Andrew Gillum would be the first African-American governor of Florida if he wins in November. | Chris O’Meara/AP Photo Elections Sanders-backed Gillum notches Florida primary stunner In Arizona, Rep. Martha McSally cruised to a GOP Senate primary win, setting up a battleground race against Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum delivered an upset victory in Florida's Democratic gubernatorial primary Tuesday night, toppling several well-funded candidates after a late surge in the polls and setting up a general election matchup against Trump-endorsed GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis.

Gillum, who rallied with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) before the primary and won support from state and national progressive groups, edged ahead of former Rep. Gwen Graham in the Democratic primary, with 34 percent of the vote to Graham's 31 percent. Gillum would be the first African-American governor of Florida if he wins, and he ran to the left of Graham, the early front-runner, capitalizing on the energy surging through the Democratic Party's liberal wing.


DeSantis, meanwhile, stormed to victory in the Republican gubernatorial primary, the first of several nominating contests Tuesday that were shaped and shaken by President Donald Trump. He thanked the president in a victory speech Tuesday night: "I’m not always the most popular guy in D.C., but I did have support from someone in Washington. If you walk down Pennsylvania, he lives in the white house with the pillars in front of it,” DeSantis said. “I was able to talk to the president, and I want to thank him for his support.”

Trump endorsed DeSantis before he had even officially joined the governor's race, derailing state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam's long-planned campaign. Heading into the general election, the race is sure to remain on Trump's radar: Not only is Florida a key swing state, the race will feature one of the president's sharpest critics against one of his loudest cheerleaders.

Gillum, who endorsed fast-spreading progressive positions including "Medicare-for-all" and the abolition of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, has also targeted the president, calling for Trump’s impeachment back in December 2017.

“This president is wrong for Florida on almost every issue, and as governor, I will fight against each and every one of his wrong-headed, racist and sexist policies,” Gillum said in a video released at the time. “The Donald Trump presidency shouldn’t even make it through 2018. He should be impeached now.”

Gillum promised to campaign across Florida in the general election — including in Trump country.

"Over the next several months, we are going to make our way all the way across the state of Florida — to red counties, to blue counties, to purple counties,” Gillum said at his victory party. “We’re going to unite this state in ways that are unparalleled in the history of the state of Florida."

Trump also shaped the other major primary of the night. In Arizona, Republicans nominated Rep. Martha McSally to defend GOP Sen. Jeff Flake’s seat in the general election, a year after Flake decided to retire because his long-running conflict with Trump had made reelection unlikely.

McSally joined the race in his stead, winning the support of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — but she had to fight through a grueling, expensive primary against two immigration hard-liners, former state Sen. Kelli Ward and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, with each candidate scrambling to tout connections to the president.

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McSally now faces a daunting general election challenge against Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, the Democratic nominee, who escaped the summer with few negative ads aired against her, though McSally turned her attention to the Democrat last week with a hard-hitting ad. Arizona is one of just a handful of opportunities for Democrats to flip a GOP Senate seat, and Republicans acknowledge that Sinema has put herself in a good position to reverse her party’s 30-year losing streak in Arizona Senate races.

“It's been a pretty brutal primary campaign, so, going into the general election, Kyrsten Sinema is going to be the front-runner,” said Bert Coleman, a longtime Arizona Republican strategist.

McSally began her victory speech by invoking Sen. John McCain, who passed away last week, calling him an “American hero” and asking for a moment of silence in his honor. She then went on a long string of attacks against Sinema, calling her “left of the Pelosi Democrats” and bringing up her time two decades ago as a Green Party activist. She even painted her with a Trump-esque nickname: “Hollywood Sinema.”

“She’s a fake production running on a phony script in order to fool voters,” McSally said. McSally also mentioned her relationship with Trump, saying she worked closely with him on tax cuts, securing the border and veterans issues, and she pledged to work with him on confirming judges.

Sinema, by contrast, didn’t mention McSally in her victory statement, though she also invoked McCain and said Arizonans should “follow his lead of always putting country over party.”

Here’s a state-by-state look at what was on the ballot Tuesday.

Arizona

McSally didn’t get a Trump endorsement, but she won a comfortable victory over Ward and Arpaio nonetheless. Democrats believe that the prolonged primary pulled McSally to the right, though, in several ways that will benefit them in the general election.

Ward and Arpaio both cast McSally as insufficiently conservative on immigration and as a reluctant Trump supporter, but the congresswoman pushed back by touting ties to the president. Trump is expected to hold a rally in Arizona on the nominee’s behalf soon after the primary.

While Sinema has led in public polls, Republicans argue that she has had an easy run so far. McSally began attacking her last week with an ad contrasting the Republican’s military service with Sinema protesting while dressed in a tutu.

“Sinema has kind of been left alone through the primary. Now they're coming full speed ahead,” said Robert Graham, a former state GOP chairman.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who easily won his primary, picked up his general election opponent on Tuesday: David Garcia, a former Arizona Department of Education official.

Meanwhile, former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick completed the first step of a political comeback after a bitter primary fight in McSally's district.

Kirkpatrick, who used to represent the 1st District, and 2016 nominee Matt Heinz litigated each other’s voting records in a series of negative TV ads. But Kirkpatrick ultimately won the primary with help from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and EMILY’s List.

In northern Arizona, Democratic Rep. Tom O’Halleran hopes to hold on to his red-leaning, rural seat, even though the district voted for Trump by 1 point in 2016. He’ll pick up a Republican opponent on Tuesday, as a handful of GOP candidates jockey for the nomination: state Sen. Steve Smith, businesswoman Tiffany Shedd and Wendy Rogers, a retired Air Force officer.

And in Phoenix, former Mayor Greg Stanton is unopposed in the Democratic primary to succeed Sinema, while Republicans Steve Ferrara won the GOP nomination.

Florida

Putnam started out as the front-runner in the Republican primary to succeed Gov. Rick Scott, who is running for Senate. But DeSantis cultivated a relationship with Trump, including through Fox News appearances, and eventually scored an endorsement tweet that turned the race inside-out. Trump recorded an election-eve robocall supporting DeSantis.

Democrats, meanwhile, are looking to Gillum to put an end to their two-dozen-year losing streak for the governor’s mansion.

Three central Florida members face challenges from the left. In Orlando, former Rep. Alan Grayson, who lost a Senate primary bid in 2016, wanted his old seat back, but freshman Democratic Rep. Darren Soto won their primary easily, despite Grayson airing TV ads promising to impeach Trump and saying “Soto won’t.”

Rep. Al Lawson, meanwhile, easily dispatched a challenge from former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown that divided the sprawling 5th District along regional lines. Lawson hails from Tallahassee.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy’s opponent, Chardo Richardson, got a boost with an endorsement from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who unseated New York Rep. Joe Crowley in a June primary. But Murphy is held off the challenge easily.

Three more House seats sit atop Democrats’ target list, anchored in the suburbs of Miami and Palm Beach County. Democrat Lauren Baer, a former State Department official who picked up an endorsement from the DCCC, took the Democratic nomination to face GOP Rep. Brian Mast in southwestern Florida.

Farther south, former Health and Human Services secretary and University of Miami President Donna Shalala and broadcast journalist Maria Elvira Salazar will face off in the open race to replace Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. The seat is a prime Democratic pickup opportunity; no GOP district went as strongly for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell comfortably won her primary to face GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo in a perennial battleground district. It’s another Clinton-Republican seat, but Curbelo won reelection even as Trump lost his district big in 2016.

Voters in a pair of open, traditionally Republican seats will also replace retiring incumbents. In central Florida, state Sen. Greg Steube captured the GOP nomination to succeed retiring Rep. Tom Rooney’s seat. Republican state Rep. Ross Spano will face Democratic attorney Kristen Carlson for retiring Rep. Dennis Ross’ seat.

Oklahoma

Businessman Kevin Stitt won a Republican runoff for Oklahoma governor, after he and Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett failed to get a majority of the vote in the June primary.

The race broke down along insider-versus-outsider lines, with Stitt calling Cornett a career politician and Cornett seeking to chip away at Stitt’s conservative credentials.

Stitt will face former state Attorney General Drew Edmondson, the Democratic nominee, in November. The general election could be competitive despite Oklahoma’s usual heavy Republican lean, as public polls show outgoing GOP Gov. Mary Fallin with high disapproval ratings.

Republicans also have a runoff in the 1st District, which was left vacant when ex-Rep. Jim Bridenstine became the administrator of NASA. Former Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris and businessman Kevin Hern are battling for the Republican nomination in the district.