Four states will hold primaries on Tuesday, while California voters will select a replacement for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, giving Republicans a little more breathing room in the House.
With two Republicans competing in a special election in California’s 20th District, the GOP is sure to add a new member to its slim House majority. And voters in Georgia, Oregon, Kentucky and Idaho will go to the polls for the primaries. All the action is focused on House races, which will define matchups in key battlegrounds and decide likely future lawmakers in less competitive open seats.
Polls close in Kentucky at 6pm and 7pm ET, with the state divided into two time zones; 7 p.m. ET in Georgia; 10pm and 11pm ET in Idaho; and 11 p.m. ET in California. Oregon conducts its elections entirely by mail, and ballots must be returned or postmarked by 11pm ET on Tuesday.
Here are four things to watch for in Tuesday’s election:
Replacement for Kevin McCarthy
Republicans in Washington, D.C., will get a gift in Tuesday night’s elections — a boost from California, where voters are voting in a special election between Rep. Vince Fong and Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux.
Both candidates are Republicans, which means the Republican Party will have 218 members to the Democrats’ 213 when the winner takes office, with four vacancies. This means that Republicans will be able to afford two defections, instead of the current one, with the presence of a full House.
California places all candidates on the same primary ballot, regardless of party affiliation, and in a special election, if no candidate receives a majority of votes, the top two vote-getters move on to a general election.
The winner of the special election will serve out the remainder of McCarthy’s term. McCarthy resigned late last year after being removed as speaker of the House. Fong and Boudreaux will also face off in November in the regularly scheduled general election.
McCarthy supported Fong, who worked for him. And Fong finished with the most votes in the March primary.
Battles of Oregon
Oregon is home to three competitive districts where matchups will be scheduled on Tuesday.
Monique DeSpain, an attorney and Air Force veteran, is the top fundraiser in the Republican Party’s 4th District field to face Democratic Rep. Val Hoyle. The top Republican fundraiser running against Democratic Rep. Andrea Salinas in the 6th District is businessman Mike Erickson, who lost to her by nearly 3 percentage points in 2022.
But most of the primary action has centered on the 5th District, where Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer is running for re-election.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took the rare step of taking sides in the primary to boost state Rep. Janelle Bynum over attorney Jamie McLeod-Skinner. Chávez-DeRemer beat McLeod-Skinner by 2 points in 2022, although Joe Biden won the district by 9 points in 2020, according to calculations by Kos Daily Elections.
Several outside groups became involved in the race, with one pro-Bynum group, the Mainstream Democrats, launching an ad highlighting reports that McLeod-Skinner mistreated her campaign team.
Meanwhile, McLeod-Skinner got a boost from a group called Health Equity Now, which advertisements released touting his support for “Medicare for All” legislation. Some Democrats have suggested that the group Could be an attempt by Republicans to interfere in the primariesbecause the group’s ad buying company is typically used by Republican candidates, according to The Washington Post.
Sister act
Outside groups also got involved in the Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Earl Blumenauer in Oregon’s dark blue 3rd District.
The primary field is crowded, with top candidates including former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal, whose sister, Pramila, represents Washington’s 7th District in Congress and chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
Jayapal has landed some high-profile endorsements, including that of Senator Bernie Sanders, but she has managed faced attacks on the airwaves of an outside group called Voters for Responsive Government.
314 Action, which supports candidates with a background in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), also advertisements released to boost state Rep. Maxine Dexter, a doctor. Dexter led the fundraising, followed by Jayapal and Gresham City Council member Eddy Morales.
Republican primaries to watch
There are also a handful of GOP primaries worth keeping an eye on, albeit in districts that aren’t expected to be competitive in the fall.
In Kentucky’s 4th District, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie faces a primary challenge from two primary opponents who have been critical: attorney Eric Deters and Michael McGinnis.
Massie made some enemies in Congress. He joined the unsuccessful effort to recall House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., over criticism of aid to Ukraine and funding of a controversial intelligence tool. He was one of the few members of Congress to support former President Donald Trump (he supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis). And in 2020, his opposition to an emergency pandemic relief bill led Trump to call for him to be removed from the party.
Massie is the heavy favorite, but the primary has generated some significant spending from a super PAC affiliated with Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky (who supports Massie) and the pro-Israel United Democracy Project, which has said it is not playing directly in the primary , but is running ads to criticize Massie’s policies in Israel (Massie is seen as a potential future candidate for statewide office).
In Idaho, Republican Rep. Mike Simpson went on air ahead of his primary and received outside help from Defending Main Street, a super PAC tied to the Main Street Republican Partnership. Simpson’s main opponent, financial consultant Scott Cleveland, partially self-financed his campaign.
In Georgia, Trump’s endorsement is on the line in the 3rd District, where he supports Brian Jack, his former White House political director, to replace retiring Republican Rep. Drew Ferguson. Jack was the biggest fundraiser in the race through April and was also boosted by significant spending from outside groups. His opponents include state Sen. Mike Dugan, former state Sen. Mike Crane and military veteran Philip Singleton.
There is also a Republican primary for the right to face Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop in Georgia’s 2nd District. Bishop is not expected to be vulnerable in the general election: He was re-elected in 2022 by 10 percentage points and Biden won the district in 2020 by a similar margin, according to Kos daily election data.
The Republican Party primaries did not generate much spending. The field includes Chuck Hand, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor related to his conduct during the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
