We're in for another eventful election night on Tuesday, with five states across the country holding primaries in key races for state and federal offices.
Below you'll find our guide to the most important contests in Georgia, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, and West Virginia. (Georgia and West Virginia were originally set to conduct their primaries in May, but both states delayed their elections until June due to the coronavirus pandemic.) When it’s available, we'll tell you about any polling that exists for each race, but if we don't mention any numbers, it means no recent surveys have been made public.
These elections will unfold differently in each state, and we may not know the winners in several contests for days. Because of the pandemic more voters are casting ballots by mail than ever before, so a sizable number of votes may not be tallied until after election night.
Our live coverage will begin at 7 PM ET Tuesday night at Daily Kos Elections when the polls close in Georgia and South Carolina. You can also follow us on Twitter for blow-by-blow updates. And you’ll want to bookmark our primary calendar, which includes the dates of the presidential and downballot primaries in all 50 states—many of which have been changed—as well as our separate calendar tracking key contests further down the ballot taking place nationwide this year.
Georgia
Polls close at 7 PM ET. A runoff will take place on Aug. 11 in any contests where no candidate wins a majority of the vote.
● GA-Sen-A (D) (50-45 Trump, 53-45 Romney): Seven Democrats are running to take on Republican Sen. David Perdue in a red-leaning state that has been growing more competitive.
The Democrat who has brought in the most money by far is investigative filmmaker Jon Ossoff, who was the party’s nominee for the historically expensive 6th District special election in 2017. The other two main contenders are former Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and Sarah Riggs Amico, who lost the 2018 general election for lieutenant governor by a close 52-48 margin.
Two polls of the primary were released in the final week of the contest, and both showed Ossoff within striking distance of the majority he’d need to avoid a runoff. The GOP firm Cygnal, on behalf of an unidentified client, found Ossoff at 49%, while Tomlinson led Amico 16-8 for second. Another Republican pollster, Landmark Communications, showed Ossoff at 42% in a poll conducted for WSB-TV, with Tomlinson outpacing Amico 14-9.
Note that while a special election for Georgia’s other Senate seat will also take place this year, there's no primary on Tuesday. Instead, all the contenders will face off on one ballot in November, and in the all-but-certain event that no one takes a majority, the two candidates with the most votes—regardless of party—will compete in a runoff on Jan. 5.
● GA-07 (D & R) (51-45 Trump, 60-38 Romney): Republican Rep. Rob Woodall decided to retire just months after winning reelection by a shockingly narrow 433-vote margin against Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux, and both parties have crowded contests to succeed him.
Bourdeaux is one of six Democrats running for this seat in Atlanta’s northeastern suburbs, and she’s spent considerably more than the rest of the field. Bourdeaux’s main opponent looks like state Sen. Zahra Karinshak, who has the backing of former Gov. Roy Barnes and ex-Sen. Max Cleland. Also in the mix are former DNC official Nabilah Islam; state Rep. Brenda Lopez Romero; and former Fulton County Commission Chair John Eaves.
Bourdeaux outspent Karinshak about $550,000 to $270,000 from April 1 to May 20 (the time the FEC defines as the preprimary period), while Islam was further back with just over $100,000 spent. The rest of the field has raised and spent little during the campaign.
Seven Republicans, meanwhile, are competing to replace Woodall. The only elected official in the contest is state Sen. Renee Unterman, while the anti-tax Club for Growth is supporting emergency room physician Rich McCormick. Former Home Depot executive Lynne Homrich and businessman Mark Gonsalves are also running. The only poll we’ve seen here was a mid-May survey from the Club that showed McCormick in first with 41%, while Unterman led Homrich 23-7 for second place.
McCormick outspent Unterman about $430,000 to $330,000 during the preprimary period, while Homrich deployed $120,000 to Gonsalves’ $67,000. McCormick’s allies at the Club have also spent over $1 million to boost him and attack Unterman.
● GA-09 (R) (78-19 Trump, 78-20 Romney): Republicans have a very crowded contest to succeed GOP Rep. Doug Collins, who is running in the special Senate election, in this extremely red seat in the northeastern part of the state. With nine candidates in the race, this contest is all but assured to go to an August runoff.
State Rep. Matt Gurtler, who has a hostile relationship with the state party establishment, has benefited from a total of $625,000 in spending from the Club for Growth and Protect Freedom PAC. Gurtler’s allies also weren’t troubled in May after a picture emerged of him at an event hosted by a local white supremacist. Gurtler has been hit with negative ads, from gun store owner Andrew Clyde, who spent more than anyone else during the preprimary period.
Another candidate to watch is former Rep. Paul Broun, who gave up the neighboring 10th District to run a failed bid for his party's Senate nomination in 2014 and unsuccessfully challenged Collins here in 2016. Also in the running are state Rep. Kevin Tanner, who is backed by former Gov. Nathan Deal; state Sen. John Wilkinson; and former Forsyth County party Chair Ethan Underwood.
● GA-14 (R) (75-22 Trump, 73-25 Romney): Nine Republicans are competing to succeed retiring Rep. Tom Graves in this red seat in the northwest part of the state.
Neurosurgeon John Cowan and businesswoman Marjorie Greene have decisively outspent the rest of the field during the preprimary period, though they both have potential liabilities. Cowan has been on the receiving end of attacks from a group backing another candidate, auto dealer Matt Laughridge. As for Greene, who is a defender of the notorious pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon, she only moved to this rural district in December from the Atlanta suburbs, where she'd been running for Congress in the 6th District.
Six other candidates are competing here. The field includes former state School Superintendent John Barge, who has benefited from $200,000 in spending from a super PAC set up to help him; state Rep. Kevin Cooke; former state Rep. Bill Hembree; Air Force veterans Ben Bullock and Clayton Fuller; and Army veteran Andy Gunther. This is another contest that will almost certainly go to a runoff.
Nevada
Polls close at 10 PM ET/7 PM local time.
● NV-03 (R) (48-47 Trump, 50-49 Obama): Two notable Republicans are running to take on freshman Democratic Rep. Susie Lee in this competitive seat in Las Vegas’ southern suburbs. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is backing former professional wrestler Dan Rodimer, a World Wrestling Entertainment alum. The other candidate worth watching is former state Treasurer Dan Schwartz, who lost the 2018 primary for governor to establishment favorite Adam Laxalt in a 72-9 landslide.
Schwartz, who has been self-funding almost his entire campaign, outspent Rodimer about $425,000 to $200,000 during the preprimary period, but a group funded by GOP megadonors has spent $320,000 against Schwartz. Schwartz’s ads have highlighted the fact that Rodimer was accused of assault three different times from 2010 to 2013; Rodimer ultimately pleaded guilty to battery in one of those incidents, while no charges were filed in the other two. Rodimer and his allies have in turn run ads accusing Schwartz of being disloyal to Trump.
● NV-04 (R) (50-45 Clinton, 54-44 Obama): Several Republicans are running against Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford in this seat in the northern Las Vegas area, though it remains to be seen if the national GOP will target this race in the fall.
Businesswoman Lisa Song Sutton outspent former Assemblyman Jim Marchant about $150,000 to $100,000 during the preprimary period, while insurance agency owner Samuel Peters deployed $83,000. The rest of the field has spent very little here.
North Dakota
Polls close in the portion of the state located in the Central Time Zone at 5 PM ET/4 PM local time. Polls close in the remainder of the state an hour later.
South Carolina
Polls close at 7 PM ET. A runoff will take place on June 23 in any contests where no candidate wins a majority of the vote.
● SC-01 (R) (53-40 Trump, 58-40 Romney): Democrat Joe Cunningham pulled off a miraculous 51-49 win in 2018 in this seat located along the South Carolina coast, and four Republicans are running to try to take it back.
The GOP candidate who has the most outside support is state Rep. Nancy Mace, who has House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the Club for Growth in her corner. Mace’s main rival looks like Mount Pleasant Town Councilwoman Kathy Landing, who is backed by former Sen. Jim DeMint and the nihilist House Freedom Caucus. The other two candidates, Chris Cox and Brad Moe, have attracted little support, but they could keep either Mace or Landing from winning the nomination outright.
Mace outspent Landing about $435,000 to $270,000 during the preprimary period. The Club also has deployed $600,000 to help Mace, while the Freedom Caucus has spent $270,000 for Landing. The race turned especially negative in the final days as the Club ran ads accusing Landing of hiding her support for higher town fees, while the Freedom Caucus has gone after Mace over abortion.
West Virginia
Polls close at 7:30 PM ET.
● WV-Gov (R & D) (68-26 Trump, 62-35 Romney): Gov. Jim Justice left the Democratic Party at a 2017 rally with Donald Trump just a few months into his first term, but not everyone in his new party has greeted him warmly. Even though Justice has Trump's endorsement, he faces two intraparty opponents in the Republican primary: former state Commerce Secretary Woody Thrasher, whom Justice hired and later fired, and former Del. Mike Folk.
Justice and Thrasher, who have each self-funded millions, have spent heavily on ads attacking one another while ignoring Folk. The only poll we’ve seen in the last year, a mid-May survey done by the GOP firm Triton Polling and Research for a local radio station, showed Justice hammering Folk 53-15, while Thrasher was at 14%.
Three notable Democrats are also running to take on Justice: Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango, state Sen. Ron Stollings, and community organizer Stephen Smith. Salango, who has also self-funded much of his campaign, has the backing of Sen. Joe Manchin, and he’s narrowly outspent Smith. Salango and Stollings each describe themselves as moderates, while Smith is appealing to progressive voters.
Tuesday will be an exciting night, so we hope you’ll join us for our liveblog at Daily Kos Elections!