The biggest day of primaries yet arrives on Tuesday, with voters in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, Oregon and Idaho, heading to the polls to select candidates ahead of November’s midterm elections.
While many primaries will be resolved with little drama, some have shaped up to be among the most contentious elections of the year so far, serving as gauges of Donald Trump’s control of Republicans, and the direction Democratic voters are looking to steer their party as they seek to retake control of Congress.
Kentucky
The most closely watched race in this deep-red state will be the primary of the Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who has broken with Trump on key issues in his second term and led the charge to release investigative files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. In the latest instance of the president retaliating against lawmakers who challenge his authority, Trump has backed retired US Navy Seal Ed Gallrein in the contest to unseat Massie from the northern Kentucky seat he has held since 2012, leading to the most expensive House primary in history.
Republican voters in Kentucky will also choose their candidate to replace Mitch McConnell, the former Senate GOP leader who is retiring. The frontrunners to succeed McConnell are congressman Andy Barr and former state attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron. Among Democrats, Charles Booker and Amy McGrath, who lost Senate races in the state in 2022 and 2020, respectively, are vying for their party’s nomination once again.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania looms larges in both parties’ aspirations for the midterm elections, with Democrats hoping to retake two swing House districts that they lost in 2024, and oust Republicans from two others.
Democratic primary voters in the seventh congressional district around Allentown will choose between firefighters’ union leader Bob Brooks, who has the support of the party’s establishment, Ryan Crosswell, a former federal prosecutor, Lamont McClure, a former county executive, and Carol Obando-Derstine, a former aide to US senator Bob Casey. The winner will take on the Republican congressman Ryan Mackenzie, who won his seat from a Democrat two years ago.
In the eighth congressional district in the state’s north-eastern corner, the mayor of Scranton, Paige Cognetti, faces no major challengers in her bid to oust Republican Rob Bresnahan Jr, who also flipped a Democratic-held seat in 2024.
In the Harrisburg-centered 10th district, county commissioner Justin Douglas is vying for the Democratic nomination against former broadcast anchor Janelle Stelson to take on incumbent Republican congressman Scott Perry.
Democrats also hope to oust moderate Republican Brian Fitzpatrick from the first district in suburban Philadelphia, and primary voters will weigh in on whether county commissioner Bob Harvie or former congressional science adviser Lucia Simonelli is a better bet.
And while there’s no doubt a Democrat will represent the third congressional district in Philadelphia, voters will first have to choose from three ideologically distinct candidates to replace retiring representative Dwight Evans.
Georgia
Republican voters will select their candidate to face off against the incumbent Democratic senator Jon Ossoff, who is seeking a second term representing a state Trump won two years ago. Three in the GOP are seen as frontrunners: Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, both congressmen, and Derek Dooley, a former football coach at the University of Tennessee. The outgoing Republican governor, Brian Kemp, has endorsed Dooley, but the president has not weighed in on the primary.
Georgia voters from both parties will also select candidates to replace Kemp as governor in a state that may play a major role in deciding the 2028 presidential election. Among the Republican candidates is Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state who defied Trump’s efforts to meddle in the 2020 election, attorney general Chris Carr, healthcare executive Rick Jackson and lieutenant governor Burt Jones, who has Trump’s endorsement. Democratic frontrunners include the former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Geoff Duncan, a former Republican who served as lieutenant governor, state representative Derrick Jackson, former state senator Jason Esteves and former county CEO and state representative Mike Thurmond.
Alabama
After the supreme court’s ruling last month winnowing the Voting Rights Act and allowing states to eliminate majority-Black congressional districts, Alabama’s Republican leaders quickly moved to implement a new congressional map that is expected to cost Democrats a seat in the House of Representatives. That required rearranging its primary schedule for House districts, and thus voters on Tuesday will nominate candidates for only three of Alabama’s seven House districts, with primaries for the rest set for August.
The state is heavily Republican, and the most closely watched race is the gubernatorial election to replace Kay Ivey, who is term-limited. US senator Tommy Tuberville is the frontrunner in the Republican primary, while former senator Doug Jones is expected to take the Democratic nomination. Congressman Barry Moore is the leading Republican to replace Tuberville in the Senate, but faces six other candidates in the primary. Trump has endorsed Tuberville and Moore.
Oregon
Blue-state Oregon lacks much in the way of competitive House and Senate seats, and changes in its federal delegation are unlikely this year. The most closely watched race may be its gubernatorial primary, where the Democratic governor, Tina Kotek, is vying for a second term amid lackluster approval ratings. Nine Democrats have filed to run against her, while 14 Republicans are standing in their primary. Among them is Chris Dudley, a former NBA player who won nearly 48% of the vote when he made an unsuccessful bid for governor in 2010, Christine Drazan, a state senator, state representative Ed Diehl and Danielle Bethell, a county commissioner.
Idaho
Idaho is one of the most Republican states in the nation, and the GOP is expected to once against sweep its House and Senate seats this year. Governor Brad Little is vying for a third term in office against nine primary challengers, but has outraised all of them. The situation is the same for Senator Jim Risch, who has three primary challengers but far more cash than any of them, and viewed as unlikely to lose either his primary, or the general election.
