It's primary day in Maine, South Carolina, Nevada and North Dakota.
While we've all heard doom and gloom takes on Graham Platner's general election chances in Maine, he's likely to be the Democratic nominee. His message is resonating with rural Maine voters as well as voters in the city and Maine Dems are standing by their man. Which is refreshing, given how Democrats usually abandon their candidates instead of standing with them.
In South Carolina, will Lindsey Graham escape without a runoff? We shall see. Trump-endorsed megaMAGA candidate Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette has 5 other Republicans challenging for the nomination, including Nancy Mace who is surprisingly close to being tied with the others.
Nevada's incumbent Republican governor Joe Lombardo faces six Republican challengers for the nomination. With the dark anti-incumbent mood of the country right now, that could prove a challenge.
Dem AG Aaron Ford is the most likely contender for the Democratic nomination.
There is also a primary for Mark Amodei's open House seat tonight. That district has a 70,000 Republican registration advantage, but Democrats are hoping to attract independents to their cause.
In North Dakota, unusually high early turnout is reported. This is at least in part because mail-in ballots must now be received by Election Day. Any received after that will not be counted.
Democrat Trygve Hammer is running again for the sole House seat and will either face incumbent Rep. Julie Fedorchak or challenger former foreign service officer Alex Balazs. Hammer has mounted a formidable challenge in the two years since his defeat by Fedorchak, and will be one to watch in November.
And an update on last week's California primary: We're still counting and that's okay. I would much rather be counting ballots carefully than being haphazard and possibly causing someone to lose who would otherwise have won. Don't let the noise bother you.
I am on east coast time this week, so it's unlikely there will be updates on this post tonight, but you can certainly put your observations in the comments.
Open thread below...
UPDATE: Our site has been under attack for the last two days. Apologies for the inconvenience. Platner will win his primary and plans a scathing anti-Susan Collins acceptance speech. Good. Lindsey Graham and Jim Clyburn are both safe in South Carolina. Nancy Mace is dead last in the governor's race. And that's all I know. Until we can block the ongoing attacks, the site may be a bit up and down. Be patient. We'll get it ironed out.
