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:
Will Biggs even stay in the race for the runoff?
As Meredith has noted, Biggs is one of the House GOP’s best chances yet to add a new woman to their caucus. However, I wonder if she will even stay in the race for the June 25 runoff. As David Bernstein notes on BlueSky, twice so far this year (in North Carolina’s 6th and 13th), a Republican candidate has made it to a runoff against a candidate endorsed by Trump only to drop out of the race because they faced such low odds of winning.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
It's a runoff in South Carolina's 3rd!
The AP is projecting the GOP race to replace retiring Rep. Jeff Duncan in South Carolina's 3rd District will go to a runoff, with pastor Mark Burns and Air National Guard Lt. Col. Sheri Biggs squaring off. With 85 percent of the expected votes counted, Burns currently leads with 32 percent of the vote, with Biggs tailing him with 29 percent of the vote. With those margins, it's anyone's race in two weeks!
—Kaleigh Rogers, 538
Armstrong projected to win Republican gubernatorial primary
With 20 percent of the expected vote in, the Associated Press is projecting that Armstrong will win the North Dakota Republican gubernatorial primary, with 67 percent of the vote so far, compared to Miller's 33 percent. It's a quick result for such a contentious race, where the candidates shared many agreements over policy. Armstrong is likely to triumph over Piepkorn in November in this very red state (although we don't know who would win a singing contest.)
—Monica Potts, 538
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
That’s a wrap!
Well, it’s unclear when we’re going to know the winners in the last few Nevada races, so we’re going to call it a night. Here’s a roundup of what happened in June 11’s key races:
- In the special election in Ohio’s 6th District, Republican state Sen. Michael Rulli defeated Democratic Air Force veteran Michael Kripchak, but by a shockingly narrow margin (9 points). Trump won this district by 29 points, so Democratic enthusiasm was really high here.
- In South Carolina’s 1st District, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace survived her second straight contested GOP primary as an incumbent, and by a much more comfortable margin than two years ago. Mace will face businessman Michael Moore (no, not that one) in the general election, where she’ll be the heavy favorite.
- In South Carolina’s 3rd District, the Republican primary is going to a runoff, with the top two candidates — Trump-endorsed pastor Mark Burns and Air National Guard Lt. Col. Sheri Biggs, who finished neck-and-neck — facing off again in two weeks.
- In South Carolina’s 4th District, Rep. William Timmons barely beat back a strong primary challenge from tea party Republican state Rep. Adam Morgan.
- Up north in Maine’s 2nd District, former NASCAR driver and current state Rep. Austin Theriault easily clinched the GOP nomination over his colleague Michael Soboleski. Now Theriault will race against Democrat Jared Golden, the Blue Dog who’s held this seat since 2018.
- In North Dakota, the Republican primary for governor was projected early, with Rep. Kelly Armstrong pulling quickly ahead of Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller. And the contested GOP primary for the state’s open at-large congressional district was projected for Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak.
- For U.S. Senate in Nevada, Army veteran Sam Brown scored an easy win in the Republican primary. He’ll face Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen this fall in what will be one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races.
Finally, here’s the status of the three unprojected races in Nevada.
- Nevada’s 1st District looks like it will be a rematch, with 2022 nominee Mark Robertson leading the Republican primary for the right to once again face incumbent Democratic Rep. Dina Titus. However, Flemming Larsen could still win the GOP nomination too.
- In the crowded Republican primary in Nevada’s 3rd, conservative columnist Drew Johnson has a narrow lead over former state Treasurer Dan Schwartz. "Halo" composer Marty O’Donnell, the establishment pick, is in a surprising third place.
- In Nevada’s 4th, former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee appears to have the inside track over Air Force veteran David Flippo.
—Monica Potts, Nathaniel Rakich and Kaleigh Rogers, 538; and Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections