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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North Dakota Congressional age limit measure is projected to pass

According to the AP, the Congressional age limit ballot measure in North Dakota is projected to pass. With 70 percent of the expected vote reported, support for the measure is at 61 percent. As I mentioned earlier, this makes North Dakota the first state in the nation to enact such a law, but it undoubtedly will face legal challenges in the coming years.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538


Speaking of anti-abortion Republicans in South Carolina ...

I checked back in on the three "sister senators" in the state Senate I mentioned earlier, who banded together to successfully filibuster against a near-total abortion ban in the state. According to the AP, Gustafson is projected to lose renomination in the state's 27th to Blackmon. In the 23rd, Shealy is 4 percentage points ahead of Carlisle Kennedy with 88 percent of the expected vote reporting. But with Shealy holding only 40 percent of the vote so far, that race looks to be heading to a runoff. And in the state's 41st, we've got quite the nail-biter: With 80 percent of the expected vote reporting, Senn is behind Leber by just 0.4 points. All together, it looks like all three women are in danger of losing their seats to anti-abortion male challengers.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538


Checking in on anti-abortion candidates in South Carolina

Biggs was one of the anti-abortion candidates we were watching tonight, and her advance to a runoff in the 3rd district primary against Burns gives her something like a win — though as others have noted, she's an underdog in that contest. Templeton lost to Mace in the 1st district, while incumbent Timmons is solidly leading in his primary in the 4th district, according to the AP. With 56 percent of the vote so far and nearly three-fourths of the expected vote reporting, AP projects that Buckner will win his 6th District primary.

—Monica Potts, 538


Fedorchak projected to win in North Dakota congressional primary

The AP is projecting that Fedorchak will win the Republican primary in North Dakota's at-large congressional district race. With 72 percent of the expected vote reporting, she has 46 percent of the vote so far. Her nearest challenger, Becker, has 29 percent of the vote so far.

—Monica Potts, 538


The Republican primary in North Dakota will likely pick the state's next governor

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum's retirement has precipitated an expensive and increasingly ugly Republican primary for governor between Rep. Kelly Armstrong and Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller. Armstrong is more familiar to voters, having served in Congress since 2019, while Burgum tapped Miller as his new lieutenant governor in December 2022. Both candidates have thrown around large sums of their own money: Based on financial reports though May 2 and large donations reported through June 7, about $3.8 million of the $4.2 million Miller has reported raising has come out of her own pocket, while Armstrong has self-funded almost $1.3 million of the $3.4 million he's collected.

Armstrong is the front-runner, having garnered endorsements from Trump and the state GOP. He also held a clear lead in three different surveys conducted in May, all of which showed him receiving close to 60 percent while Miller only attracted around 20 percent. Looking to gain ground, Miller has tried to link herself to Trump and Burgum, who's endorsed her. She's also run negative ads against Armstrong, including one that Rob Port of InForum described as "the most brutal" he'd seen in North Dakota that accuses Armstrong of insider trading and defending a child molester when he was a lawyer. Armstrong's campaign called the insider trading claim a lie, and the victims in the molestation case called for Miller to stop running ads about it. And Armstrong isn't without his own ad controversy, as his campaign ran a spot against Miller that included a citation from an artificial intelligence news website, which prompted Miller to criticize Armstrong for running "fake news" about her record.

—Geoffrey Skelley, 538