Court-ordered redistricting seismically impacted the congressional map in Alabama, precipitating high-stakes primaries in the new 1st and 2nd Districts.

Under the new lines, the Democratic-leaning 2nd District runs from Mobile across much of Alabama's Black Belt. Overall, 11 Democratic hopefuls are on the ballot, but State Rep. Napoleon Bracy, state House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels and former Justice Department official Shomari Figures may be best-positioned to advance to a likely April 16 runoff. Through mid-February, Figures had raised about $299,000, second only to Daniels's $323,000. But Protect Progress, a pro-cryptocurrency super PAC backing Figures, has shelled out $1.7 million to support him, according to data from OpenSecrets. By comparison, Bracy had only raised around $106,000. Still, Bracy may have geography working for him: His home base of Mobile County constitutes 36 percent of the district's population, more than any other county.

The new map also placed two second-term GOP incumbents into a head-to-head primary for the new, dark red 1st District: Rep. Jerry Carl, who currently represents about 59 percent of the new seat's population, and Rep. Barry Moore, who represents the other 41 percent. In such a deeply Republican seat, both contenders have tried to position themselves as the truest pro-Trump conservative. Carl has had the upper hand monetarily. Across his campaign and victory committees, Carl has brought in more than $2 million, compared with Moore's $688,000. And Carl is also getting somewhat more outside support, with groups spending $1.5 million to oppose Moore and just $1.1 million to support Moore or oppose Carl. A late February survey from Auburn University at Montgomery found Carl ahead 43 percent to 35 percent, perhaps in line with Carl's slight geographic and monetary advantages.

—Geoffrey Skelley, 538

Yeah, Nathaniel, polling suggests that those endorsements could make a real difference. According to a February poll from the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs, 70 percent of Republican primary voters said that Trump's endorsement would make them more likely to support a state-legislative candidate, and 64 percent said the same of Abbott's endorsement. In addition, 60 percent said that they would be less likely to support a candidate who voted against Abbott's school voucher legislation. And in a YouGov/University of Texas poll from February, a plurality of Republicans (37 percent) said that the Texas House was not justified in impeaching Paxton, compared with 28 percent who said it was justified and 35 percent who weren't sure.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538

Sitting governors and attorneys general don't usually openly try to defeat incumbents of their own party, but Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton are just built different, I guess. Today's Texas primaries are the culmination of two separate intraparty power struggles from the past year, in which Abbott and Paxton are actively trying to defeat Republicans who have defied them in the state legislature.

In May 2023, the Texas state House impeached Paxton on charges of bribery and abuse of office. He was later acquitted by the state Senate, but he has embarked on a revenge tour against those who supported his impeachment by endorsing primary challengers to 35 incumbent Republicans.

Meanwhile, Abbott suffered a massive political defeat last year when a group of mostly rural Republican legislators blocked his top priority, a school voucher program. In what the Houston Chronicle has called a "legacy-defining" campaign, Abbott has spent more than $4 million trying to oust 10 anti-voucher Republicans running for reelection.

Even Trump has gotten in on the act: He has endorsed at least eight primary challengers to sitting representatives, all of whom either voted against vouchers or voted to impeach Paxton (who is a close Trump ally).

If Paxton, Abbott and Trump are successful, the Republican caucus in the Texas state House will look very different — and further right — next year. Throughout the night, I'll be watching for how many incumbents they successfully topple.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538

In Los Angeles, voters will decide which candidates will face off in November for seven of its 15 city council seats. Arguably one of the most powerful city councils in the country, it's been riddled with scandal the past few years.

In 2022, leaked audio revealed then-City Council President Nury Martinez making racist comments in a meeting that included two other council members, which ultimately led to her resignation. One of the other members who was part of that conversation, Kevin de León, remains on the council after surviving months of protests, calls for his resignation (including from President Biden) and a recall attempt. Today he's running for a second four-year term against seven challengers, including two former political allies, state Assemblymembers Miguel Santiago and Wendy Carrillo. Santiago specifically has scooped up the endorsement of the key labor unions that once backed de León, as well as the Los Angeles County Democratic Party.

Overall, policing, affordable housing and homelessness are big issues in the city, the second largest in the nation, and how the council decides to handle those issues in the future could help set the tone for the rest of the country. Today's elections could help decide, in part, how progressive the council will be: In other races, business interests have been targeting progressive Councilmember Nithya Raman, and spending to bolster the council's only non-Democrat, independent John Lee, who faces an ethics probe and a more progressive challenger.

—Monica Potts, 538

Voters are choosing more than their parties' presidential nominees tonight. In five Super Tuesday states, they're also deciding on candidates for statewide and local offices. Several consequential judicial elections are being held tonight, for positions on state supreme courts in Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, and on the Criminal Court of Appeals in Texas.

In Arkansas, nonpartisan general elections are being held to fill two vacancies on the Supreme Court, creating a game of musical chairs among the sitting justices that could potentially accelerate the already-conservative court's rightward shift. Chief Justice Dan Kemp is stepping down, and three of the four candidates running to replace him are already sitting on the court, while another sitting justice is angling to move to a different open seat on the court. The shuffle could leave two vacancies that would allow conservative Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to name replacements to finish their terms.

Alabama's Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker, who recently made waves nationally with a ruling that frozen embryos used for IVF are children, is also retiring because of the state's mandatory retirement age. Two candidates are running for the Republican nomination to replace him: sitting Associate Justice Sarah Stewart (who had to give up her seat to run for the top slot) and former state Senator Bryan Taylor. While Stewart joined the 8-1 majority opinion in the IVF case and both candidates have defended the decision, Taylor has claimed that Stewart is the "most liberal" justice on the all-Republican court, and received a huge influx of outside spending from conservative anti-abortion group Fair Courts America. Whoever wins will likely face (and defeat) Democrat Greg Griffin>) in the general election.

In Texas, Supreme Court Justice John Devine is facing a primary challenger who has questioned his ethics, but a bigger political feud is playing out in other races. Allies of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton are funding primary challengers to three Criminal Court of Appeals judges who ruled against him in a voter fraud decision, limiting his power to prosecute those cases. And as Nathaniel noted earlier, Paxton, who had been accused of abusing power to protect a political donor, has also endorsed primary challengers against 34 of the 60 Republican legislators who voted to impeach him last year.

—Monica Potts, 538