Here's what to expect as voters across the country vote in primary elections.
Battles for governor, House and U.S. Senate, including some that drew the attention of President Donald Trump and his antagonists in show business, will be settled or narrowed today as seven states hold primaries or runoff elections.
There are primaries in Colorado, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma and Utah, and runoff elections in Mississippi and South Carolina. Here are the races to watch:
Colorado
Voters have been mailing in ballots for weeks, and those who waited until the last minute will be able to drop them off or register and vote in person from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. MDT.
Four-person primary battles for governor are usual for the Mile High State. This year they're happening on both the Democratic and the Republican ballots, and there are also new rules in place that allow voters who are not in either party to vote in the primary. That is making predictions difficult and raises the chances that the winning nominee will get much less than 50 percent of the vote in a state with no runoff rules.
Other key races include:
Maryland
Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT.
The Democratic battle for the nomination for governor has been marked by a split among influential members of the party. In a nine-person field, Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker has the support of U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and former Gov. Paris Glendening, while former NAACP Executive Director Ben Jealous has the backing of Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California.
Other key battles include:
- The Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, where two-term incumbent Ben Cardin faces seven challengers, including Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army private who was convicted of leaking more than 700,000 classified documents. There's also an 11-person battle for the Republican nomination.
- The Democratic and Republican primaries in the open seat in the 6th District. Democrats include millionaire wine store owner David Trone and state Del. Aruna Miller. On the Republican side, former Pentagon official Amie Hober has the backing of a Super PAC affiliated with House Speaker Paul Ryan.
- The three-way Democratic primary in the 1st District to pick a challenger to Republican Rep. Andy Harris.
Mississippi
Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CDT for runoff elections to pick the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate and the Republican nominee for the open seat in the 3rd District.
The challenger to Sen. Roger Wicker will either be venture capitalist Howard Sherman or state Rep. David Baria. Actors Robert De Niro and Alec Baldwan, two Trump antagonists, have hosted a fund-raiser for Sherman, who is married to actress Sela Ward.
The House battle is between district attorney Michael Guest and business consultant Whit Hughes, who will face Democratic state Rep. Michael Ted Evans in November. Republican Rep. Gregg Harper announced in January he would step down after 10 years in Congress because he never planned on it being a career.
New York
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. EDT in New York City and the counties of Dutchess, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Erie, and from noon to 9 p.m. in other parts of the state.
Trump has offered his support for Rep. Dan Donovan, a Republican facing a primary challenge from former Rep. Michael Grimm, who resigned in 2015 and served seven months in prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud.
Democrats have a six-person primary to pick a challenger for Donovan or Grimm. And there are a half-dozen other competitive primaries, including those that will pick challengers to several Republican House members whose re-elections could determine which party hold the majority next year, including Reps. Lee Zeldin, John Faso and John Katko.
Oklahoma
Polls for the are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CDT. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held Aug. 28 for the top two finishers.
The Republican battle to pick a nominee for the 1st District seat left vacant when Rep. Jim Bridenstine became director of NASA has become a pitched battle between factions of the national GOP almost as much as a contest between the candidates they are backing.
Iraq veteran Andy Coleman has the support of the Club for Growth Action, a group advocating for low taxes and small government that has already spent $345,000 opposing McDonald's franchiser Kevin Hern. The Congressional Leadership Alliance said Friday it was putting $100,000 into the race against Coleman.
There is also a 10-person contest for governor, including Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb, former Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett and mortgage banker Kevin Stitt. Lamb is being pulled down in the race by the unpopularity of outgoing Gov. Mary Fallin, according to Bill Shepard, director of the Sooner Poll.
Voters also will be asked to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes.
South Carolina
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EDT for runoff elections.
Trump has thrown his support behind Gov. Henry McMaster, who is in a runoff against Greenville businessman John Warren.
There is also a runoff between state Sen. William Timmons and former state Sen. Lee Bright for the GOP nomination in the 4th District, where Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy is retiring. Like the Oklahoma 1st District, outside groups that want to promote their own brand of Republicanism have gotten involved, buying ads and funding automated phone calls in the campaign's final days.
Utah
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. MDT.
After coming in a close second at a crowded state party convention earlier this year, 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney faces the man who bested him, state legislator Mike Kennedy, in the primary for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.
Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, won praise in Utah for helping to rescue what had been a troubled effort to stage the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. The seat he is seeking has been held by Orrin Hatch, who decided to retire in January after nearly 42 years in the Senate.
There's also a re-run of sorts playing out in the 3rd District, where Rep. John Curtis faces businessman Christopher Herrod in the primary. Last year, after Rep. Jason Chaffetz resigned, Curtis beat Herrod and another opponent in a special primary for the remainder of Chaffetz's term.