Voters in five states and the District of Columbia head to the polls Tuesday, where they will decide on a host of presidential and congressional primaries.
Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota voters will decide who will win the Democratic and GOP presidential primaries, although President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have already clinched the nominations.
Trump is running uncontested in South Dakota’s GOP primary. In the nation’s capital, Republicans have already held their presidential primary earlier this year but Democrats will get their chance on Tuesday.
Iowa voters have already selected Biden and Trump as their 2024 nominees, but still have House primaries that will be decided next week.
Here are the key races to watch:
Iowa Republican Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Randy Feenstra are both battling primary opposition.
Miller-Meeks, who represents the 1st Congressional District, faces advertising executive David Pautsch, although the incumbent has a vast financial advantage. Whoever emerges from the GOP primary is set for a general election race against Democrat and former state Rep. Christina Bohannan.
Bohannan lost the district to Miller-Meeks during the 2022 midterm elections by six percentage points.
In the 4th Congressional District, Feenstra is fending off a bid from former CIA officer Kevin Virgil. Feenstra has far outraised Virgil in the primary. Former Iowa Rep. Steve King is backing Virgil.
Plus, Democratic candidates Melissa Vine and Lannon Baccam are battling over who will face first-term Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA), in the 3rd Congressional District, the most competitive district in the Hawkeye State. The seat will help determine whether Republicans hold onto their slim control of the House or if Democrats can flip control.
Nunn won his seat in 2022 by less than one percentage point. Now two years later the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted the race as a prime opportunity to flip.
Democratic voters angered over the Biden administration’s handling have opted to vote “uncommitted” or stage write-in campaigns during the primary season.
In Michigan, the first state to launch this movement, more than 101,000 Democratic voters chose the “uncommitted” option garnering two delegates.
Some Montana voters have already indicated they choose to vote no preference during the state’s Democratic primary.
New Mexico voters will also have the option to vote for an “uncommitted delegate” should they wish to snub Biden during the primary, and D.C. residents can write in a candidate, while in New Jersey voters have an uncommitted option.
After Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying records by a New York jury all eyes are waiting to see how many voters chose to vote for Nikki Haley, who has continued to pull in double digits results despite no longer running for president.
Perhaps the most vulnerable Democrat, Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), is fighting for his political future as Republicans plot to flip his seat.
Republican and ex-Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, backed by Sen. Steve Daines, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is the likely winner in the GOP race to take on Tester. Sheehy’s other rivals include former Montana Public Service Commissioner Brad Johnson and past congressional candidate Charles Walking Child.
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) had announced he was running in the primary but after Trump endorsed Sheehy, Rosendale quickly bowed out.
A centrist Democrat, Tester has touted his efforts to buck Biden, whose poll numbers have been underwater in a state Trump won in 2020.
Democrats need Tester to win in November in order to help maintain control of the Senate.
After dropping out of the Montana Senate race, Rosendale later announced he would not seek reelection to Congress.
The crowded Republican primary to replace Rosendale in the 2nd Congressional District includes former Rep. Denny Rehberg, state auditor Troy Downing, and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen.
Out of all the Republicans running for the seat, Downing and Rehberg have emerged as the top two candidates.
Four Democrats are running in the primary, including former pharmaceutical sales representative Ming Cabrera, former Public Service Commissioner John Driscoll, business owner Kevin Hamm, and rancher Steve Held.
The Cook Political Reports rates the seat as “Solid Republican.”
Incumbent Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) is running for a second term as chief executive of Montana. But he faces a primary challenge from state Rep. Tanner Smith.
Smith has particularly singled out Gianforte for allowing the proliferation of marijuana use and claimed that the governor is not a real conservative.
On the Democratic side, Ryan Busse is the front-runner but faces considerable odds to flip control of the governorship in a state that went for Trump by nearly 17 percentage points in 2020.
All eyes are on New Jersey as Democrats battle to replace Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who has held the seat for nearly two decades.
The primary battle comes as Menendez has bowed out of contention as he faces a criminal indictment after allegedly accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes “to use his official position to protect and enrich them and to benefit the Government of Egypt,” according to the indictment. Menendez is considering running as an independent in the November election.
There are three Democrats vying for the party’s nomination, including Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who has emerged as the frontrunner. He’ll face off against Lawrence Hamm, a former campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign in New Jersey, and Patricia Campos-Medina, a workers’ rights advocate.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary is favored to win the seat in November as the state has not elected a Republican senator in more than 50 years.
Meanwhile, further down the ballot, the troubles do not end for the Menendez family.
Sen. Menendez’s son, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ), is facing a primary challenge of his own after initially being expected to secure a second term without much struggle. Rob Menendez has not been accused of any wrongdoing, nor has he been connected to his father’s case.
However, challengers have viewed his father’s indictment as an opportunity to make him vulnerable.
Rob Menendez will face Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla and Kyle Jasey, who is the CEO of a real estate finance company.
Whoever wins the primary is favored to win the seat in November as New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District is rated as D+22.
Although the Senate seat in New Mexico is not considered to be competitive, Republicans are turning their focus to Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) as a way to force Democrats to allocate some of their resources there while also attempting to defend seven other vulnerable seats in November.
Voters will head to the polls to elect Nella Domenici as the Republican candidate, who is running unopposed for the party nomination. Domenici is considered to be a strong candidate for Republicans as she benefits from name recognition from her father, who held the Senate seat until 2009.
Domenici also benefits from personal wealth and her connections to the corporate world, which Republicans are hoping will allow her to secure massive donations to fuel her campaign.
It’s unlikely Domenici will pose a serious threat to Heinrich’s reelection bid as the seat is considered to be “Solid Democrat,” according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. But Republicans are hoping to use her campaign to force Democrats to stretch their resources thin as they look to maintain their slim majority in the upper chamber.
New Mexico voters will also have an opportunity to choose their nominee to take on Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) in November in one of the most competitive races of the 2024 cycle.
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Former Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-NM) is the only candidate on the ballot for Republicans, setting the stage for a rematch against Vasquez in November. The two previously faced off in 2022 when Vasquez defeated Herrell by less than 1 point.
The race has been deemed a “tossup” and is considered to be one of the most closely watched races in November as it could help determine which party will win control of the House. The district is rated D+1.