What Went Down During The May 17 Primary Elections

With around one-third of the vote reported in the GOP primary in North Carolina’s 1st District, 2020 nominee Sandy Smith is running slightly ahead of Rocky Mount Mayor Sandy Roberson. That’s not great for Republicans, because Smith has some serious personal baggage. In the closing weeks of the campaign, a GOP Super PAC affiliated with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy dropped a half-million dollars of negative advertising on Smith, highlighting past bankruptcies and accusations of domestic violence. If Smith wins, this is one race that could move in Democrats’ favor.

Latest count in North Carolina’s 1st District GOP primary

Results of the Republican primary for North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, as of 8:33 p.m. Eastern

Candidate	Votes	Vote %
Sandy Smith	7,545	33.4
Sandy Roberson	6,219	27.5
Billy Strickland	2,835	12.6
Brent Roberson	2,676	11.8
Brad Murphy	2,244	9.9
Will Aiken	659	2.9
Ernest Reeves	295	1.3
Henry Williams II	113	0.5

Kentucky had a 90-minute head start on North Carolina, and yet still only 8 percent of the expected vote is reporting in Kentucky’s 3rd District. (Meanwhile, several North Carolina races have already been called.) In that safely blue Louisville district, McGarvey is leading Scott 66 percent to 34 percent, which, if it holds, would be a win for the Democratic establishment.

These two maps of Philadelphia — one from the City Commissioners showing the Democratic Senate primary vote so far, the other from Social Explorer showing the share of Black residents in each census tract — illustrate that Malcom Kenyatta is running strong in Philadelphia’s Black neighborhoods. Even with Fetterman’s strength statewide, his performance in Black communities is a key question given a 2013 incident in which he pulled a shotgun on a Black jogger — and the potential for that to be part of GOP attacks in the run-up to November.