Happy primary day, Hoosiers! Indiana is easily forgotten on the primary calendar, sandwiched as it is between sexier states like Pennsylvania and Maryland (don't look at me like that — have you seen that flag?). But if you care about how well Congress functions, you'll want to pay attention to today's primaries, even if you don't watch "Stranger Things" and "Parks and Rec" on repeat.

As my colleagues recently so beautifully illustrated, there are several parties within the parties in Congress. On the Republican side, there are pragmatists who fall in line with party leadership — and then there are obstructionists who tend to make life harder for them.

This year, there are three open House seats in Indiana that could send either type of representative to Congress. And because these seats are safely Republican, today's contests, not November's, will effectively determine that. Elsewhere in the state, Rep. Victoria Spartz — the Hamlet from Hamilton County — could be the second incumbent representative of the cycle to lose reelection, and GOP primary voters will also choose who will likely become the next chief executive of this state of nearly 7 million people. So yeah, the stakes are high!

We won't have to wait long to find out the winners: Polls close in most of Indiana (the parts in the Eastern time zone) at 6 p.m. Eastern, with the parts of the state in the Central time zone following suit at 7 p.m. Eastern. Follow along with us for the next few hours, won't you?

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538

OK, after an action-packed night of Republican primaries, we’re calling it a night on here! It was a good night for embattled incumbents, establishment-backed pragmatists and supporters of Israel. Here’s a rundown of who won all the major Indiana races:

- Sen. Mike Braun walked into the Republican primary for governor as the favorite, and he walked away with the victory, despite his opponents’ strong fundraising and attacks against him. The truth is, though, there weren’t huge differences between the candidates on most issues.

- The closest race of the night was the GOP primary for Indiana’s 3rd District. ABC News is not yet reporting a projection in that race, but other outlets (such as the AP) have called it for former Rep. Marlin Stutzman. The conservative hardliner beat out several other candidates, including more moderate former Judge Wendy Davis and businessman Tim Smith.

- The one incumbent under threat tonight was Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz in the 5th District, but Spartz held off state Rep. Chuck Goodrich in her primary. Spartz had waffled on whether she’d run for reelection, having originally said in February 2023 that she wouldn’t seek another term. But this past February, she decided just before the filing deadline to run again, and she overcame Goodrich’s sizable financial edge to win renomination.

- In Indiana’s 6th District, wealthy storage company owner Jefferson Shreve outpaced a crowded Republican field. Aided by millions in self-funding and residual name ID from his recent and expensive run for Mayor of Indianapolis, the moderate Shreve outpaced more conservative candidates Mike Speedy and Jamison Carrier. He’ll be a shoo-in in the fall to replace retiring GOP Rep. Greg Pence.

- State Sen. Mark Messmer won a comfortable victory over a crowded GOP field in Indiana’s 8th District. The race attracted some national attention because a pro-Israel super PAC pumped seven figures into defeating another GOP candidate, former Rep. John Hostettler, who often voted against aid to Israel when he represented the area in the 1990s and 2000s. Messmer ultimately outpaced Hostettler by 20 percentage points and will be heavily favored in the general election this fall.

—Monica Potts, Nathaniel Rakich and Geoffrey Skelley, 538, and Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections

CORRECTION (May 8, 2024, 11:12 a.m.): A previous version of this blog entry misidentified Indiana 6th District Republican primary candidate Jamison Carrier as Jamison Crowder.