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:
If Biggs wins South Carolina's 3rd it would be a big(g) win for GOP women
As Kaleigh just mentioned, South Carolina’s 3rd could go to a runoff between Burns and Biggs. It's notable that Biggs is in this because as I mentioned earlier tonight on the blog, no non-incumbent Republican women have won a nomination for a safe Republican seat in November in primaries before today's races. Biggs received a primary endorsement from VIEW PAC, one of the women's groups we are tracking that is endorsing women in primaries, this cycle. The other women's groups we are tracking — E-PAC, Maggie’s List, and Winning for Women — didn’t endorse in that primary.
We'll have to see what happens, if Biggs does make a runoff. In North Carolina's 13th District, another safely red seat, a woman, Kelly Daughtry received the most votes in the primary and qualified for the runoff, but she subsequently dropped out after Trump endorsed her runoff rival, Brad Knott.
—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor
Mace calls for rape and incest exceptions on abortion
With Mace's win, she stands out among many Republican candidates in that she calls for rape an incest exceptions to abortion bans. Majorities of Americans support rape and incest exceptions to abortion bans, including most Republicans, but only about half the states that ban the procedure currently have them.
—Monica Potts, 538
VIEW PAC endorsee Mace, defeats Winning for Women endorsee Templeton
Mace’s win is also a win for VIEW PAC, one of the GOP women’s groups we're tracking endorsements from in primaries this cycle. One of her several challengers included former state cabinet official Catherine Templeton, who was endorsed by Winning for Women.
We're keeping a close eye on GOP women's group endorsements tonight since, according to our analysis, primary endorsements from groups like Winning for Women, Maggie’s List and VIEW PAC that work to elect more Republican women to office is down this cycle, compared to last. This slow start may be why earlier this month Rep. Elise Stefanik, founder of E-PAC (the Republican counterpart to Democrat’s EMILYs List) told the National Journal’s Hotline that the group plans to work in alignment with the NRCC and party leadership to endorse more women moving forward.
—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor
Theriault crosses the finish line
It didn't take long for Maine's Austin Theriault to dispatch with his primary tonight. With just 21 percent of the expected vote counted, Theriault leads opponent Michael Soboleski, 67 percent to 33 percent, and the AP projects that Theriault will be the winner in Maine's 2nd District.
—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections
The winner of Maine's 2nd District GOP primary will face an endangered Democratic incumbent in fall
Maine's 2nd District is host to a GOP primary in which two first-term state representatives, Austin Theriault and Mike Soboleski, are contending for the right to take on three-term Democratic Rep. Jared Golden. The incumbent has managed to hold onto this seat, which takes in most of Maine north of its southern coastal area, despite its slight Republican lean: Trump would have carried it 51 percent to 45 percent in 2020, according to Daily Kos Elections, making it the second-most Republican-leaning seat (by presidential vote) that a Democratic incumbent is defending in 2024, trailing only Rep. Mary Peltola's at-large seat in Alaska.
Theriault, a former NASCAR driver, looks to be favored. He has Trump's endorsement, which he's naturally emphasized in his ads, and he's congressional Republicans' top choice, having earned the backing of Speaker Mike Johnson and the Congressional Leadership Fund. Moreover, Theriault has raised $1.2 million to Soboleski's $117,000. The only somewhat recent poll was an early April survey from Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of Theriault's campaign that found him leading Soboleski 30 percent to 7 percent. But while Theriault has Trump's backing, Soboleski aligns with the former president — and around two-thirds of Republicans nationally — on the question of the 2020 election's legitimacy. Unlike Theriault, Soboleski has echoed Trump's unsupported claim that Biden didn't legitimately win.
—Geoffrey Skelley, 538