Six states will hold primaries on Tuesday: California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota.
California's Low-Wattage Race for Governor
The governor's office in California typically attracts some of the highest-wattage names in politics, but not this year.Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla took a pass on the race. And with Newsom barred from seeking a third term, the campaign to succeed him turned into a sprawling, often messy contest.
In the final stretch, much of the attention has focused on Democrats Xavier Becerra, the former congressman and state attorney general who was also health secretary under President Joe Biden, and Tom Steyer, a billionaire known for his climate activism. Republican Steve Hilton is campaigning with President Donald Trump's endorsement.
Under California's primary system, all candidates appear on a single ballot and the top two finishers advance to the November general election, regardless of party. The absence of a front-runner incentivized virtually anyone with political ambition and a modicum of organization to join the race, leaving Democrats worried that their candidates would divide the vote and ultimately be shut out of the fall campaign. But those fears have eased in the primary's closing weeks, with the party now expecting to secure at least one slot on the November ballot.
Los Angeles Mayor Seeks to Fend Off Reality Star Challenger
In a city still recovering from the most destructive wildfire in its history, Mayor Karen Bass is in a tough fight for reelection.The mayor, who is a frequent target of Trump's criticism, was in Ghana as part of a presidential delegation when the blaze began. She has acknowledged mistakes but has centered her campaign around a message of recovery and progress.
Bass is facing a spirited challenge from reality television personality Spencer Pratt, who has blamed Bass for presiding over the destruction that claimed his own home. Pratt, who rose to fame on “The Hills,” has shared videos created by artificial intelligence that show him taking on a superhero persona to battle street criminals and Democratic politicians.
The race is officially nonpartisan, but Bass is a Democrat, as is progressive city council member Nithya Raman, who made a last-minute decision to challenge her one-time ally. Pratt is a registered Republican who has received a nod of approval—if not an outright endorsement—from Trump.
Unless a candidate receives a majority of the vote in the primary, the top two will advance to a general election in November.
An Unexplained Absence Puts Crucial GOP Seat at Risk in New Jersey
In the final frenzied days before an election, voters can sometimes grow tired of hearing from candidates so much. But in New Jersey's 7th congressional district, they're not hearing from one candidate at all.Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. is running unopposed in Tuesday's primary. But he's facing growing scrutiny for an unexplained medical absence that has stretched for three months, causing him to miss more than 100 votes in Congress.
That's not an ideal statistic for any lawmaker, but it's especially problematic for someone running in one of the few genuinely competitive congressional districts. While gerrymandering has yielded most U.S. House seats reliably Democratic or Republican, Kean's district has flipped between the parties in each of the last two midterm elections. Republican Leonard Lance lost to Democrat Tom Malinowski in 2018. Malinowski lost to Kean in 2022.
As they cling to a narrow majority in the House, Republicans can't afford to lose a district like Kean's. New Jersey's 7th District, which includes suburban towns and rolling farmland—and one of President Donald Trump's golf clubs—is the state's highest-profile primary.
Will Trump Push His Guy Across the Line in Iowa?
The governor’s race in Iowa might be even more interesting. That’s because Democrats have high hopes for State Auditor Rob Sand and think he could one day be a national contender—and also because governor’s races tend to be less partisan.Perhaps recognizing that, Trump on Friday inserted himself into a crowded and contentious Republican primary, endorsing Rep. Randy Feenstra over businessman Zach Lahn and others.
Some Senate Races to Watch
Given the tough Senate map they face, Democrats would badly like to expand it. And Tuesday’s primaries feature two states where that could at least plausibly be the case.The bigger one is Iowa, which will hold an open-seat race with GOP Sen. Joni Ernst retiring. Paralympian and state Rep. Josh Turek and populist state Sen. Zach Wahls are battling for the right to face GOP favorite Rep. Ashley Hinson.
Wahls has, notably, been campaigning hard against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
President Donald Trump carried Iowa by 13 points in 2024, but Democrats hold out hope that his tariffs might cost the GOP votes in a farming-heavy state that used to be more competitive.
Montana is more of a wild card. There, some prominent Democrats would seem to prefer to have a weaker nominee in order to rally support behind independent Seth Bodnar, the former president of the University of Montana.
Rallying behind independents has become an increasingly common strategy in states like Nebraska, where Democrats stand little chance of winning, and Bodnar’s campaign has ties to Democratic former Sen. Jon Tester.
So some are trying to elevate little-known Democrat Alani Bankhead, while other Democrats, such as former Gov. Brian Schweitzer, are backing former state Rep. Riley Neill, a better-funded candidate.
Democrats were inflamed after GOP Sen. Steve Daines announced his retirement at the last minute in a gambit intended to foreclose a strong Democratic nominee and to anoint Republican Kurt Alme, a former US attorney, as his replacement.
In South Dakota, three-term incumbent Republican Mike Rounds is expected to cruise to his party’s nomination on Tuesday. He’ll face Democrat Julian Beaudion, a former highway patrol trooper and small business owner, on the November ballot. But it’s a former Democrat now running as an independent, Brian Bengs, a military veteran, who may be the tougher challenger.