Seven states held primaries on Tuesday, with some results setting the stage for critical competitions in November’s Senate and House races. Based on Tuesday’s outcomes, the states with the most potential to shift power on Capitol Hill are Indiana, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania.
Republican candidate Victoria Spartz won Indiana’s district 5. Compared to other candidates she raised and spent the most, getting the backing of the Club for Growth and local GOP business owners.
Club for Growth is a national network of over 250,000 members who advocate for limited government and “believe that prosperity and opportunity come from economic freedom.”
Indiana Democrat Frank Mrvan and Republican Mark Leyva won their House primaries in Indiana’s 1st Congressional District on Tuesday and will face off against each other to replace retiring Rep. Pete Visclosky (D) in November. This district went to Hillary Clinton with 54 percent of the vote in 2016. The Cook Political Report lists it as “lean Republican.”
In Iowa, Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) won district 2. Miller-Meeks got the backing of Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Joni Ernst, as well as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
She will face Democrat Rita Hart in the general election. Miller Meeks received 48 percent of votes on Tuesday.
Miller-Meeks is a doctor who previously directed the Iowa Department of Public Health and served for 24 years in the U.S. Army, retiring as a colonel. In 2018, she won the Iowa Senate District 41 seat.
Meanwhile, Theresa Greenfield a Democrat took the Iowa Senate nomination. She raised $7.1 million and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee backed the real estate executive, who will face Republican Senator Joni Ernst in November.
In the race for Montana’s Senate seat, Montana’s Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock is giving incumbent Republican Sen. Steve Daines a run for his money. Since deciding to challenge Daines for the Senate seat, Bullock has left Republicans scrambling for financial resources and has put a spotlight on this race. Bullock is expected to win, having raised more than 10 times what Daines has.
Republican, Yvette Herrell took New Mexico’s second congressional district. Sitting in the southern portion of the state, it is a highly competitive swing district that Democratic Rep. Xochitl Torres-Small won back in the 2018 midterms.
Herrell, a member of the state House, got 72 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press, and will face Torres for the second time.
The vote count is incomplete but it looks like Pennsylvania’s first district will go to Democrat Christina Finello, who focused her campaign on backing unions and protecting the Affordable Care Act. She will face a Republican challenger in November.
The Pennsylvania fifth district has two Republicans running a close race to try to unseat a Democrat.
The Republican National Campaign Committee has targeted Pennsylvania’s seventh congressional district as an opportunity to flip in November. The GOP are also targeting Pennsylvania’s eight congressional district, and incumbent Democratic Rep. Mike Cartwright has held on to the seat even though Trump won the district in 2016.
Teresa Leger Fernandez (D) won New Hampshire’s district 3, which is being vacated by Ben Ray Lujan. Leger Fernandez secured endorsements, from EMILY’s List, the Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and the Latino Victory Fund, and raised nearly $1.3 million.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D) kept his nomination for Maryland’s 5th district. Hoyer has been in Congress for 40 years and has the backing of the Democratic establishment.
