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:
First results in Ohio’s 6th are notably good for Democrats
With 16 percent of the expected vote counted in Ohio’s 6th District, Democrat Michael Kripchak is actually leading Republican Michael Rulli 62 percent to 38 percent, despite the district’s dark-red hue. Now, don’t get too excited, Democrats: Ohio counts early and absentee ballots first, and those, of course, skew toward Democrats. Still, some of these numbers are very impressive for Kripchak. For example, he won the early/absentee vote in Jefferson County, which voted for Trump by 39 points, 61 percent to 39 percent. Rulli is still favored here because this district is SO red, but this bears watching …
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
Will Republicans nominate a woman for governor of North Dakota?
As Geoffrey mentioned earlier, the Republican primary for governor in North Dakota between Rep. Kelly Armstrong and Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller has been combative. It could also be historic if Miller were to come out ahead. North Dakota is one of 18 states that has never had a female governor. Right now there are more women serving as governors than at any other time — just 12. Of those 12, only four are Republican — Govs. Noem of South Dakota, Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, Ivey of Alabama and Reynolds of Iowa.
—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor
Speaking of campaign ads
Two of the races I’m watching tonight, the Republican primaries in South Carolina’s 3rd and 4th Districts, saw an advertising moment that made waves towards the end of last year. The incumbent representatives in both of those district — the 3rd’s Jeff Duncan and the 4th’s William Timmons -- each had scandals involving accusations of infidelity. In December, a radio spot pointing out the cheating scandals was funded by a conservative group, Restore Our Values, and was a real awkward moment as the campaigns heated up. Duncan actually decided not to seek reelection shortly afterward. Timmons, as Geoffrey detailed above, is still running but faces a competitive challenger in state Rep. Adam Morgan.
—Kaleigh Rogers, 538
Mace jumps out to an early start
In South Carolina’s 1st District, the embattled Mace has jumped out to a lead with about 10 percent of the expected vote counted. She leads Templeton, 59 percent to 27 percent, according to the Associated Press. And remember, she needs to stay above 50 percent to avoid a runoff.
—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections
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