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

With 39 percent of the expected vote in, Merrin is slightly ahead in the 9th District with 45 percent of the vote so far, and Riedel is at 42 percent. As my colleagues chatted about earlier, the 9th may be one of the tests of Trump's strength when it comes to swaying voters in the primaries, at least. While his endorsement of Merrin came late in the game, part of the reason Merrin was recruited was because Riedel, the party's previous pick, had been caught being slightly critical of Trump. It's not just a question of whether Trump has remade the party in his image: It's also about whether it tolerates dissent.

—Monica Potts, 538

With incumbent Rep. Brad Wenstrup retiring from the dark red 2nd District in Ohio, the Republican primary tonight will almost certainly pick the seat's next representative. And with a crowded field of 11 candidates, the winner might even fall short of 30 percent because the vote is so fragmented. With 63 percent of the expected vote reporting, concrete business owner David Taylor leads with 26 percent, while restaurant franchisee Tim O'Hara and hiring agency operator Larry Kidd are running neck-and-neck for second place around 19 percent each. The good news for Taylor is that the places that have reported most of their expected vote are mostly the ones where he's performing worst. Moreover, he holds a big edge in Clermont County, which will probably have around 30 percent of the total primary vote. This race has been a tale of self-funders, as each of the leading three candidates put more than $1 million of their own personal funds into the contest.

—Geoffrey Skelley, 538

Democrats are likely to be pleased with the Moreno win in the GOP primary for Ohio's Senate seat tonight. Because of his ideological extremity and endorsement from Trump, most Democratic strategists and political prognosticators believe him to be a weaker general-election candidate than his competitors would have been. Indeed, Democrats even took out ads in favor of Moreno, trying to boost him to exactly this outcome.

This is not a completely baseless idea. After the 2022 midterms, I found that GOP primary candidates who were endorsed by Trump went on to lag the predictions for general-election Democratic by a vote margin of about 5 percentage points. That large of an effect could tip a close race in Ohio, so the expected vote calculus likely favors Democrats here.

But the political calculus is another matter. Democrats have been criticized in the past for endorsing Trump's chosen candidates as an electoral strategy on the grounds that it increases the likelihood of Washington passing Republican policies and pushing Trump's agenda. Given that the Senate is likely to go Republican in the fall, having Trump-endorsed Moreno in the halls of Congress may provide a higher ROI for Trump than having a Senator Dolan or LaRose. By pushing these ads, Democrats are betting the return on votes will outweigh the potential downside. That bet does not come without risk.

—G. Elliott Morris, 538

With 35 percent of the expected vote counted in the Republican presidential primary in Ohio, Nikki Haley looks to have won at least one county, according to the Associated Press. She leads 58-34 in Holmes County with over 95 percent of the expected vote counted. Notably, Holmes County has the largest Amish population in the country, with 48 percent of county residents identifying as Amish, per the U.S. Census.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538