Illinois and Ohio primaries 2024: Trump-backed Senate candidate wins Ohio primary

The first votes for Ohio's 9th Congressional District are rolling in, and with 13 percent of the expected vote reporting, Merrin is slightly ahead with 46 percent of the vote, while Riedel is second with 39 percent, and Lankeneau is a distant third (14 percent). As Nathaniel wrote earlier, Merrin was a late addition to the contentious race after audio leaked of Riedel calling Trump "arrogant." And as I wrote earlier, Merrin is no stranger to intra-Republican battles.

—Monica Potts, 538

As we wait for the first results to trickle in, let's take a look at the issues voters are thinking about in the state. Among likely primary voters in Ohio, Republicans are much more concerned about immigration than Democrats, according to a poll released last week by Emerson College/The Hill/Nexstar. Specifically, given a list of options, 27 percent of voters who said they were very likely to vote in the Republican primary selected "immigration" as the most important issue facing Ohio, while only 2 percent of very likely Democratic primary voters said the same.

Republican primary voters were also more likely than Democratic primary voters to name "the economy (jobs, inflation, taxes)" as the most important issue facing the state, 39 percent to 27 percent. On the flip side, likely Democratic primary voters were more likely than Republicans to select "abortion access," 15 percent to 3 percent, and "threats to democracy," 18 percent to 7 percent.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538

Polls have now closed across Ohio. The Buckeye State usually counts its early and mail votes first, so expect to see some large vote dumps right off the bat. A word of caution, though: Early and absentee votes are not necessarily representative of the electorate as a whole. We'll want to wait to get more Election Day votes in before drawing any concrete conclusions.

—Cooper Burton, 538

Rounding out our key House races in Ohio as polls close at 7:30, the Republican primary has been pretty uneventful in another Ohio swing seat: the 13th District, which Biden would have carried by 3 percentage points in 2020. Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes will likely face either former state Sen. Kevin Coughlin or Hudson City Councilor Chris Banweg in November. Not much distinguishes the two, though: They both support Trump and share the same conservative positions on abortion, immigration, guns and more. And they both have raised only modest amounts of money: $332,000 for Coughlin, $280,000 for Banweg. Sykes, by contrast, has pulled in $1.9 million for her reelection bid so far.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538