Tonight we're liveblogging primary results in four states: Michigan (polls close at 8pm ET), Missouri (8pm), Kansas (9pm), and Washington (11pm). Our writeup of all the key federal and statewide races can be found
here. For an excellent, comprehensive summary of the key state Senate races in Kansas, check out
ptgkc's post.
Results: Kansas | Michigan | Missouri | Washington
5:17 PM PT: The first trickle of votes has begun to appear in Missouri.
5:21 PM PT: The MO SoS site may be just a touch ahead of the AP right now, but it reports results in a maddening way, with candidates from all parties lumped together and given a percentage of all votes cast in all primaries. We should expect that later tonight in Washington, but I have no idea why Missouri would list things this way.
5:24 PM PT: And a few votes are also now showing up in Michigan.
5:31 PM PT: I mentioned it up above in the header, but if you're interested in the Kansas GOP state Senate primaries tonight, you really need to read ptgkc's comprehensive primer on all the key races in order to properly get your bearings.
5:43 PM PT (Steve Singiser): We are finally into 5 digits in the number of votes tallied in Michigan, which means it is finally worth our while to report some statewide nums. Pete "Spenditnot" Hoekstra leads early, and by a healthy-but-not-crushing margin, over Clark Durant. With about 17,000 votes in the book, it is Hoekstra 53, Durant 32.
5:49 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Starting to get some pretty significant returns at the district level in Michigan, as well. The big one, for Democrats, at least: the write-in effort by establishment GOPers to get Nancy Cassis to replace resigning GOP Rep. Thad McCotter is failing at this point. Kerry Bentvolio, a tea party devotee, leads the combined write-in vote by a 60-40 margin. With a tea party win comes a tea party disappointment: the targeting of incumbent Fred Upton seems to be all for naught. He is crushing Jack Hoogdendyk by a two-to-one margin.
6:00 PM PT (Steve Singiser): We've now reached the five-figure threshold in Mizzou, though just barely. And the Senate primary is exactly what we thought it would be—a coin flip. Rep. Todd Akin, who had surged at the last, leads with 36 percent. Businessman and free-spender John Brunner is in second (32 percent), with Sarah Steelman in the all-important bronze medal position with 27 percent.
6:02 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Meanwhile, in the gubernatorial primaries in Missouri, it's far less competitive. Dave Spence is lapping the GOP field with 63 percent of the vote. Jay Nixon actually had a primary, which he currently is destroying with 84 percent of the vote.
6:04 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Downballot, with apparently only absentee votes counted, the incumbent-on-incumbent showdown in MO-01 is a blowout in the making. Democratic Rep. Lacy Clay is up 64-33 over Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan.
6:14 PM PT (Steve Singiser): We are starting to get to that point of the night where votes come at a decent clip in Michigan. The closest race, at present, seems to be MI-03 (D), where Steve Pestka leads Trevor Thomas by a modest margin (55-45). In MI-11 (R), teabagger Kerry Bentvolio is still mucking up the write-in hopes of the GOP's establishment choice, Nancy Cassis. He leads with 63 percent. On the Democratic side, Syed Taj leads LaRouche devotee William Roberts 60-40. Too few votes to date in Wayne County, which means we don't know anything of substance about the Democratic races in MI-13 or MI-14 just yet.
6:17 PM PT: The liveblog continues here.