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

538 tracked key House and Senate races, including a California special election.

November’s presidential matchup may be set, but Democrats and Republicans still need to decide who will run in hundreds of downballot races (e.g., for Senate and House) this fall. A batch of these contests were decided on Tuesday, March 19.

Tuesday was primary day in Ohio and Illinois, and in the biggest contest of the day, Republicans chose former President Donald Trump's endorsee Bernie Moreno as their candidate in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race. It was a good night for other Trump endorsees too, as Derek Merrin prevailed in the GOP primary for Ohio's 9th Congressional District, while incumbent Mike Bost is leading his challenger in Illinois's 12th District, as of early Wednesday morning. Plus, a special election in California could have immediate implications for House Republicans’ razor-thin majority.

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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Bost holding his own

In Illinois' 12th District, Bost is ahead of challenger Bailey by 10 percentage points, 55 to 45 percent, with 36 percent of the expected vote in. But there's still a lot of vote to be counted in the eastern part of the district, where Bailey is stronger.

—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections


An embattled county prosecutor in Ohio is hanging onto his seat

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, home to Cleveland, incumbent Prosecutor Michael O'Malley is fending off a strong challenger from the left, former public defender Matthew Ahn. O'Malley has been criticized for a string of wrongful convictions and death sentences, but currently leads Ahn 64 to 36 percent, with 20 percent of ballot scanners in the county reporting, according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

—Cooper Burton, 538


The curious case of Derek Myers

For those of you who aren't familiar with Derek Myers, the 31-year-old who accidentally sent out a concession statement several hours before polls closed, you're in for a real treat. The Cincinnati Enquirer recently wrote a pretty comprehensive expose into his past legal troubles, which is definitely worth reading (especially given that Myers has filed a libel suit against the paper).

Also worth reading is Myers' response to the reporters who wrote the article, which the Enquirer published in full and which included such gems as when Myers says he once told a deputy who pulled him over for speeding that he "was not trained enough to handle someone of Derek's caliber," and later tells the reporter, "you are playing in dangerous waters, my little friend."

If that's not enough for you, Myers previously made news last year for his brief stint working for embattled New York Rep. George Santos, who he accused of sexual harassment.

—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections


Final check-in on Democratic women

In Ohio's 15th District, Zerqa Abid, an anti-violence and anti-gang advocate in the Columbus area, is projected to lose her primary against former state Rep. Adam Miller, according to ABC News. Miller will face Republican incumbent Mike Carey in the fall. The district is fairly safely Republican, and Carey received Trump's endorsement when he first ran in an open special primary in 2021.

In all, 13 of the 17 Democratic women running tonight are projected to win their primaries, including nine incumbents.

—Monica Potts, 538


Democrats get their man in Ohio's GOP Senate primary

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