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Summary
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Millions of voters across the country headed to the polls today in crucial primaries in a slew of key gubernatorial, Senate and House races in six states: New Jersey, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico and California.
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Although California’s gubernatorial primary is too close to call, some candidates have begun issuing statements acknowledging they won’t be moving on to the state’s general election. San Jose mayor Matt Mahan, former congresswoman Katie Porter and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa acknowledged they will not be moving forward in the race. Steve Hilton, Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer lead the race for two nominations that will advance to November’s general election. California’s primary elections, including its fiercely fought gubernatorial contest, are at the mercy of a notoriously slow vote-counting system – meaning it could be days or even weeks before the outcomes of the tightest races become clear.
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Karen Bass came out ahead in Tuesday’s heated primary for Los Angeles mayor, but with less than 50% of the vote will have to defend her seat in November’s general election. She’ll likely run against either Spencer Pratt, a former reality TV star, or city council member Nithya Raman.
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Iowa state representative Josh Turek won the Democratic nomination for the state’s open US Senate seat – setting him up to face off against Ashley Hinson in the November general election. A former television anchor turned state senator, Hinson was endorsed by Donald Trump and retiring senator Joni Ernst.
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Adam Hamawy won the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, teeing the army doctor and political newcomer up to face off against Republican Gregg Mele in November’s general election. Hamawy decided to run for office after returning from a medical mission in Gaza in 2024 and meeting congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, who announced her retirement in November 2025.
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Deb Haaland won the Democratic nomination for governor in New Mexico. If elected in the November general election, Haaland would become the first Native American woman governor elected in the country.
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Christina Bohannan won the Democratic nomination for Iowa’s 1st congressional district. She will compete against incumbent Republican congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the November general election
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Zach Lahn narrowly won the Republican nomination for governor, and will face off against Democrat Rob Sand in Iowa’s general election this November. Five Republicans competed for the nomination to replace retiring Republican governor Kim Reynolds.
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Former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Benett won the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s 7th congressional district, and will challenge Republican congressman Tom Kean Jr. in the general election. Kean, who’s been absent from Congress, citing a health issue, since March shared a statement on social media saying he’s “more energized than ever” and will “be completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition” when he returns to work in “a matter of weeks”.
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As Americans went to the polls, Donald Trump congratulated and endorsed his preferred candidates across the country – and abroad. A day after voters in Colombia cast their ballots for president, nominating right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist senator Iván Cepeda, who will advance to a runoff election later this month, Trump endorsed de la Espriella.
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Alabama can use a redrawn congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts in this year’s midterm elections, the US supreme court ruled in a 6-3 decision today. The court’s emergency ruling is the most consequential decision it had issued since its landmark ruling in late April that struck down a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act.
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Scott Wiener has advanced in his bid to fill the seat Nancy Pelosi will vacate at the end of her term. Wiener has secured more votes than Democratic rival Connie Chan, a San Francisco supervisor, who Pelosi had endorsed.
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The high-stakes gubernatorial race in California remains too close to call, with early results showing a tight contest in the crowded race.
My colleague Lauren Gambino reports:
With many ballots still left to be counted, three candidates emerged at the top: Republican Steve Hilton and Democrats Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer. And results were clear enough that two Democratic candidates – San Jose mayor Matt Mahan and former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa – conceded the race shortly after polls closed.
Still, much could change in the days and weeks ahead. In California, where mail-in voting is popular and great pains are taken to verify each ballot, it could take days for the top two candidates in both races to become clear. And many Democrats strategically held on to their ballots until the last minute, further delaying vote counts across the state.
In a video message, former congresswoman Katie Porter conceded her bid for California governor.
“Running a race like this isn’t easy, and coming up short is hard, but democracy is worth doing hard things for,” she said.
Although it’s still too soon to say which candidates will head to the runoff election in California’s governor’s race, Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra are giving optimistic addresses at their election night parties.
Thanking Donald Trump for his endorsement during a speech in Orange County, Hilton said his chances are “looking good” and added “We’ve got everything we need for this state to be amazing again.”
In an address to supporters Becerra shared his personal story as the child of immigrants and said he wants to lead a state that “regularly makes the improbable seem inevitable.” Once an underdog in the race, Becerra is now polling among the leading three contenders for two spots in November’s general election.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass will advance to the November runoff; her opponent is TBD
LA mayor Karen Bass will advance to the November runoff in her bid for reelection.
Bass will likely run against either progressive city council member Nithya Raman or reality TV star Spencer Pratt.
My colleague Uwa Ede-Osifo has the full story:
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California’s primary elections, including its fiercely fought gubernatorial contest, are at the mercy of a notoriously slow vote-counting system – meaning it could be days or even weeks before the outcomes of the tightest races become clear.
As my colleague Andrew Gumbel reports:
Voting experts expect the state’s 58 county elections offices to be deluged with last-minute absentee ballots, as they have been in the last few election cycles, and spend weeks undertaking a painstaking ballot-by-ballot verification process.
That presents a procedural problem whenever races are close, as they tend to be in the state’s most competitive congressional districts, and the whole country is left waiting – as it was in 2020, 2022 and 2024 – to find out which party controls the House of Representatives.
Congressman Ro Khanna has won his primary election in California by a wide margin.
In a social media post, Khanna said his nomination “showed that you can stand up to billionaires in the heart of Silicon Valley and prevail.”
Alongside Republican Tom Massie, Khanna led efforts to release the Epstein files this year and has backed efforts to introduce a wealth tax on billionaires.
At his election night party, billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer said “we’re going to wait until every ballot is counted.” Steyer is currently polling third in a tight race for California governor, trailing just behind Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra.
“California is the richest state in the richest country in the history of the world. It’s unacceptable that right now, so many Californians struggle to make ends meet,” Steyer said. “My vision for California is based on a simple idea: The wellbeing of the most vulnerable shouldn’t depend on corporations and billionaires choosing to do the right thing.”
Steyer’s campaign spent or booked more than $203m in ads, setting the record for both the costliest campaign this year and in California gubernatorial history.
Lahn to face Sand in Iowa governor's race
Zach Lahn has narrowly won the Republican nomination for governor, and will face off against Rob Sand in Iowa’s general election this November.
Five Republicans competed for the nomination to replace retiring Republican governor Kim Reynolds. A farmer and businessman, Lahn campaign on an “Iowa First” agenda. The Associated Press called the race with Lahn receiving 37.8% of the vote to his rival Randy Feenstra’s 37%. Feenstra had been endorsed by Donald Trump.
Democrats are hoping to pull off a “once-in-a-generation” breakthrough in the GOP-dominated state with Trump’s approval ratings deep underwater, gas prices high and historical political trends favoring the party out of power. Pro-hunting state auditor Rob Sand is the face of that effort, and the last Democrat holding statewide-elected office in Iowa.
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Anticipating a long night of vote-counting ahead, incumbent LA mayor Karen Bass addressed supporters at the Lion Hotel in Koreatown.
Bass, who faces serious challenges from Nithya Raman and Spencer Pratt, said she will spend the next four years addressing homelessness and building more housing units.
She described LA as a rebounding city, and vowed to build on the progress made over the last three and a half years. Invoking the “dark day” a year ago when Donald Trump sent immigration troops into the city, Bass declared: “We are a city that is unified.”
The strength of her challengers would suggest voters in LA are not as unified around their choice for mayor as she would have hoped.
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Greg Hull, the former mayor of Rio Rancho, has won the Republican nomination for New Mexico’s governor’s seat.
“This fall, we will face Deb Haaland in the general election and we’re going to win,” Hull said. “And I respect that she has served in various positions over her career, but New Mexico families are hurting, and the policies of the last eight years under one-party control of this state have failed.” New Mexico has long reported among the highest poverty rates in the nation.
Hull is likely to face a challenging race for governor in the solidly blue state, where no Republican has won statewide office in 10 years.
Republican James Gallagher won the special election in California’s first congressional district to complete the term of the representative Doug LaMalfa, who died unexpectedly in January.
Gallagher had a significant lead over his two Democratic competitors in the deeply red region and will serve until the end of the year.
“This is for Doug,” Gallagher told a room full of supporters at an election night event in Chico.
It was the last race to be held under the current boundaries. California’s Proposition 50 redrew this district to give Democrats an advantage and made it a competitive for the first time in almost half a century.
Trump set off a wave of new mid-decade redistricting after urging Texas to adopt changes to favor Republicansduring the midterm elections.
Results indicated Gallagher, who was endorsed by Trump, won the special election decisively with 60% of votes and almost 70% of precincts reporting.
Gallagher was also on track to advance to the general election for a congressional term beginning in January. He’ll face a tough battle against Democrat Mike McGuire with the district having a solidly blue advantage.
“We’re gonna shock the world and win this district,” Gallagher said.
Wiener advances in race for Pelosi's House seat
Scott Wiener has advanced in his bid to fill the seat Nancy Pelosi will vacate at the end of her term. Wiener has secured more votes than Democratic rival Connie Chan, a San Francisco supervisor, who Pelosi had endorsed.
A Harvard Law School-educated attorney and prolific lawmaker in Sacramento, Wiener has long had his eye on Pelosi’s seat. In 2023, he formed an exploratory committee that has already raised $1m for a future congressional run, but had previously insisted that he would only do so if Pelosi decided to step down, my colleague Lauren Gambino reports.
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Although no winners have been named in California’s gubernatorial primary, some candidates have begun issuing statements acknowledging they won’t be moving on to the state’s general election.
Speaking to supporters shortly after polls closed, San Jose mayor Matt Mahan acknowledged he will not be moving forward in the race. “I want to congratulate my fellow candidates on a hard-fought campaign. While this campaign for governor ends tonight, our mission has only begun,” he said.
“Tonight didn’t turn out the way we hoped, and I offer my congratulations to the winners and offer my best wishes for the road ahead,” former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in a statement.
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Hours before California polls closed, voters in downtown Los Angeles trickled into a line around the corner of the historic Biltmore tower, a building whose lobby had been converted into a primary polling place.
Tyrone Brown, a Chicago native who has lived in Los Angeles for 10 years, waited in the line to cast a ballot for gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra and incumbent mayor Karen Bass.
“No mayor’s job is easy,” Brown, 33, said of Bass’ tenure, referencing in particular the recent presence of federal immigration agents in the city. He regards her as more qualified for the job than her challenger, council member Nithya Raman. “I think she deserves another term.”
Suzette Shaw, a 62-year-old Skid Row resident, has not been “happy” with the Democrats at the state and local level. She backed Bass’ first term, but has since been disillusioned with public safety issues in her neighborhood.
“We have drug dealers on every block and every corner, primarily here in downtown, especially where I live. I take great issue with that,” she said.
At the same time, Shaw does not want to see Republicans come into power in either the mayoral or governor’s race. “I am still undecided,” she said, nearby the entrance of the polling site.
A few blocks away from the tower, sexual health educator Michael Castro, 29, who bore a “I vote” sticker tacked to his shirt, and community health worker Dante Rodriguez, 32, expressed disapproval with Bass’ handling of the wildfire response and track record on homelessness. They voted instead for Raman.
The gubernatorial contest was a harder choice because of the crowded contest, said Rodriguez. “We went with – what was his name?” Rodriguez said, recalling billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer. He has no love for billionaires, but resonated with Steyer’s messaging about the environment.
“I wish it was like New York where it’s ranked voting because then I think we can have more progressive candidates get in,” he added of the state’s top two primary.
Robert Garcia has won the Democratic nomination for California’s 42nd congressional district.
An incumbent two-term Democratic LGBTQ+ congressman, immigrant and Donald Trump critic, Garcia is representing new communities thanks to a successful redistricting effort that redrew California’s voting maps to favor Democrats. If re-elected in November, Garica would now represent the conservative California community of Huntington Beach, known for banning the Pride flag from city property and fighting the state over pandemic and housing policy.
My colleague Dani Anguiano reports:
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Results are beginning to pour in from California:
Mark DeSaulnier has won the Democratic nomination for the state’s 10th congressional district
Kevin Mullin has won the party’s nomination in the 15th district.
John Garamendi is the Democratic nominee in the 8th district.
Judy Chu is the party’s nominee in the 28th district.
And Derek Tran has won the Democratic nomination in the 45th district.
As results roll in from primaries across the country, here are some images of the scene at election night parties and events from the newswires:
Jasmeet Bains, a California state assemblywoman running in a competitive primary for the chance to face Republican Representative David Valadao in November, announced on Tuesday that she would cancel her election night event after a man took people hostage at a bank in Bakersfield.
According to local police, a man had barricaded himself inside a Chase bank in the southern California city of Bakersfield with “several community members”.
“Out of an abundance of caution, and to avoid creating a large gathering of people in close proximity to this incident, we will no longer hold an in-person Election Night event in downtown,” Bains said in a statement, issued shortly before polls closed across the state.
She encouraged residents to “avoid downtown Bakersfield at this time”.
“My thoughts are with all of the families impacted by this concerning situation,” she said.
The Democratic Governors Association has congratulated Deb Haaland on winning her race for the Democratic nomination to become New Mexico’s next governor, saying her life story is “one of resilience”.
“She knows the pain New Mexicans are feeling right now, which is why she will never stop fighting to bring down costs and create jobs, strengthen schools, expand affordable health care, and create safer communities,” said association chair and Kentucky governor Andy Beshear.
Haaland celebrated her victory Tuesday evening in Albuquerque’s Old Town, where singers from Laguna Pueblo congratulated her and attendants joined in a Tiwa language prayer and traditional hoop dancing.
Polls close in California
Polls have closed in California, where voters are casting ballots on who should lead the nation’s most populous state (and the world’s fourth largest economy). The race for Los Angeles mayor is also on the ballot, along with a series of high-stakes US House contests in the state’s newly redrawn congressional districts – which are set to play an outsized and potentially decisive role in the battle for power in Washington in November’s midterm elections.
Alabama can use a redrawn congressional map that eliminates one of the state’s two majority-Black districts in this year’s midterm elections, the US supreme court ruled in a 6-3 decision today.
My colleague Sam Levine has the full story:
The court’s emergency ruling is the most consequential decision it had issued since its landmark ruling in late April that struck down a critical provision of the Voting Rights Act. In that case, Louisiana v Callais, the court’s majority made it nearly impossible to win Voting Rights Act claims, saying that plaintiffs had to prove intentional discrimination. But on 26 May, a three-judge panel said the map Alabama wants to use for this year’s midterm was enacted with discriminatory intent.
But in an unsigned opinion on Tuesday, the court’s conservative justices said the panel had failed to properly reconsider the case in light of the Callais decision and other recent cases weakening the Voting Rights Act.
Mariannette Miller-Meeks has won the Republican nomination in her bid for re-election to represent Iowa’s 1st congressional district, despite competition from MAGA candidate David Pautch.
Miller-Meeks will face off against Democratic nominee Christina Bohannan in the November general election.
Polls close in Montana
Polls have closed in Montana, where a five-way Democratic fight is under way for the retiring Republican senator’s seat. Independent Seth Bodnar, former president of the University of Montana, is outraising them all at the moment but they’re refusing to step aside, Politico reported this morning.
Christina Bohannan has won the Democratic nomination for Iowa’s 1st congressional district. She will compete against incumbent Republican congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the November general election.
“Representative Miller-Meeks has gone Washington. Her outright corruption is fueling the cost of living crisis. She sides with insurance companies and Big Pharma over affordable, accessible healthcare for her constituents,” Bohannan said in a statement celebrating her nomination. “Miller-Meeks is too beholden to billionaires and special interests to ever address the needs of everyday working people.”
Bohannan is running for congress for the third time. In 2024, she came within about 800 votes of unseating Miller-Meeks.
Turek and Hinson to face-off for Iowa's Senate seat
Iowa state representative Josh Turek has won the Democratic nomination for the state’s open US Senate seat – teeing him up to face off against Trump-endorsed Ashley Hinson in the November general election.
While Hinson has received the president’s endorsement, and Turek has called himself as a “common-sense prairie populist”, both spoke of bipartisanship in statements released after their victories.
“My record is one of delivering bipartisan results for Iowans, and that’s exactly what I’ll do in the United States Senate. I’ll work with anyone, from any party, to get things done for Iowa,” Hinson said.
“This campaign has always been about having a Senator from Iowa fighting for the people of Iowa, not for the billionaires or large corporations. In the U.S. Senate, I will work with anyone to address rising costs, stagnant incomes, and out-of-control corruption in D.C. that continues to hurt working people, and I will be a real fighter for Iowans, the middle class and our working families,” Turek said. If he wins in November, he would become Iowa’s first Democratic senator since 2008.
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Hamawy wins Democratic nomination for New Jersey's 12th district
Adam Hamawy has won the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, teeing the army doctor and political newcomer up to face off against Republican Gregg Mele in November’s general election.
“Dr. Hamawy won this race the old-fashioned way by outworking his opponents, out-organizing the establishment, and building the progressive coalition needed to deliver his people-first vision to New Jersey working families,” said Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, a political action committee that supports progressive candidates. “AIPAC, Crypto, and AI wanted to buy this seat and interviewed various candidates, but while they couldn’t choose which corporate shill to back, the left united behind a political outsider with a vision that spoke to the needs and priorities of Jersey voters.”
After returning from a medical mission in Gaza in 2024, Hamawy went to Washington to describe the crisis – which he viewed as a US-funded genocide – to lawmakers, only to encounter “too many doors that were closed, that didn’t even want to listen”, my colleague Joseph Gedeon reports.
One of the few representatives on Capitol Hill who met with him was his own: Bonnie Watson Coleman, who has served New Jersey’s 12th congressional district for more than a decade. When she announced her retirement in November 2025, after six terms, Hamawy decided it was no longer enough to seek the attention of those elected to serve in Washington – and launched his campaign to join them.
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Haaland wins Democratic nomination for New Mexico governor
Deb Haaland has won the Democratic nomination for governor in New Mexico. If elected in the November general election, Haaland would become the first Native American woman governor elected in the country.
A single, working mother, Haaland came on the national scene in 2018 when she was elected to Congress alongside a wave of freshman, female lawmakers known as “The Squad” who’d run in reaction to Donald Trump’s election in 2016. Haaland resigned from the House of Representatives in 2021 when Joe Biden chose her to lead his interior department, making her the first Native American to serve in the roll, which includes overseeing much of the nation’s public lands and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
During her time in congress, Haaland – who is from Laguna Pueblo - introduced legislation to stem the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, and as interior secretary she oversaw the formation of a new Missing & Murdered Unit (MMU) within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Last year, New Mexico became the fourth state in the country to create its own law enforcement alert system for missing Indigenous people. Haaland also launched a historic effort to investigate the legacy of Native American boarding schools.
Haaland has campaigned as a fierce critic of Donald Trump, saying in campaign ads that, “Governors are the first line of defense against the horrific policies of the Trump administration.” Since Trump returned to office, New Mexico has been one of few Democratic strongholds in the south-west – with the state working to shore up protections for abortion patients, transgender people and SNAP and Medicaid recipients.
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Democratic senator Ben Ray Luján has won his primary in his bid for re-election in New Mexico.
Celebrating her victory in the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 7th congressional district, Rebecca Bennett called her Republican opposition Tom Kean Jr a “coward”.
“You are failing us, and you do not deserve to represent us in Washington,” Bennett said, addressing Kean who has been away from Congress with an unspecified illness since March.
Ashley Hinson has won the Republican nomination to replace retiring Iowa senator Joni Ernst.
A former television anchor turned state senator, Hinson was endorsed by Donald Trump and Ernst in her race against former state senator Jim Carlin.
Election results are coming in from South Dakota, where Mike Rounds has won the Republican nomination for Senate and Marty Jackley has won the Republican nomination for the state’s 1st congressional district.
New Jersey Republican not seen in Congress since March issues statement after uncontested primary win
Tom Kean Jr says he is “more energized than ever”, in a statement posted to social media nearly three months after he last appeared in Congress.
The New Jersey Republican, who won his uncontested primary today, has been away from his office dealing with a “personal medical issue”.
In a post on social media today, Kean said he was “focused on my recovery and under the advice of healthcare professionals.” He added, “I will transition from virtual work to in person work within a matter of weeks. At that time I will be completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition.”
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Polls close in Iowa, New Mexico, South Dakota
Polls have closed in Iowa, New Mexico and all of South Dakota.
In Iowa, Democrats are considering a comeback, with Trump’s approval ratings deep underwater, gas prices high and historical political trends favoring the party out of power. That effort for a “once-in-a-generation” breakthrough in the GOP-dominated state is being led by pro-hunting Democrat Rob Sand, who is running for governor. Democrats also believe they have a shot at winning three of the state’s US House seats and a competitive chance at securing a US Senate seat, where the GOP frontrunner recently called Trump’s war on Iran a “political liability”.
Meanwhile, in New Mexico, voters will nominate candidates for congressional seats and a US senate seat, but the governor’s race is the main event. Deb Haaland, who was Joe Biden’s interior secretary, is running for the Democratic nomination. If she wins in November, Haaland would become the first Native American female governor in the country.
And, in South Dakota, we’re watching the race for state governor, Sioux Falls mayor, a US Senate and House seat, a Republican primary for local lawmakers. The incumbent GOP governor Larry Rhoden faces three primary challengers in his first run for a full term. He stepped up into the role from the lieutenant governorship when the former governor, the since-ousted Kristi Noem, left to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
Rebecca Bennett wins Democratic nomination in New Jersey's district 7
Rebecca Bennett has won the Democratic nomination in her bid to unseat Republican congressman Tom Kean Jr.
A former Navy helicopter pilot, Bennett will face off in the general election against Kean, who’s been absent from Congress, citing a health issue, since March.
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As Americans head to the polls in six states today, Donald Trump is congratulating his preferred candidates across the country – and abroad.
Yesterday, voters in Colombia cast their ballots for president, in a race to determine who will replace outgoing president Gustavo Petro. Right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist senator Iván Cepeda will advance to a runoff election later this month.
In a post on Truth Social today, Trump congratulated de la Espriella: “As President, Abelardo would be tremendously successful in leading Colombia to Grow the Economy, Create Jobs, Promote Trade, Stop Illegal Immigration, Crack Down on Crime and Drugs, and Restore LAW AND ORDER! Abelardo will face off against a Radical Left Marxist in the Runoff on June 21st — The results of this Election are very important to the future of Colombia and its relationship to the United States.”
Our South America correspondent Tiago Rogero has more on Colombia’s election:
Californians casting their vote for governor today may see a surprisingly familiar name on their ballot: Barack Obama.
The former president is not running for California governor, despite what some Democrats might wish. Barack D Obama Shaw, of Alameda, California, however, is running – one of 61 candidates vying to lead the nation’s most populous state.
Born Cecil Shaw III, the musician-turned-gubernatorial hopeful said he changed his name in 2013 in honor of the 44th president.
In an interview on Tuesday, the 56-year-old candidate likened his name change to a newly elected Pope selecting a papal name. “Instead of people asking, ‘what are you about?’ … the name told them,” he said. “It gave them an idea of the kind of leader people could expect, and that’s in essence what I was creating.”
“As far as I’m concerned he brought hope into the world,” Shaw said of his presidential namesake. “That’s the space I want to stand in - not necessarily the presidency, but I want people to start believing in our country again. That’s what I’m about.”
Obama’s historic election in 2008 was “one of the proudest moments of my life,’ Shaw recalled, and inspired him as a US Army reservist. “When I was in the military, he was my commander in chief, and he was the reason why a musician like myself would get into the military,” the candidate said.
The D in his middle name stands for Denzel, a reference to the actor Denzel Washington, whom his friends used to compare him to.
“I never used [the name] to make money for profit or gain in any kind of way,” he said. “But when it came to politics, I was like Frodo Baggins, I gotta take this ring – this name – back to where it belongs – and it belongs in the political arena.”
While the name is familiar, the candidate is less so.
No poll of the race has ever included Shaw, or the dozens of other candidates whose names appear alongside his on the ballot. Even more prominent political figures - like San Jose mayor Matt Mahan and former congresswoman Katie Porter – are considered long shots in the race to succeed Gavin Newsom.
But Shaw is undaunted. He ran for mayor of Alameda in 2022 to make a difference in his city. No matter what happens on Tuesday, he insists this won’t be the last time Californians see his name.
“My family is known for music,” Shaw said, “but I also wanted to be known for hope.”
Results called for New Jersey's 8, 10th and 11th congressional districts
The Associated Press has began calling the first races of the evening, with Analilia Mejia winning the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district, Rob Menendez winning the party’s nomination in the state’s 8th congressional district and LaMonica McIve winning the Democratic nomination in the state’s 10th congressional district.
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Within minutes of polls closing in New Jersey, Donald Trump has already congratulated Tom Kean Jr, Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew – all Republican candidates for Congress who ran uncontested.
In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump celebrated the wins of the three candidates, who he had endorsed.
Polls close in New Jersey
Polls have closed in New Jersey and parts of South Dakota. South Dakota spans two time zones and results are not released until the final polls have closed at 9 pm ET.
In New Jersey, we’re paying close attention to the House race where now-infamous Republican Tom Kean Jr, who has drawn public scrutiny and concern after missing more than 100 House votes due to an undisclosed illness, is vying for his party’s nomination while veteran army trauma surgeon and political newcomer Adam Hamawy competes for the Democratic nomination.
The Guardian follows the Associated Press in calling an election. We’ll bring you the results from all of tonight’s primary elections as the AP calls the races.
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With the first polls of the evening set to close shortly, here are some images from the elections happening across the country:
Senate hopeful Ken Paxton, a Republican from Texas, met with Donald Trump and other Republican leaders in Washington today.
Trump endorsed Paxton ahead of his primary last month, where Paxton beat four-term incumbent John Cornyn. Paxton will face off against Democrat James Talarico in November’s general election.
The Associated Press reported Paxton’s scheduled meeting with Trump, citing a person with knowledge of the president’s plans who was not authorized to discuss them publicly.
Paxton is also expected to meet with Senate majority leader John Thune, who backed Cornyn. Although Senate Republicans accused Paxton of “repulsive and disgusting” behavior during the primary, Paxton’s meeting with Thune signals the party may be working to ameliorate its relationship with the nominee.
Voters in Maine won’t head to the polls until next week, but the state’s primary election has been shaken up by recent news about Senate hopeful Graham Platner.
According to information his wife shared with his campaign last year, Platner exchanged sexually explicit texts with other women during his marriage, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported, and which the Guardian has confirmed.
My colleagues Shrai Popat, George Chidi and Chris Stein have more:
Graham Platner met on Tuesday with Democratic leaders in Washington DC as the embattled Maine Senate candidate contends with yet another revelation threatening his campaign, which is at the center of his party’s hopes of regaining control of Congress.
Platner did not respond to questions from reporters and quickly entered a waiting car as he exited the meeting, which stretched for more than an hour and a half at the headquarters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). A spokesperson for the DSCC did not respond to a request for comment.
Platner’s campaign has been captivating and tumultuous in turns before the 9 June primary. A political unknown before 2025, the Maine oyster fisher and marine combat veteran’s plainspoken progressive pitch to voters resonated on social media and sparked conversation about the way Democratic candidates should position themselves against authoritarianism.
On the day Donald Trump endorsed him as a tireless advocate for New Jersey’s seventh district, the representative Tom Kean Jr was, as he has been since early March, nowhere to be found.
Kean, a New Jersey Republican, was last seen when he cast a House floor vote on 5 March, and he is running unopposed in Tuesday’s Republican primary. The Democratic race in his district, meanwhile, has attracted multiple candidates and ample fundraising.
In late April, his office said he was dealing with a “personal medical issue” and would be back “very soon”. He told the New Jersey Globe last month he expected to return within “the next couple of weeks”. In the meantime, Kean’s social media accounts have continued posting regularly, with staff attending ribbon-cuttings and graduation ceremonies on his behalf.
New Mexico voters to decide who will advance to governor's race in November
In my home state of New Mexico, voters from both parties will nominate candidates to become the next governor, as Michelle Lujan Grisham is set to step down from the seat she’s filled since 2019. Increasingly recognized as a solidly blue state, the Democratic nominee is likely to win the general election.
Democratic voters will choose to nominate either Deb Haaland, who served as Joe Biden’s interior secretary, or Sam Bregman, the Bernalillo County district attorney. Haaland has polled safely in the lead in the run-up to the election. Her win would be a victory for Native American advocates across the country and a rebuke of the Trump administration.
A single, working mother, Haaland came on the national scene in 2018 when she was elected to Congress alongside a wave of freshman, female lawmakers known as “The Squad” who’d run in reaction to Donald Trump’s election in 2016. Haaland resigned from the House of Representatives in 2021 when Joe Biden chose her to lead his interior department, making her the first Native American to serve in the roll, which includes overseeing much of the nation’s public lands and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
During her time in congress, Haaland – who is from Laguna Pueblo - introduced legislation to stem the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, and as interior secretary she oversaw the formation of a new Missing & Murdered Unit (MMU) within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Last year, New Mexico became the fourth state in the country to create its own law enforcement alert system for missing Indigenous people. Haaland also launched a historic effort to investigate the legacy of Native American boarding schools.
If elected in the November general election, Haaland would become the first Native American woman governor elected in the country.
Haaland has campaigned as a fierce critic of Donald Trump, saying in campaign ads that, “Governors are the first line of defense against the horrific policies of the Trump administration.” Since Trump returned to office, New Mexico has been one of few Democratic strongholds in the south-west – with the state working to shore up protections for abortion patients, transgender people and SNAP and Medicaid recipients.
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California’s primary elections, including its fiercely fought gubernatorial contest, will be at the mercy of a notoriously slow vote-counting system after the polls close on Tuesday, and it could be days or even weeks before the outcomes of the tightest races become clear.
Voting experts expect the state’s 58 county elections offices to be deluged with last-minute absentee ballots, as they have been in the last few election cycles, and spend weeks undertaking a painstaking ballot-by-ballot verification process.
That presents a procedural problem whenever races are close, as they tend to be in the state’s most competitive congressional districts, and the whole country is left waiting – as it was in 2020, 2022 and 2024 – to find out which party controls the House of Representatives.
Knocking on strangers’ doors on a warm May afternoon in Trenton, New Jersey, Adam Hamawy did not seem fazed when more than a few went unanswered.
It’s his first time running for office, but this is an area where he has experience. After returning from a medical mission in Gaza in 2024, Hamawy went to Washington to describe the crisis – which he viewed as a US-funded genocide – to lawmakers, only to encounter “too many doors that were closed, that didn’t even want to listen”.
“I could only define it as a genocide, because I saw the bodies of the people that came in,” the veteran army trauma surgeon and political newcomer reflected, while walking between houses. “And it wasn’t an accident. You can’t have an accident, every single day for three years.
Rob Sand, the best known Democrat in Iowa, is running to lead a state that Republicans have come to dominate under Donald Trump, and Democrats believe his candidacy for governor could be the breakthrough needed to win key Iowa offices in the November midterm elections.
With Trump’s approval ratings deep underwater, gas prices high and historical political trends favoring the party out of power, Democrats this year are considering a comeback in Iowa, putting the state at the center of their campaigns to win back control of both the US House of Representatives and the Senate. On Tuesday, voters will cast ballots in primary elections that set the stage for months of what is likely to be fevered campaigning by candidates of both parties.
“I think this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us to be able to win here in Iowa. I mean, this is a state that has completely hit the bottom,” said Josh Turek, a state representative who is one of two Democrats vying to represent Iowa in the US Senate.
Voters in six states have been casting their ballots in the US midterm election primaries. Here are some of the images from polling stations that have dropped on the news wires today:
A wave of Democratic doctors, scientists and public health professionals across the country are seeking office in the midterm elections in a rebuke to Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr’s health policies.
They share a diagnosis of what ails American governance – disinformation, funding cuts and the rollback of research, among other things – and the belief that their clinical and scientific training equips them to treat it.
They have watched the Trump administration’s health policies play out in their exam rooms, their labs and the communities they serve, and they want to stop the bleeding.
Explained: what is California's 'jungle primary'?
In California, voters can select any candidate among the long list of gubernatorial hopefuls, regardless of which party they have registered with.
The system was put in place under former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who supported the open primary, or “jungle primary”, as a way to create more competition in races that Democrats won year after year. Schwarzenegger, who left office in 2011, was the last Republican elected to statewide office in California.
In a crowded race like this year’s gubernatorial primary, the system could cause some unexpected results – such as the possibility that emerged earlier this year of two Republicans advancing to the general election in deep blue California.
That situation now appears unlikely, but the possibility has prompted some Democrats to push to overhaul the way the state votes.
Millions of voters across the country are heading to the polls today in crucial primaries in a slew of key gubernatorial, Senate and House races.
Here’s a quick rundown of what we’re watching:
California
Voters are casting ballots on who should lead the nation’s most populous state (and the world’s fourth largest economy), where there is no clear leader among candidates vying to advance in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic governor Gavin Newsom. The race for Los Angeles mayor is also on the ballot, along with a series of high-stakes US House contests in the state’s newly redrawn congressional districts – which are set to play an outsized and potentially decisive role in the battle for power in Washington in November’s midterm elections. My colleague Lauren Gambino has more:
Iowa
Per my colleague Chris Stein, with Trump’s approval ratings deep underwater, gas prices high and historical political trends favoring the party out of power, Democrats this year are considering a comeback in Iowa, putting the state at the center of their campaigns to win back control of both the US House and the Senate. That effort for a “once-in-a-generation” breakthrough in the GOP-dominated state is being led by pro-hunting Democrat Rob Sand, who is running for governor. Chris wrote about him below. Democrats also believe they have a shot at winning three of the state’s US House seats and a competitive chance at securing a US Senate seat, where the GOP frontrunner recently called Trump’s war on Iran a “political liability”.
New Jersey
One of this year’s most closely watched House midterms will take place in the battleground district currently represented by now-infamous Republican Tom Kean Jr, who has drawn public scrutiny and concern after missing more than 100 House votes due to an undisclosed illness. Voters are deciding which Democrat will run against him in November – and the seat is a must-win for the party. The frontrunner, veteran army trauma surgeon and political newcomer Adam Hamawy, has secured endorsements from the likes of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. My colleague Joseph Gedeon has more:
New Mexico
Contests in the state include primaries for congressional seats, a US Senate seat and a long list of statewide offices, but the governor’s race is the main event. Deb Haaland, who was Joe Biden’s interior secretary, is running for the Democratic nomination, which could put her on a historic path for Native American leaders.
Montana
In Montana, a five-way Democratic fight is under way for the retiring Republican senator’s seat. Independent Seth Bodnar, former president of the University of Montana, is outraising them all at the moment but they’re refusing to step aside, Politico reports this morning.
South Dakota
The race is on for state governor, Sioux Falls mayor, a US Senate and House seat, a Republican primary for local lawmakers. The incumbent GOP governor Larry Rhoden faces three primary challengers in his first run for a full term. He stepped up into the role from the lieutenant governorship when the former governor, the since-ousted Kristi Noem, left to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
