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New York Rep. Joe Crowley, who had been seen as the potential leader of the House Democrats if they won the majority in November, was upset Tuesday in his party's primary by a 28-year-old Bernie Sanders supporter, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster won the Republican nomination in a runoff with the strong support of President Trump, who said a loss would be fodder for "fake news" to attack him.

And New York Rep. Dan Donovan — also endorsed by Trump — was nominated after defeating former Rep. Michael Grimm, who was trying to regain his seat after serving time in prison for tax fraud.

Colorado, Maryland, Oklahoma and Utah are also having primaries, though a problem with voter registration data in Maryland had the potential to delay declarations of winners. Mississippi held runoff elections. Here's what we know so far:

Colorado

Five-term Democratic Rep. Jared Polis will face state Treasurer Walker Stapleton, a Republican in the race to succeed Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper in November.

Both Polis and Stapleton won four-person primaries, which are unusual in the Mile High State. This year's primary was also notable because for voters who were not in either party were also eligible to vote.

Other key races include:

Maryland

State election officials said as many as 80,000 people may have to cast provisional ballots on primary day because of a computer problem. Local elections officials will begin examining those ballots on July 5. That means the calling of close races could be delayed.

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 defeated seven challengers, including 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

The challenger to Sen. Roger Wicker will be state House Minority Leader David Baria, who defeated venture capitalist Howard Sherman in a runoff. Actors Robert De Niro and Alec Baldwin, two Trump antagonists, hosted a fund-raiser for Sherman, who is married to actress Sela Ward.

And in Mississippi's 3rd District, district attorney Michael Guest defeated business consultant Whit Hughes for the nomination to 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

The race between Donovan, a former district attorney, and Grimm, who resigned in 2015 when he was under investigation, was a nasty one. Trump weighed in with a Tweet supporting Donovan, but he also made things awkward by saying Donovan had voted for the sweeping tax overhaul in December that Donovan actually opposed.

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

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

McMaster faced a tougher-than-expected race for a full term as governor against Warren, who is made allegations of political corruption a major theme of his campaign. Warren  even borrowed a Trumpian theme, promising to "drain the swamp" of South Carolina politics.

McMaster, who moved up from lieutenant governor last year when Trump picked Gov. Nikki Haley to be ambassador to the United Nations, was one of the first state officials to endorse Trump for president. 

After his plane arrived nearly an hour late because of bad weather, Trump praised McMaster at a rally Monday night, saying that while the economy was surging because of federal policies, McMaster played a hand too. 

State Sen. William Timmons beat former state Sen. Lee Bright for the GOP nomination in the 4th District, where Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy is retiring.

During a Republican debate earlier this month, Timmons said he would "try to shake things up in a positive, disruptive way" in Congress.

At a candidate forum hosted by The Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, Timmons also warned that if Bright were elected he would "be on the front page of papers all over this planet."

“He is going to say things that y’all do not agree with," Timmons said. "He is going to say things that embarrass you, and it is going to cause problems for the Upstate.”

Utah

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.

Contributing: Kirk Brown and Nikie Mayo, The Greenville News

 

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