South Carolina, Nevada, North Dakota primaries and Ohio special election 2024: Nancy Mace, Sam Brown win

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.


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Fedorchak opens up an early lead in North Dakota

Only about 17 percent of the expected vote is in for North Dakota's At-Large Congressional District Republican primary, but the Trump- and Burgum-endorsed Fedorchak has opened up an early lead with about 44 percent of the vote so far, according to the AP compared to Becker's 31 percent. As Geoffrey noted in his race preview, a third candidate, Balasz, technically has the endorsement of the state GOP due to a rebellion by Becker supporters upset that he was ineligible for endorsement; Balasz only has about 5 percent of the vote so far.

—Monica Potts, 538


Ohio’s 6th is ancestrally Democratic

As Kyle Kondik of Sabato’s Crystal Ball points out on X, "No district in the entire country moved further toward the Rs at the presidential level from 2008 to 2020 than OH-6." That could explain why Democrats overperformed by so much here — the district has some muscle memory of voting for Democrats. I'm reminded of the Pennsylvania 18th special election in 2018, which was shockingly won by Democrat Conor Lamb. That was a Trump+20 seat, but it was an ancestrally Democratic district — in fact, there were still more registered Democrats than registered Republicans in the district at the time.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


South Carolinians agree with Mace on abortion exceptions

Monica mentioned earlier that Mace's position on abortion may stand out among GOP candidates, but it actually puts her in line with much of her state's electorate. According to the May Winthrop University poll I mentioned earlier, 81 percent of South Carolinians support legal abortion if a pregnancy is a result of rape, while just 9 percent oppose it. Voters also supported legal abortion in the case that a "pregnancy threatens the woman's life or health" by a margin of 84 to 5. The pollsters didn't ask about incest, but I suspect the numbers would be similar.

Mary Radcliffe, 538


Rulli projected to win in Ohio’s 6th

With 65 percent of the expected vote counted in Ohio’s 6th, per the AP, Rulli has now taken the lead, 52 percent to 48 percent. And somewhat surprisingly, the AP has also projected the race for Rulli, no doubt because they expect the remaining votes — which were mostly cast on election day — to favor him.

However, the county-level results here are very unusual, with some of them exhibiting the kind of Democratic overperformance that, if replicated districtwide, would have led to a Kripchak win. For example, the AP estimates that virtually all the votes are counted in Washington County, and Rulli leads there by just 6 points. In 2020, Trump won Washington County by 41 points! And Kripchak actually won the 6th District portion of Tuscarawas County, which Trump carried by 33 points, by 12 points!

It's always possible that these county-level swings won't replicate districtwide — indeed, that's what the AP is predicting based on their projection. But regardless of the final outcome, it's clear that Kripchak did shockingly well for a Democrat in Ohio’s 6th.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


A potentially competitive Republican primary to become North Dakota's next representative

With Rep. Armstrong running for the Senate, North Dakota's At-Large Congressional District is up for grabs, and the two main contenders in the Republican primary look to be Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak and former state Rep. Rick Becker. Fedorchak has a solid electoral record, having won three statewide races to retain her current office, and she earned Trump's endorsement in late May. Meanwhile, Becker has a complicated relationship with the GOP: During his legislative tenure, Becker founded a far-right caucus, and in 2022, he actually ran for Senate as an independent against Republican Sen. John Hoeven. That campaign left Becker ineligible for the state GOP endorsement vote in April, but his supporters spoiled their ballots to give the endorsement to a minor candidate instead of Fedorchak.

Meanwhile, Becker and his allies have mostly kept up with Fedorchak in the money race. Fedorchak has brought in $979,000, compared with Becker's $911,000, although Becker self-funded $550,000 of his haul. Yet outside groups have spent slightly more promoting Becker or attacking Fedorchak ($1.6 million) than on supporting Fedorchak or opposing Becker ($1.3 million). Two surveys have shown a close race, too: An early May poll from DFM Research/North Dakota United put Becker ahead 29 percent to 26 percent, while a late May survey from WPA Intelligence/North Dakota News Cooperative found Fedorchak leading 32 percent to 25 percent. However, both polls predated Trump's endorsement, and, in a possible signal that Fedorchak has the upper hand, the pro-Becker Club for Growth canceled a planned ad buy for the final week of the campaign.

—Geoffrey Skelley, 538