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:
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
We’re pretty firmly in runoff territory in South Carolina's 3rd
Upstate, the race to replace retiring Rep. Jeff Duncan has essentially fallen into a close three-person race. With 63 percent of the expected votes counted, Trump-endorsed Burns is at 31 percent, Biggs has 30 percent and Jones has 20 percent. Toss in double-digit support for Kevin Bishop, the recently retired communications director for Sen. Lindsey Graham, and it's enough to split the vote in a way that makes it very hard for any candidate to break the majority threshold. Whoever finishes tonight in the top two slots will very likely face off again in a runoff election in two weeks' time. It's been interesting to see the vote regional breakdown as ballots are counted. Jones is leading in Laurens County with 52 percent of the vote there — no surprise, as this is the part of the district that Jones represents in the state House. Burns is leading in Pickens, Abbeville (trivia: this is the first county in the U.S., alphabetically), and McCormick Counties — the first two are slightly more conservative, and the first is his home county.
—Kaleigh Rogers, 538