Georgia, Oregon, Idaho and Kentucky primaries 2024: Willis, McAfee win; tough night for progressives

Abortion didn’t help liberals flip a Georgia Supreme Court seat.

On May 21, voters in Georgia, Idaho, Oregon, Kentucky and California held key elections for Congress and nationally watched local races. Two key figures from one of Trump’s legal cases, Fani Willis and Scott McAfee, easily won their races, while conservatives won a Georgia Supreme Court election fought largely over abortion. In the House, progressives lost two key races in Oregon, while California voters picked a successor to Kevin McCarthy.

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.


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I guess we’ll never know …

Interesting, guys. Yeah, the multiple variables at play in Oregon make it hard to say whether Oregon Democrats were consciously pushing back against progressives or if the big spending just overwhelmed everything else.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


Money talks?

Ultimately, in congressional primaries, if you are getting absolutely swamped by your opponent with advertising — both negative and positive, unlike in some other recent primaries with spending disparities — you're going to have a hard time. Susheela Jayapal was up against $5.7 million in pro-Dexter spending and could only marshal a few hundred thousand dollars of advertising. McLeod-Skinner faced $5.7 million of outside spending hitting her and boosting Bynum and only aired about $200,000 worth of advertisements. In an expensive media market, that makes it tough to get your message out, let alone respond effectively to attacks.

—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections


Progressives might be especially disadvantaged in Oregon

That's interesting, Meredith, but I also think that Portland-area voters are a little frustrated with the progressive movement, particularly in the wake of the debacle with decriminalizing drugs that the legislature recently rolled back. There may be some local dynamics that really matter in Oregon, but aren't as influential elsewhere in the country, that are holding progressive candidates back — as you can see in my previous post about polling in the area regarding homelessness and crime. Both the 5th and 3rd districts are in the Portland area, so progressives there may be suffering some blowback from these issues.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538


Is progressive influence waning?

That's a good question, Nathaniel. It could be that big spending wins primaries. Another takeaway could be that progressive candidates are losing steam. In the 3rd and the 5th, the candidates more aligned with the progressive wing ended up losing (Jayapal and McLeod-Skinner). But I don't think that's the take away. I think it's more so a consequence of progressive's effective movement. Voters had their pick of several progressive candidates in those races, and yes, the candidates who spent more prevailed.

—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor


Georgia voters split on issue priorities by partisanship — except on the economy

Like voters across the country, Georgia voters name "the economy (jobs, inflation, taxes)" as the most important issue facing the state, according to an April survey from Emerson College/The Hill/Nexstar. Thirty-five percent of registered Georgia voters selected the economy as the most important issue from a list provided by the pollster, including 28 percent of Democrats, 41 percent of Republicans, and 34 percent of independents, making it the top issue for all three groups.

After that, though, the groups diverged: 19 percent of Republicans selected immigration as the most important issue facing Georgia, while less than 1 percent of Democrats agreed. The second most chosen issue among Democrats in Georgia was healthcare, with 20 percent of registered Democrats saying it was the most important issue — unlike other states we've looked at so far this primary season, where threats to democracy and abortion access tended to be top issues for Democrats. Georgia Democrats do care about abortion as well: "abortion access" was the third most selected response among registered Democrats, with 12 percent selecting it, compared to just 2 percent of Republicans.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538