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.
Latest headlines:
I wonder which way election day votes will go in South Carolina’s 4th
Kaleigh, you raise an interesting question. Election day voters do tend to be more MAGA in primaries, similar to how they’re more Republican in general elections. (This isn’t surprising — Trump is the one who cast unfounded aspersions on the security of mail voting.) So I wonder who those votes will benefit today in South Carolina’s 4th. Timmons has Trump’s endorsement, but temperamentally, he’s not very bomb-throwy. Morgan, a member of the state House’s Freedom Caucus, fits that description much better, so maybe he’ll be the pick of election day voters? We shall see.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
Timmons has taken the lead in South Carolina's 4th District
With 31 percent of the expected votes counted, incumbent Timmons has now taken the lead in South Carolina's 4th District. He currently has 54 percent of the vote to Morgan's 46 percent. Election day voters tend to be more conservative, but this is a district that is already the most conservative in the state, having gone for Trump 68 percent in 2020, so that’s slightly less of a factor here, and Timmons may have overcome that early surge from Morgan.
—Kaleigh Rogers, 538
Election day votes are coming to Republicans' rescue in Ohio
Counties are beginning to count their election day votes in Ohio’s 6th District special election, and as expected, they’re really good for Rulli. With 29 percent of the expected vote counted according to the AP, Kripchak’s lead is down to 54 percent to 46 percent.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
Mace still ahead in South Carolina's 1st
We’re up to about 20 percent of the expected voted counted and Mace is still ahead of Templeton by a healthy margin, 57 percent to 29 percent. She’s well ahead in Berkeley and Dorchester Counties, which were the two localities to vote against her in her relatively close 2022 GOP primary, so that’s a good sign for her. Still early, but the crush of outside money from the Club for Growth backing Mace seems to have accomplished its mission.
—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections
Republicans will pick their opponent for Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen
We're about 20 minutes out from polls closing in Nevada, so let's take a look at some of the key races happening there tonight.
Nevada will hold a pivotal Senate contest this fall for the seat held by Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen. Retired U.S. Army Capt. Sam Brown is the front-runner in the Republican primary, having established himself by finishing second for the GOP nomination in Nevada's 2022 Senate race. Brown's candidacy is highlighted by his military service record, during which time he suffered third-degree burns from a 2008 roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan. Brown has proved a prodigious fundraiser, having brought in $7.1 million as of May 22. Former Ambassador to Iceland Jeffrey Ross Gunter, who served under Trump, is Brown's main competition, and he's self-funded $2.7 million of the $3.3 million he's raised.
National Republicans have largely consolidated behind Brown, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Brown and the NRSC have run joint ads focused on immigration and national security, and Rosen's campaign is already running spots against him focused on abortion rights. For his part, Gunter has linked himself to Trump, though Trump made a last-minute endorsement of Brown Sunday night, and has run ads claiming Brown backs the controversial-but-stalled plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Brown expressed support for the plan during his 2022 bid, but has backtracked in the face of criticism this time around.
It's unclear how big a threat Gunter is to Brown, as an early June survey from Noble Predictive Insights found Brown ahead 53 percent to 15 percent. But Gunter released a late May survey by Kaplan Strategies that found him running about even with Brown at around 30 percent. Outside groups have come in big for Brown to the tune of $4.3 million, and Gunter is enough of a danger that the pro-Brown Duty First Nevada super PAC is running ads portraying Gunter as a fake Republican. Still, Gunter's campaign actually canceled some ad buys ahead of the primary — not exactly a signal of confidence.
—Geoffrey Skelley, 538