Key events
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Summary
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Millions of voters across the country headed to the polls today in crucial primaries in a slew of key gubernatorial, Senate and House races in six states: New Jersey, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico and California.
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Although California’s gubernatorial primary is too close to call, some candidates have begun issuing statements acknowledging they won’t be moving on to the state’s general election. San Jose mayor Matt Mahan, former congresswoman Katie Porter and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa acknowledged they will not be moving forward in the race. Steve Hilton, Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer lead the race for two nominations that will advance to November’s general election. California’s primary elections, including its fiercely fought gubernatorial contest, are at the mercy of a notoriously slow vote-counting system – meaning it could be days or even weeks before the outcomes of the tightest races become clear.
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Karen Bass came out ahead in Tuesday’s heated primary for Los Angeles mayor, but with less than 50% of the vote will have to defend her seat in November’s general election. She’ll likely run against either Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star, or city council member Nithya Raman.
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Iowa state representative Josh Turek won the Democratic nomination for the state’s open US Senate seat – setting him up to face off against Ashley Hinson in the November general election. A former television anchor turned state senator, Hinson was endorsed by Donald Trump and retiring senator Joni Ernst.
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Adam Hamawy won the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, teeing the army doctor and political newcomer up to face off against Republican Gregg Mele in November’s general election. Hamawy decided to run for office after returning from a medical mission in Gaza in 2024 and meeting congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, who announced her retirement in November 2025.
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Deb Haaland won the Democratic nomination for governor in New Mexico. If elected in the November general election, Haaland would become the first Native American woman governor elected in the country.
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Christina Bohannan won the Democratic nomination for Iowa’s 1st congressional district. She will compete against incumbent Republican congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the November general election
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Zach Lahn narrowly won the Republican nomination for governor, and will face off against Democrat Rob Sand in Iowa’s general election this November. Five Republicans competed for the nomination to replace retiring Republican governor Kim Reynolds.
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Former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Benett won the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s 7th congressional district, and will challenge Republican congressman Tom Kean Jr. in the general election. Kean, who’s been absent from Congress, citing a health issue, since March shared a statement on social media saying he’s “more energized than ever” and will “be completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition” when he returns to work in “a matter of weeks”.
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As Americans went to the polls, Donald Trump congratulated and endorsed his preferred candidates across the country – and abroad. A day after voters in Colombia cast their ballots for president, nominating right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist senator Iván Cepeda, who will advance to a runoff election later this month, Trump endorsed de la Espriella.
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Alabama can use a redrawn congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts in this year’s midterm elections, the US supreme court ruled in a 6-3 decision today. The court’s emergency ruling is the most consequential decision it had issued since its landmark ruling in late April that struck down a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act.
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Scott Wiener has advanced in his bid to fill the seat Nancy Pelosi will vacate at the end of her term. Wiener has secured more votes than Democratic rival Connie Chan, a San Francisco supervisor, who Pelosi had endorsed.
The high-stakes gubernatorial race in California remains too close to call, with early results showing a tight contest in the crowded race.
My colleague Lauren Gambino reports:
With many ballots still left to be counted, three candidates emerged at the top: Republican Steve Hilton and Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer. And results were clear enough that two Democratic candidates – San Jose mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa – conceded the race shortly after polls closed.
Still, much could change in the days and weeks ahead. In California, where mail-in voting is popular and great pains are taken to verify each ballot, it could take days for the top two candidates in both races to become clear. And many Democrats strategically held on to their ballots until the last minute, further delaying vote counts across the state.
In a video message, former congresswoman Katie Porter conceded her bid for California governor.
“Running a race like this isn’t easy, and coming up short is hard, but democracy is worth doing hard things for,” she said.
Although it’s still too soon to say which candidates will head to the runoff election in California’s governor’s race, Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra are giving optimistic addresses at their election night parties.
Thanking Donald Trump for his endorsement during a speech in Orange County, Hilton said his chances are “looking good” and added “We’ve got everything we need for this state to be amazing again.”
In an address to supporters Becerra shared his personal story as the child of immigrants and said he wants to lead a state that “regularly makes the improbable seem inevitable.” Once an underdog in the race, Becerra is now polling among the leading three contenders for two spots in November’s general election.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass will advance to the November runoff; her opponent is TBD
LA mayor Karen Bass will advance to the November runoff in her bid for reelection.
Bass will likely run against either progressive city council member Nithya Raman or reality TV star Spencer Pratt.
My colleague Uwa Ede-Osifo has the full story:
California’s primary elections, including its fiercely fought gubernatorial contest, are at the mercy of a notoriously slow vote-counting system – meaning it could be days or even weeks before the outcomes of the tightest races become clear.
As my colleague Andrew Gumbel reports:
Voting experts expect the state’s 58 county elections offices to be deluged with last-minute absentee ballots, as they have been in the last few election cycles, and spend weeks undertaking a painstaking ballot-by-ballot verification process.
That presents a procedural problem whenever races are close, as they tend to be in the state’s most competitive congressional districts, and the whole country is left waiting – as it was in 2020, 2022 and 2024 – to find out which party controls the House of Representatives.
Congressman Ro Khanna has won his primary election in California by a wide margin.
In a social media post, Khanna said his nomination “showed that you can stand up to billionaires in the heart of Silicon Valley and prevail.”
Alongside Republican Tom Massie, Khanna led efforts to release the Epstein files this year and has backed efforts to introduce a wealth tax on billionaires.
At his election night party, billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer said “we’re going to wait until every ballot is counted.” Steyer is currently polling third in a tight race for California governor, trailing just behind Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra.
“California is the richest state in the richest country in the history of the world. It’s unacceptable that right now, so many Californians struggle to make ends meet,” Steyer said. “My vision for California is based on a simple idea: The wellbeing of the most vulnerable shouldn’t depend on corporations and billionaires choosing to do the right thing.”
Steyer’s campaign spent or booked more than $203m in ads, setting the record for both the costliest campaign this year and in California gubernatorial history.
Lahn to face Sand in Iowa governor’s race
Zach Lahn has narrowly won the Republican nomination for governor, and will face off against Rob Sand in Iowa’s general election this November.
Five Republicans competed for the nomination to replace retiring Republican governor Kim Reynolds. A farmer and businessman, Lahn campaign on an “Iowa First” agenda. The Associated Press called the race with Lahn receiving 37.8% of the vote to his rival Randy Feenstra’s 37%. Feenstra had been endorsed by Donald Trump.
Democrats are hoping to pull off a “once-in-a-generation” breakthrough in the GOP-dominated state with Trump’s approval ratings deep underwater, gas prices high and historical political trends favoring the party out of power. Pro-hunting state auditor Rob Sand is the face of that effort, and the last Democrat holding statewide-elected office in Iowa.
Lauren Gambino
Anticipating a long night of vote-counting ahead, incumbent LA mayor Karen Bass addressed supporters at the Lion Hotel in Koreatown.
Bass, who faces serious challenges from Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt, said she will spend the next four years addressing homelessness and building more housing units.
She described LA as a rebounding city, and vowed to build on the progress made over the last three and a half years. Invoking the “dark day” a year ago when Donald Trump sent immigration troops into the city, Bass declared: “We are a city that is unified.”
The strength of her challengers would suggest voters in LA are not as unified around their choice for mayor as she would have hoped.
Greg Hull, the former mayor of Rio Rancho, has won the Republican nomination for New Mexico’s governor’s seat.
“This fall, we will face Deb Haaland in the general election and we’re going to win,” Hull said. “And I respect that she has served in various positions over her career, but New Mexico families are hurting, and the policies of the last eight years under one-party control of this state have failed.” New Mexico has long reported among the highest poverty rates in the nation.
Hull is likely to face a challenging race for governor in the solidly blue state, where no Republican has won statewide office in 10 years.
Dani Anguiano
Republican James Gallagher won the special election in California’s first congressional district to complete the term of the representative Doug LaMalfa, who died unexpectedly in January.
Gallagher had a significant lead over his two Democratic competitors in the deeply red region and will serve until the end of the year.
“This is for Doug,” Gallagher told a room full of supporters at an election night event in Chico.
It was the last race to be held under the current boundaries. California’s Proposition 50 redrew this district to give Democrats an advantage and made it a competitive for the first time in almost half a century.
Trump set off a wave of new mid-decade redistricting after urging Texas to adopt changes to favor Republicansduring the midterm elections.
Results indicated Gallagher, who was endorsed by Trump, won the special election decisively with 60% of votes and almost 70% of precincts reporting.
Gallagher was also on track to advance to the general election for a congressional term beginning in January. He’ll face a tough battle against Democrat Mike McGuire with the district having a solidly blue advantage.
“We’re gonna shock the world and win this district,” Gallagher said.
