What Went Down During The May 17 Primary Elections

Election fraud has been a major concern for Republicans, with about 20 percent citing it as one of the most important issues facing the country in our FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll.

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.