Primary Elections Live Updates: Michigan’s Senate Battle Leads a Five-State Slate

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive, faces Representative Haley Stevens, a moderate, in the Democratic primary for Senate. Kansas, Missouri, Virginia and Washington are also voting today. Nick Hagen for The New York Times Kirsten Luce for The New York Times Kirsten Luce for The New York Times Nick Hagen for The New York Times Kirsten Luce for The New York Times Latest Pinned One of this year’s biggest primary elections is underway in Michigan, where two Democratic Senate candidates with deep ideological disagreements and sharply different styles are facing off in a major test of the party’s direction. The bitter, expensive race pits Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive former public health official, against Representative Haley Stevens, a centrist supported by party leaders. The winner will defend the seat of Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat who is retiring, in a battleground state that could determine control of the Senate. Along with Michigan, four other states are holding primaries on Tuesday: Kansas, Virginia, Washington and Missouri. In Michigan, Dr. El-Sayed, a proponent of universal health care and a forceful critic of U.S. military aid to Israel, planned to spend Tuesday campaigning in the Detroit area, according to his campaign. Ms. Stevens, who casts herself as a bipartisan antidote to Washington dysfunction and a strong ally of Israel, started the day at a church in Grand Rapids, Mich., and planned to make her way to Detroit by the evening, her campaign said. Ms. Stevens wasted little time lacing into her opponent on Tuesday morning, telling reporters in Grand Rapids that he was running for “celebrity and fame and probably fortune as well.” Dr. El-Sayed, a former Detroit and Wayne County health official, called such claims “odd” in an interview last week and said he’d focused on “getting things done in the places and in the spaces where people don’t pay attention.” Dr. El-Sayed, who has led in the limited public polling available, has also sounded increasingly confident notes about his ability to prevail in a general election. The winner of Tuesday’s primary will take on former Representative Mike Rogers, who is running unopposed for the Republican nomination. Democrats have anxiously debated which candidate would mount a stronger campaign against him this fall, and Ms. Stevens’s supporters have argued that she would be better positioned in a closely divided state. Dr. El-Sayed told reporters Monday night that Mr. Rogers was a “generationally bad candidate” and suggested that it would feel “inevitable” when, he predicted, he beat Mr. Rogers by seven percentage points. A representative for Mr. Rogers did not reply to a request for comment. The Democratic candidates have spent weeks trading attacks, sometimes in strikingly personal terms. In an interview with an activist published in recent days, Dr. El-Sayed called Ms. Stevens “the least capable candidate in America” as he assailed her support from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, whose main super PAC spent tens of millions of dollars to back her. Ms. Stevens responded by writing on social media that he wanted to “blame all” of his “problems on Jewish Americans.” After such a rancorous primary, some Democrats are worried about party unity headed into the general election in the closely divided state. State Senator Mallory McMorrow, who dropped out of the Democratic Senate primary earlier this summer, has increasingly signaled that she intends to be a vocal advocate for uniting around the eventual nominee. In Detroit, voters are also choosing whether to back Representative Shri Thanedar, a second-term Democrat, or the democratic socialist challenging him, State Representative Donavan McKinney. And in a swing congressional district that includes Lansing, two centrist Democrats and a progressive are battling to determine who will take on Representative Tom Barrett, a vulnerable Republican who has sought distance from President Trump. Here’s what else to watch for: A Missouri comeback? Former Representative Cori Bush, a democratic socialist, lost two years ago to Wesley Bell, a Democrat who was lifted by spending by pro-Israel groups. Now Ms. Bush is trying to wrest back the solidly blue St. Louis-area seat from Mr. Bell. Heavy AIPAC-tied spending: The Senate race in Michigan has been deluged by about $60 million in outside spending for Ms. Stevens. More than half came from AIPAC’s super PAC arm, and that funding became a core issue in the contest. Control in Kansas: With Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas, a Democrat, leaving office because of term limits, Democrats and Republicans have piled into the race to replace her. State Senator Ty Masterson has Mr. Trump’s endorsement in the Republican primary. Two state lawmakers are running against a mayor in the Democratic primary. A Pacific primary fight: Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, an outspoken centrist Democrat, is trying to fend off primary challengers in her southwestern Washington State district. The Race for Congress: Latest 2026 Polls Track the latest Congressional ballot surveys that ask who Americans plan to vote for in the 2026 midterm election. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Aug. 4, 2026, 11:42 a.m. ET Washington State’s primary elections on Tuesday offer a significant test of political polarization and President Trump’s influence. In the Third Congressional District, Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez — a moderate Democrat who has regularly broken with her party to work across the aisle — is fighting off challengers from both the right and left to defend a rural swing district that voted three times for Mr. Trump. At the same time, in the conservative Fourth District in Central Washington, the retirement of Representative Dan Newhouse, a Republican, has touched off a scramble among G.O.P. contenders. Under Washington’s nonpartisan primary system, all candidates appear on a single ballot regardless of party affiliation, with only the top two vote-getters advancing to the general election. Washington and California are the only states that use a nonpartisan “top-two” primary mechanism in congressional races. Here’s what to watch: A moderate Democrat faces rivals from the right and the left. Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez’s seat is one of just 18 rated as tossups by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, and is a top target for Republicans. Mr. Trump has backed John Braun, the minority leader of the Washington State Senate and a retired Navy captain, betting that he is the best Republican to unseat Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez. Mr. Braun owns a business that manufactures emergency vehicles, and has campaigned heavily on economic issues. Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez, a former co-owner of an auto shop who has sought to appeal to blue-collar voters, is also facing a serious challenge from Brent Hennrich, a progressive. But she is expected to advance to the general election. In total, three Republicans, four Democrats, one independent and one member of the Cascade Party — a minor, centrist political party founded by the former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic — are running in the nonpartisan primary in the Third Congressional District, which touches the Pacific Ocean and the Oregon border. The primary for a red seat will test Trump’s influence. Mr. Newhouse’s retirement has opened his safely red seat in Central Washington for new blood after his more than 10 years in office. He was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the president after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, putting him at odds with Mr. Trump. Whoever replaces him is likely to be much more aligned with the president: Both Republicans running have courted Mr. Trump’s endorsement. The president is backing Amanda McKinney, a Yakima County commissioner, over Jerrod Sessler, an entrepreneur and former NASCAR driver who has run unsuccessfully in previous cycles. Corrected on : An earlier version of this article misstated which military branch John Braun was a part of. It was the Navy, not the Army. It also misstated how many Democrats are running in the nonpartisan primary in the Third Congressional District. It is four, not three. We acknowledge mistakes in our reporting with corrections. If you spot an error, please let us know at corrections@nytimes.com.Learn more. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Aug. 4, 2026, 10:33 a.m. ET Primary elections on Tuesday in Kansas will center on the race for the open governor’s mansion, a judicial ballot measure with consequences for abortion and L.G.B.T.Q. rights, and high-profile intraparty battles for both the U.S. House and Senate. Here’s what to watch: The Republican primary for governor will test the strength of President Trump’s endorsement. In Kansas, all eyes are on the primaries for the marquee governor’s race, which Republicans see as perhaps their best chance this year to flip a governorship held by Democrats. President Trump has endorsed Ty Masterson, the president of the State Senate. But Philip Sarnecki, a businessman, and Scott Schwab, the Kansas secretary of state, are also looking to win over conservative primary voters, and Vicki Schmidt, the state insurance commissioner, has staked out a moderate lane. Democratic primary voters have a choice of three experienced politicians, all from suburban Kansas City. State Senator Ethan Corson was endorsed by Gov. Laura Kelly, a moderate Democrat who was barred by term limits from running again. Mr. Corson faces State Senator Cindy Holscher, who called for a moratorium on data centers, and Mayor Curt Skoog of Overland Park. A ballot measure could have major repercussions for abortion access and L.G.B.T.Q. rights. Kansas primary voters will also weigh in on a ballot measure that would overhaul the way State Supreme Court justices are selected. Anti-abortion groups and other socially conservative organizations are supporting the measure. If it succeeds, the seven justices would be elected, rather than being appointed by the governor and standing periodically for retention votes. (All but one of the justices on the court were appointed by a Democratic governor.) The measure is, in part, a response to a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that recognized a right to abortion, which voters in the state declined to overturn in 2022. Kansas Democrats are looking to end a nearly 100-year U.S. Senate drought. In Kansas, 11 Democrats are vying for the nomination to challenge Senator Roger Marshall, the Republican incumbent, who is expected to win his two-way G.O.P. primary and has stockpiled more than $5.3 million for the general election. Recent polls and fund-raising numbers have so far indicated that Adam Hamilton, a well-known pastor who has positioned himself as a moderate, is leading the Democratic primary field. Whoever wins the primary will face a steep uphill battle. Kansas has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932, giving the state the nation’s longest streak of electing Republican senators. Mr. Trump won the state by more than 16 percentage points against Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. A Democratic incumbent faces a progressive challenger in the state’s only blue House district. Representative Sharice Davids, a fourth-term member of Congress who holds Kansas’ lone Democratic seat, is facing a primary challenge from Sarah Preu, a progressive technology industry professional. Ms. Preu has said she would vote to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “end forever wars” and stop sending U.S. arms to Israel. On the Republican side, Chase LaPorte, an Army veteran and business administrator, is the only candidate who has reported raising money. Ms. Davids, who was one of the first two Native American women to win election to Congress in history, won by more than 10 points in 2024. The seat will be considered competitive in November, but Democrats would be facing far longer odds there if the State Legislature had gone forward with a redistricting plan pushed by Mr. Trump. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Aug. 4, 2026, 9:06 a.m. ET Missouri voters will decide a consequential slate of primary contests and constitutional ballot measures on Tuesday. The results could not only reshape the state’s tax structure and its process for amending its constitution, but also serve as a litmus test for the national Democratic Party’s ideological divide. Here’s what to watch. A House primary features a rematch between a ‘squad’ member and a moderate. The marquee primary on Tuesday is a fiery rematch in Missouri’s First Congressional District, where Representative Wesley Bell, a moderate first-term Democrat, faces off against former Representative Cori Bush, a progressive member of the Democratic Socialists of America. In 2024, Mr. Bell — a former prosecutor and member of the Ferguson, Mo., City Council — ousted Ms. Bush, a former Black Lives Matter organizer who was part of a progressive group of congresswomen known as “the squad.” Two years later, Ms. Bush, who represented the St. Louis area for two terms, is attempting a comeback in a race that highlights the rift between the Democratic Party’s moderate and progressive wings. Mr. Bell has maintained a distinct fund-raising advantage, and holds key endorsements from House Democratic leadership, including Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, and the Congressional Black Caucus PAC. Ms. Bush has the backing of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the Democratic Socialists of America. Ms. Bush has anchored her campaign on vocal opposition to the war in Gaza and criticism of pro-Israel groups, betting that Democrats have further soured on Israel since she was voted out in 2024. The United Democracy Project, the main super PAC of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has poured more than $3 million into advertising opposing Ms. Bush’s bid this cycle, a repeat of its heavy spending against her in 2024. Republicans hope to make citizen-led constitutional amendments harder to pass. Missourians are voting on whether to require that citizen-initiated constitutional amendments must win in each of the state’s eight congressional districts, rather than by a simple statewide majority. The measure, backed by Republicans, would make it significantly harder to pass even popular changes to the state’s founding document, given the widely differing ideological makeups of each district. Missourians have used citizen-initiated amendments to enshrine the right to abortion, expand access to free health insurance and legalize marijuana and sports betting. None of those would have passed under the new standard, which was proposed by the Republican-led legislature. If the measure passes, constitutional amendments proposed by the legislature would continue to require only a simple majority, or more than 50 percent of the vote. This would make Missouri the only state whose processes for passing citizen-led and legislature-led ballot initiatives are different. A ballot measure could eliminate income taxes. In fiscal year 2025, money from individual income taxes made up more than 60 percent of the state’s general revenue. A proposed constitutional amendment would instruct the legislature to phase out those taxes, a drastic overhaul of the state budget. The measure would authorize lawmakers to drive up sales taxes to replace the lost revenue, but it does not specify how that should be done. The state’s governor, Mike Kehoe, a Republican, says the move would catalyze economic growth. But opponents say it would increase taxes for lower-income Missourians. If it passes, the measure would make Missouri the 10th state in the country to exclude income taxes as a revenue source. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Aug. 4, 2026, 8:24 a.m. ET Democrats across the country celebrated in April after Virginia voters greenlit a plan to cut the number of safe Republican House seats in the state from five to just one. Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, said he hoped that the new congressional map would offset the Republican Party’s gains in states including Texas, North Carolina, Ohio and Missouri, which drew new district lines at President Trump’s behest. But the Democrats’ new congressional map dissolved just weeks later, when the Virginia Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional. The decision sunk Democrats’ nearly $70 million investment in the referendum and plunged hopefuls into another round of of musical chairs: Some candidates dropped out of races that had once seemed winnable, and others returned to hostile territory. Virginia Democrats are still bullish, saying they expect to flip at least two seats this cycle. Here are some of the major races in the state as voters head to the polls for Tuesday’s primary, the first election since the congressional maps were passed. A tenured Republican incumbent is heading for a tight re-election battle. Before the old map was restored, Representative Rob Wittman, a Republican, was facing a re-election campaign in a Richmond-area district that Vice President Kamala Harris would have carried by seven points in 2024. Instead, Mr. Wittman is now the nominee in a district along the state’s eastern flank that Mr. Trump carried by five percentage points that year. But Democrats still see the seat as one of their best opportunities for a flip in November. The House Democratic campaign arm has supported Shannon Taylor, a prosecutor running on a law-and-order platform. Ms. Taylor has raised more than $2.1 million so far, significantly more than any of her six opponents. A Democratic primary is likely to set up a rematch between two Navy veterans. In 2022, bipartisan redistricting helped Representative Jen Kiggans, a Navy veteran and a Republican, oust the incumbent, Elaine Luria, in Virginia’s Second Congressional District. Now, Ms. Kiggans is likely to face a high-stakes rematch in a seat that the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated as one of the nation’s 18 most competitive districts. Ms. Luria, who is also a Navy veteran, is the front-runner among the four candidates competing for the Democratic nomination for the district. Ms. Luria has the backing of the Democratic establishment. A former representative is facing resistance in his bid to retake his seat in the Fifth Congressional District. Former Representative Tom Perriello, a Democrat, jumped into the primary for a largely rural central Virginia district when the proposed map promised friendly terrain. Mr. Perriello leads the field of three Democrats, but with the old boundaries restored, the winner faces a steep challenge in the general election in a district Mr. Trump carried by 12 points in 2024. Representative John McGuire, a former Navy SEAL elected in 2024, is under pressure in the Republican primary from Melanie Lucero, a real estate broker and Marine veteran who has cast Mr. McGuire as a “career politician” who is out of touch with constituents. An architect of the redistricting plan and a popular author saw their paths to victory all but disappear. An architect of the redistricting push, Dan Helmer, a Democratic House delegate, opened a congressional run this year for a seat redrawn to lean heavily blue. But he dropped out after the state Supreme Court decision pulled it back to safely Republican territory. Beth Macy, the author of the popular nonfiction book “Dopesick” on the opioid epidemic in Appalachia, was set to run in a district that Kamala Harris would have carried by eight points in 2024. Representative Ben Cline, a Republican, regained a glide path to victory in the district in May, but Ms. Macy has stayed in the race, telling The New York Times that Democrats “can’t just roll over.” Senator Mark Warner will top the ticket, a likely boon for Democrats. Unopposed in his primary, Senator Mark Warner, 71, is locked in for a final re-election bid. Mr. Warner, the influential vice chair of both the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate Intelligence Committee, is heavily favored to win a fourth term, giving Democrats what they hope will be a boost in voter turnout. He was first elected in 2008. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Aug. 4, 2026, 6:24 a.m. ET The race in Michigan between Representative Haley Stevens and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, has been the Democrats’ nastiest and most expensive Senate primary. The campaign was charged by tensions over Israel, how to fight President Trump and the G.O.P., and what makes a candidate electable. The result will factor into the fight for Senate control in November, and may have ramifications that extend to the next presidential contest. It also could serve as a referendum on the Democratic Party’s future. While polls conducted in the last month have shown uncertainty in the competition, several recent public surveys showed Dr. El-Sayed, an insurgent progressive, leading Ms. Stevens, an establishment-backed moderate, and he is increasingly seen by Democrats as the favorite as voters head to the polls on Tuesday. In the final stretch, the candidates have spoken about each other in sharply critical terms. Their supporters have at times been even more severe. The race has divided prominent Democrats and drawn a flood of outside money, nearly all of it to help Ms. Stevens, including more than $60 million in pro-Stevens super PAC ads. For the Democratic Party’s left, the race is a chance to notch its most significant victory yet in a primary season when progressive, anti-establishment candidates have made inroads. For centrists, the race is an opportunity to steer the party toward what it sees as a stronger blueprint for November. Related Content