What Went Down During The May 17 Primary Elections

In the GOP primary for North Carolina’s 1st District, the battle of the Sandys is as close as ever: Sandy Smith is at 34.5 percent and Sandy Roberson is at 27.3 percent, with 29 percent of votes reporting. Roberson’s stance on the Big Lie has been ambiguous — he told a local paper he believes in “strengthening election integrity,” and that: “Election fraud is something that’s very hard to prove after the fact, so the best course of action is to make sure our elections are secure moving forward.” Smith, however, has been much clearer about her position. She continues to claim that Trump won the 2020 election and even attended the rally on Jan. 6 that preceded the attack on the Capitol:

That hashtag refers to a thoroughly debunked “documentary” made by Dinesh D’Souza that claims “mules” were used to stuff the ballot boxes.

There’s no official call from ABC or the AP, but state Sen. Don Davis is declaring victory in the Democratic primary for North Carolina’s 1st District, per a press release his campaign just sent out. He leads former state Sen. Erica Smith, 65.9 to 29.3 percent, with 65 percent of the vote counted.

Hines only needs to get above 30 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff, and so far, he’s scraping by at 32.5 percent. That’s better than Cawthorn in North Carolina’s 11th District — so far, Edwards is leading him with 38 percent of the vote, meaning Edwards could win the Republican primary outright. Trump’s preferred candidates in Pennsylvania aren’t doing so well, either. With just early or mail votes counted, Mastriano is in fifth place with just 12 percent of the vote, despite having a comfortable, double-digit lead in the polls. And Oz is in second place in his Senate race, below former Bridgewater CEO Dave McCormick. So far, it’s a mixed record for Trump. He’s notched nine other wins tonight, all incumbent Republicans, but several of his candidates appear to be struggling in contested races.