Georgia, Oregon, Idaho and Kentucky primaries 2024: Tough night for progressives

Tonight, Kaleigh's been updating us on state legislative races in Georgia. There's a misconception that female representation is markedly better in lower level offices, like state legislatures. It's a bit better, but not much. Women currently make up 28 percent of the U.S. Congress, and just 33 percent of state legislatures, nationwide. That number varies state to state, and some states we're watching today are below that average, while others are above: Idaho's state legislature is 30 percent women, Kentucky's 31 percent, Georgia's 35 percent, and Oregon's 41 percent (!), according to the Center for American Women and Politics.

—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor

Monica mentioned earlier that anti-abortion candidates in Georgia Republican primaries are doing fairly well, and I can't say I'm surprised. In an April survey by Morning Consult/Bloomberg, 70 percent of Georgia voters said that abortion would be "very important" or "somewhat important" to their vote for U.S. president, a bit less than the 76 percent of swing state voters overall. But when asked which presidential candidate they trust more to handle the issue of abortion, 41 percent said Biden and 37 percent said Trump, a narrower gap than we've seen in national polling that tends to favor Biden.

And of course, in a Republican primary the issue may be even less salient in the state. Just 37 percent of Republican voters in the state told the pollsters that the issue was very important, compared to 61 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of independents.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538

We’re up to 40 percent of the expected vote counted in the Republican primary for Georgia’s 3rd District, according to the AP, and Jack is up to 47 percent of the vote. If he can clear the majority threshold, he’ll avoid a June 18 runoff — and he’s trending in the right direction.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538

Last week, we saw a fair amount of protest voting against Biden in the Democratic presidential primary in West Virginia’s coal country — an ancestrally Democratic area that still has a lot of voters registered with the party, but they’re much more conservative nowadays. Well, the same thing is happening in Kentucky’s coal country just over the border: For example, in Pike County, Biden is beating “Uncommitted” just 44 percent to 36 percent. Statewide, Biden has just 71 percent of the vote, which would be among his worst showings in the nation.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538