sided with Stumbo’s opponent, state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, but noted, “I really don’t even know him.”
The attorney general’s race is one of three statewide GOP runoffs up for grabs Tuesday. Current Attorney General Alan Wilson is in a Republican runoff for governor.
What to know about New York’s voting-eligible population
New York is racially and ethnically diverse with higher educational attainment than the U.S. as a whole. Black, Hispanic and Asian people make up a higher percentage of the voting age population than the country overall.
The Empire State leans left, voting for Kamala Harris in 2024 by an almost 13-point margin, but U.S. House primary contests in the state often indicate the direction of each party.
In New York City, all eyes are on several Democratic congressional primaries, many of which pit incumbents and establishment candidates against the party's progressive wing.
While there are a few contested Republican primaries in the state, the 21st Congressional District is one to watch. State Assemblyman Robert Smullen, popular among local party officials, is running against Trump-backed business owner Anthony Constantino.
Trump says his call to US attorney in California swung primary vote for Hilton
Repeating his baseless claim that the California primary was rigged, Trump on Tuesday suggested that it was his call that got Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton a spot on the November ballot.
“Had I not made that call, Steve Hilton would right now be looking and watching the election from home,” Trump said at an event in Pennsylvania.
Trump said he made the call as California’s votes were being counted and it appeared Hilton might fall short. He said the U.S. attorney then made a call to “check” on the votes. About an hour later, Hilton was declared a winner, Trump said.
It took nearly a week to determine the general election matchup for governor due to California’s notoriously slow vote-counting process. Hilton edged out Democrat Tom Steyer.
Trump had previously suggested without evidence that his pressure helped swing the race for Hilton, but he had not mentioned the call.
A NY congressional primary pits progressives against Mamdani
When Mayor Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic nomination a year ago, New York Attorney General Letitia James was among the first to speak at his victory party.
But on Tuesday, James stood outside a poll site in Brooklyn with another candidate, Antonio Reynoso, urging voters not to cast their ballot for Mamdani’s preferred pick in New York’s 7th Congressional District, Claire Valdez.
Reynoso, a longtime city official currently serving as Brooklyn’s borough president, maintains support from a broad coalition of progressive groups, which have at times sparred with Valdez’s most vocal backers — the Democratic Socialists of America.
Rob Solano, a Reynoso supporter and self-described friend of DSA, said he was looking forward to the end of a race he called “unexpectedly tense.”
“We’re friends, and we’ll still be friends after this,” added Solano, who is the executive director of Churches United for Fair Housing Action. “But it’s like when one of your friends is hooking up with someone you don’t like. What can you do?”
Maryland voter unswayed by Hoyer’s endorsement
Michelle Green, 59, said she voted for Quincy Bareebe in the Democratic primary to replace Hoyer.
“I just love what she is doing in the community,” she said of the home healthcare professional.
A registered nurse, Green said Hoyer’s endorsement of Boafo did not hold sway.
“I just figured that they were all in the same bed together,” she said.
Green said she had only seen Boafo’s ads, while she had seen Bareebe in the community.
“I trust her,” she said.
Utah Democrat Nate Blouin hopes to rebound from social media controversy
The state senator is vying to represent a new, Democratic-leaning U.S. House district in the Salt Lake City area.
Blouin, a progressive firebrand in the GOP-controlled Legislature, faces two other progressives and former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams, who is viewed as a moderate, in the Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District.
He apologized in April for several posts he had made on internet forums between 2009 and 2015 that denigrated women and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Utah-based faith known widely as the Mormon church.
Before the posts surfaced, Blouin was viewed as a top contender to challenge McAdams for the seat. Some of the party’s progressive wing has since shifted its support to political newcomer Liban Mohamed, a former Meta and TikTok employee.
A fractured vote among progressives could help McAdams emerge as the winner and move on to the November general election.
Democrats are expected to pick up a US House seat in an unlikely place: Utah
A heavily Democratic-leaning district anchored by Salt Lake City emerged from a lengthy legal battle over the previous congressional boundaries. It could be crucial for Democrats, who need to gain only a few U.S. House seats in November to take control of the narrowly divided chamber.
That means Democratic voters are deciding Tuesday who they will likely end up sending to Washington.
Former U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams, who is viewed as a moderate, faces three opponents to his political left. Progressives could split the vote, clearing a path for McAdams to return to Congress, or rally behind state Sen. Nate Blouin, Liban Mohamed or Michael Farrell.
Voter turnout in New York’s Lower East Side seems sparse despite Mamdani’s appearance
Several dozen people greeted Mayor Mamdani and congressional candidate Lander, both Democrats, outside a Lower East Side voting site, but not many of them were voting or expressing an intention to do so.
The voting site seemed sparsely attended, with a voter emerging every few minutes. One man came out of the building where voting was taking place, grumbling that the election had forced the cancellation of a program that provides lunches for older adults.
Long after the mayor had left after posing for pictures with local residents, Lander recorded a promotional video in which he pleaded for people to cast their votes, “and then you gotta text your friends and ask them to get out and vote.”
“We’re going to be calling people, knocking on doors, texting people all day long,” he said.
Mamdani shows up with Lander
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stopped Tuesday morning outside a polling site on the Lower East Side for an appearance with congressional candidate Brad Lander, a fellow Democrat, calling candidacies like his “a referendum on whether the kind of leadership we have is the one that is serving the people of this city.”
“It’s not just a question of electing more Democrats. It’s a question of electing better Democrats,” the mayor said.
He said it was important that the candidates put “working people back at the heart of our politics” and champion freedom from fear and freedom of worship.
“It’s time to bring some of those notions back so that working people can look at this party and see themselves, see their struggles, see their focuses,” Mamdani said.
Wilson has run for governor as South Carolina’s top cop
Serving as attorney general since 2011, Alan Wilson has for years developed relationships with law enforcement officials across the state as they’ve built and prosecuted cases together.
Many of them returned the favor as Wilson launched his gubernatorial campaign, endorsing his candidacy.
Since advancing to the runoff, Wilson has also been endorsed by three fellow Republicans who didn’t make the cut: state Sen. Josh Kimbrell, and U.S. Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace.
He’s also gotten backing from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who called the prosecutor “a proven conservative fighter who has spent years defending the Constitution.” Cruz came to South Carolina on Monday for three campaign events with Wilson.
In an uphill battle to unseat Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland Republicans will choose their fighter
Maryland’s first-term Democratic governor, Wes Moore, has been a rising star in the party.
On Tuesday, Republican voters hoping to return the state to GOP leadership will pick a candidate they think can unseat him.
Their choices include a variety of party representatives, from ultra-moderate to diehard conservative.
Among the most closely-watched contenders is Dan Cox, an attorney and former state delegate who unsuccessfully ran for governor four years ago. Cox has a photo of himself with Trump on his law practice's website, and he has pledged to slash taxes and beef up housing affordability programs if elected.
Incumbent who led Trump impeachment vs. Mamdani-backed challenger in NY Democratic primary
Rep. Dan Goldman is up against former New York City comptroller Brad Lander, who has the backing of Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in the 10th District.
Goldman is seeking his third term in the heavily Democratic district that includes parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The primary pits Goldman, a former federal prosecutor who was lead counsel in Trump’s first impeachment, against Lander, a longtime progressive who has Mamdani’s and Sen. Bernie Sanders’ support.
Lander was acquitted this month on charges related to a protest inside a building housing an immigration court and has pledged to push back against the Trump administration, promising to “fight, not fold.”
The Republican primary pitting a Trump disciple against the establishment GOP
How far can devotion to Trump take a politician? Anthony Constantino is betting it’ll get him to Congress.
Constantino, a “Make America Great Again” disciple backed by Trump, is facing off against conservative state lawmaker Robert Smullen in a Republican primary Tuesday for a seat in New York’s northern reaches.
The head of the custom sticker business Sticker Mule, Constantino is best known for his shameless overtures to the president, including putting a giant “Vote for Trump” sign atop one of his company buildings.
Meanwhile, Smullen, a former U.S. Marine Corps colonel and current state Assembly member, has heavy support from state Republicans and casts himself as a steady hand ready for the House.
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