7 Top Races to Watch in Montana, New Jersey, and More

The 2024 presidential primary calendar is coming to an end, with the last state contest scheduled for Tuesday.

Voters in Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota will vote in the presidential race – and, along with Iowa, will weigh in on key state and local contests in the election. Washington, D.C., will hold its Democratic presidential primaries, and two more Democratic contests in Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands will wrap things up the following week.

President Biden and former President Trump are expected to pick up more delegates as they head toward a rematch in November, just days after Trump’s historic conviction in his Manhattan silence case.

Polls will close in various states between 8pm and 10pm Eastern Time on Tuesday. Here are seven key races to keep an eye on:

The presidential race

Biden and Trump easily won their party’s approval in March, but their primary performance in several states was undermined by protest voting efforts on both sides of the aisle.

Democrats frustrated with Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war chose “non-committal” options, while Republicans rejected by Trump voted for Nikki Haley, who is no longer in the race.

“Uncommitted” votes have won 30 delegates against Biden so far, according to tracker DDHQ/The Hill, while Haley has won tens of thousands of votes on the Republican side. While these numbers do not threaten Trump or Biden’s status as possible candidates, the protests highlight factions within both major parties in a race that could go down to the wire.

Biden and Trump are likely to see continued protest votes in the latter group of states. In parts of New Jersey, Democrats will have the option of choosing convention delegates who will be on the ballot under the slogan “Justice for Palestine, permanent ceasefire now,” according to theNew Jersey Monitor.

The primary is also the first to take place since Haley announced last week that she would vote for Trump over Biden in the fall.

Dem primary for Nunn House seat in Iowa

The House Democrats’ campaign arm entered the race for Republican Rep. Zach Nunn’s seat in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, viewing the seat as a potential comeback opportunity.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is supporting Lanon Baccam, a combat veteran and former Department of Agriculture employee, against Melissa Vine, a nonprofit leader.

Both are competing to face Nunn, who is running unopposed in the primary andnarrowly wonthe seat in the Chamber in 2022, when he transferred it from then-Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa).

BaccamindignantNunn in the first quarter of this year, which the DCCC considered signs of Iowans’ appetite for another upset. The Des Moines-centered district is one of several seats this year that could help decide control of the House, which Republicans hold by a slim majority.

Senate race for Menendez’s New Jersey seat

Voters in New Jersey on Tuesday will weigh in on the primary race to replace Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who is on trial in federal court on corruption charges.

Menendez held the position for nearly two decades but faced pressure within his party to resign after being indicted over allegations that he accepted bribes and acted as an agent of the Egyptian government. He pleaded not guilty.

He chose not to run in the Democratic primary, but left the door open to running in the general election as an independent. On Monday, NBC Newsreportedthe senator plans to do so. An April poll from Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill showed that such a senator’s candidacy would receive less than 10% support in the state.

New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy briefly ran for his seat but has since suspended her candidacy. Rep. Andy Kim (DN.J.) has consolidated support and is expected to easily win the nomination.

Four candidates are fighting for the nomination on the Republican side, including Trump-backed Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner.

Primary for Menéndez’s son’s seat in the Chamber

First-term Rep. Rob Menendez, son of the embattled current senator, faces stiff competition as he seeks re-election in the Garden State’s 8th Congressional District.

He isagainstmain challenges facing Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla and businessman Kyle Jasey.

The lawmaker was not implicated in his father’s legal battles, but the lawsuitthreaten to overshadowthe House race – and Bhalla continued tolinkRob Menedez to Senator.

“You have a beautiful family, but you know who you most clearly fight for…. Hint: he likes bribes and gold bars – his silence about his father tells us everything,” Bhalla wrote on X in response to a photo of young Menendez’s family.

An April poll sponsored by super PAC America’s Promise placed Bhalla five points above Rob Menendez, byFiveThirtyEightafter a February poll sponsored by Bhalla’s campaign showed the incumbent up three points.

Montana Senate Race

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is fighting to keep his seat in red Montana, a big opportunity for Republicans in November.

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), a member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, briefly turned the race into a Republican primary fight when he pitched himself earlier this year against businessman Tim Sheehy, the campaign arm of the Republican Party. in the Senate to take over the testator.

But the move sparked backlash and Trump suggested Rosendale run for re-election to the House. The lawmaker dropped out of the race and briefly launched a re-election bid for his seat before announcing plans to retire.

Sheehy is now the favorite to win the GOP nomination in Tuesday’s Senate primary, and a new Decision Desk HQ/The Hill forecast, based on six polls, puts Sheehy with a 72 percent chance of winning in the direct confrontation with Tester.

GOP primary for the Montana seat of Rosendale

After pressure from Trump and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) led Rosendale to withdraw from the Senate battle for Tester’s seat this year, he launched a re-election bid — but that too was short-lived, and the lawmaker made another over -faced with abandoning his re-election efforts and leaving Congress altogether.

That left his ruby-red House seat open in Montana’s 2nd Congressional District and drew acrowded GOP primarywith candidatesIncludingstate auditor Troy Downing, state senator Ken Bogner and former U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg.

The seat has been the launching pad for other high-profile Republicans in the past, including Sen. Steve Daines (R), who chairs the NRSC, and Gregh Gianforte, who became governor in 2020.

Polls in the race were thin, but a Maysurveydrive for a super PAC supporting Downing put the auditor ahead of the pack for the solidly red seat, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Montana gubernatorial race

Another Big Sky Country contest worth watching is the race for the Montana governor’s mansion.

Gianforte, the incumbent Republican, took the governor’s mansion out of Democrats’ hands in 2020. He now faces amain challenge from your righton State Rep. Tanner Smith, as well as Democratcompetition.

Smith argued with Gianfortenot conservative enoughto the red state andreleasedhimself as the “‘real’ conservative choice” in the race.

Gianfortelost a bid for governorin 2016, he won a special election to represent Montana in the House the following year, although his campaign was derailed by an altercation with a reporter in recent days.

Gianforte pleaded guilty to assault and was ordered to perform community service and anger management counseling.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story