Tonight is another jam-packed primary night with eight states voting: Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oklahoma and Utah are all hosting primaries while Mississippi and South Carolina hold runoff elections and Nebraska hosts a slightly unusual special election.
This is one of those rare primary nights where Trump’s influence isn’t necessarily the most important storyline. As Zoha will explain in greater detail, Trump has endorsed just six candidates tonight, five of whom are incumbents. Instead, one of tonight’s more interesting dynamics is the extent to which Democrats have meddled in GOP races, elevating more extreme Republican candidates in the hopes that they’ll be easier to defeat in the general election. The question for Democrats is, of course, will this strategy pay off? Or does it risk backfiring?
At least in the GOP Illinois gubernatorial primary, it looks like state Sen. Darren Bailey, Democrats’ preferred Republican candidate, will prevail. Bailey has Trump’s endorsement and leads in the polls. Given Illinois’s blue hue, it might be more difficult for the conservative Bailey to win the governorship, but it’s also possible Democrats might later regret their decision to have backed Bailey to the extent they did.
It’s less clear how Democrats’ strategy will pan out in Colorado, as neither state Rep. Ron Hanks nor businessman Greg Lopez has emerged as the favorite in their respective bids for the U.S. Senate and Colorado’s governorship. But, as Nathaniel will detail tonight, the most notable aspect of Colorado’s election might be how many Republicans who endorse the “Big Lie,” the false belief that the 2020 election was stolen, prevail in their races. Most notably on this front, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, whom state courts banned from managing the elections in her home county because of her alleged tampering with election security, could win Colorado’s secretary of state race.
Not all the action tonight is on the GOP side, though. There are a number of key Democratic primaries to watch in Illinois — including several progressive-versus-moderate matchups; an incumbent-versus-incumbent showdown; and multiple chances for a new female, nonwhite or LGBT candidates to be elected to Congress.
OK! That’s it from me. This live blog actually marks our last one for a while — sorry Maryland but we won’t be live blogging your primary in July. We will, however, have a preview of the key primaries there, and of course, be back in August live blogging the primaries when a number of key states got to the polls, including Arizona, Wisconsin and Florida. As always, thanks for following along, and if you have any questions, ping us @538politics and I’ll try to get your question answered on the live blog!