Democrats nearly won a safely Republican congressional seat.
June 11 was another packed primary day, as voters in South Carolina, Maine, North Dakota and Nevada weighed in on who will make the ballot this fall. We had our eyes on a slew of Republican primaries on Tuesday, including several competitive contests for U.S. House seats, as well as contests to pick Nevada's GOP Senate nominee and effectively pick the next governor of North Dakota.
In South Carolina, Rep. Nancy Mace's Trumpian pivot didn't cost her, as she handily fended off an establishment-aligned primary challenger. Fellow incumbent Rep. William Timmons, who was looking vulnerable after an infidelity scandal, also came out ahead in a closer race against his right-wing challenger. In North Dakota's At-Large Congressional District, Julie Fedorchak became the first non-incumbent woman this cycle to win a GOP primary for a safely red seat. In Nevada, Republican voters chose Sam Brown as their candidate to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen this fall.
Finally, a special election is set to give House Republicans one more seat of breathing room, as voters in Ohio's 6th District filled the seat vacated by Rep. Bill Johnson's departure in January — though not without some unexpected suspense.
As usual, 538 reporters and contributors broke down the election results as they came in with live updates, analysis and commentary. Read our full live blog below.
It's 10 p.m. Eastern, and polls are now closed in the Silver State, our last primary state of the evening. Nevada law says that the state can't report results until the last voter in line has voted, so we may not see results right away. (But once we do, it will likely be a big chunk of the final tally.)
—Tia Yang, 538
In another race mostly situated in the Las Vegas area, Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford will be defending the blue-leaning 4th District, and the two principal GOP contenders are retired Air Force Lt. Col. David Flippo and former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee. Flippo has raised $927,000 to Lee's $851,000 — both candidates have self-funded more than half of their totals — but Lee may have the upper hand here, thanks to endorsements from Trump and Lombardo. However, Lee is a former Democrat who switched parties ahead of a failed bid for the Republican nomination for governor against Lombardo in 2022, which could weaken his appeal among primary voters.
—Geoffrey Skelley, 538
Nevada's 3rd District is a light-blue seat around Las Vegas held by three-term Democratic Rep. Susie Lee that will likely host the state's most competitive House race. The two most notable Republican contenders may be video game music composer Marty O'Donnell and former state Treasurer Dan Schwartz, although policy analyst and advocate Drew Johnson and former state Sen. Elizabeth Helgelien are also in the mix. O'Donnell has Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo's endorsement, and he'd raised $541,000 as of May 22 ($500,000 out of his own pocket). That was less than the $922,000 Schwartz had raised ($900,000 in self-funding). But on May 24, O'Donnell gave himself an additional $700,000, meaning he's likely outdistanced Schwartz's total. Meanwhile, Johnson has raised $432,000 ($300,000 self-funded) and Helgelien has raised $282,000.
Interestingly, O'Donnell has said he won't accept money from corporate political action committees, a line we more typically hear from Democrats. This may help explain why Johnson has called O'Donnell a "Seattle liberal." Meanwhile, Schwartz has cast himself as the candidate who will "drain the swamp," but his post-treasurer electoral track record isn't inspiring: He lost GOP primaries for governor in 2018, U.S. House in 2020 and lieutenant governor in 2022. Helgelien left the state legislature in 2012, but she does have endorsements from Trump acolytes like Roger Stone and hard-right Republican Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida.
—Geoffrey Skelley, 538
Trump loves to toot his own horn when it comes to his track record on endorsing winning candidates, and he'll be pleased with tonight's showing so far. Of the nine races where he has endorsed a candidate and we currently have results, Trump's picks have won six, are leading in two and are going to a runoff in one district, with his endorsee projected to finish in the top two. However, two of those six winning races were uncontested and five are incumbents (four incumbents are projected to win and one is currently leading), which makes his knack for picking winners look less like a Midas touch and more like just common sense. Still, in some of the more competitive races tonight, like South Carolina's 3rd District, which is going to a runoff, Trump's pick has performed well, so it's not all just obvious choices.
—Kaleigh Rogers, 538
