With a few notable exceptions, the candidates expected to win in the primaries on Tuesday did, and the candidates that raised the most money almost always ended up succeeding. Democratic women continued their rise to power in national elections, with women winning 48 percent of the Democratic primaries this week, including all four of the top Democratic House targets in Virginia. With Trump critic Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) losing his primary and unapologetic Trumpist Corey Stewart winning his Senate primary in Virginia, it was a reasonably good day for the president.

Virginia

The Old Dominion state has become one of the most significant states in the race for the House, with four competitive districts. It’s also a testing ground for female Democratic candidates, who won the primaries in all four of those districts. In each of these districts the women who won also happened to have raised the most money out of those in their primary races. Thus far, Democrats have nominated women in just less than 50 percent of their open House primaries (73 out of 150 races), according to the Cook Political Report, versus 16 percent for Republicans. Furthermore, in Democratic House primaries which featured at least one woman, one man and no incumbent, women have been the top vote-getters in 71 percent of such races, compared with 35 percent of Republican primaries.

In the 2nd District, veteran Elaine Luria won and will challenge Rep. Scott Taylor (R-Va.). In the 10th District, Jennifer Wexton was triumphant in her crowded primary and will now face Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), considered to be one of the most vulnerable House Republicans in the country since her district voted in favor of Hillary Clinton in 2016. In the 7th District, Abigail Spanberger was picked in her Democratic primary and will now head to battle against Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), one of the most conservative members of the House, who replaced former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014. In the 5th District, Leslie Cockburn was uncontested in her Democratic primary to replace outgoing and scandal-plagued Republican Rep. Tom Garrett (R-Va.).

On the Senate side, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) will face off against Trump loyalist Corey Stewart, who made a name for himself ruffling Republican establishment feathers with his staunch hardline approach to immigration, abortion rights and — most famously — his loud opposition to the removal of Confederate monuments in Virginia.

South Carolina

In a nail-biter, Republican Katie Arrington squeaked by Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) in the 1st District primary, which she won by just over 2500 votes. Despite appearing to reject Trump’s 2016 campaign initially and backing Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) for president, Arrington ran on a vehemently pro-Trump agenda and won in part because she accused Sanford of not supporting the President and not being conservative enough. Trump rewarded her by tweeting his opposition to Sanford and support for Arrington on the morning of the primary. Sanford outraised Arrington $851,000 to $583,000, but Arrington had actually spent more money as of the pre-primary FEC reports, meaning that perhaps Sanford waited too long to go on the attack.

The 4th District featured a money in politics anomaly as the two Democrats, Brandon Brown and Doris Turner, who advanced to the primary runoff raised under $30,000 each, finishing third and fourth in terms of fundraising. On the Republican side, over a dozen GOP members ran to replace Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). Lee Bright topped the primary and will advance to the runoff despite being outraised by William Timmons (who also advanced) and Dan Hamilton. This may be in part due to the fact that Hamilton and Timmons each had about $182,000 spent by an outside group in opposition to their campaigns. The opposition came from Club for Growth Action, a conservative super PAC.

Nevada

Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) crushed her opponent Jesse Sbaih, whom she outraised by $5 million, in the Senate Democratic primary, and will now run against Republican Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who also easily won his primary. This is one of the few races that Senate Democrats are going on the offensive for in 2018.

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Former Sen. Harry Reid is well known for his pervading influence over Democratic politics in Nevada and it seems that even in retirement he holds sway over the state’s elections. The Democratic primaries in the two open seats in Nevada’s 3rd and 4th Districts, which both lean blue according to Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, were won by candidates Reid backed.

Susie Lee, who outraised all six of her male primary opponents combined with a whopping $1.4 million, won in the 3rd District, while Reid disciple Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) also sailed through his Democratic primary in the 4th District next door. Horsford raised the most money out of the half-dozen Democrats running in his district and also benefited from $340,000 in outside spending from UNITE HERE, a labor union representing U.S. and Canadian workers.

In the 2nd District Democratic primary, Clinton Koble, an Obama appointee to the Department of Agriculture who picked up a few labor endorsements, was one of the few candidates who won despite raising less money. He raised only $54,000 to Patrick Fogarty’s $169,000 but still pulled a victory out of his hat in a district that Cook Political Report rates as safely Republican.

Maine

Independent Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) will face off against Republican state senator (and online dance star) Eric Brakey, who won the GOP Senate primary. With his war chest of over $4 million and strong statewide support, King is likely to prevail in November.

On the House side, Jared Golden appears to have won the three-way contest among the Democrats in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, although the man in second, Lucas St. Clair wasn’t quite ready to concede. Because of Maine’s ranked-choice voting system — which voters appeared to have reaffirmed Tuesday night — unless Golden won outright with more than 50 percent of the vote, the votes cast for the third-place candidate will be reallocated to Golden and St. Clair according to the voters’ rankings.

North Dakota

In the Senate race, incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) will battle Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) for the Senate seat. Each has raised millions already, with Heitkamp outraising Cramer by over $7 million so far. CNN listed this race as one of the 10 U.S. Senate seats it considered most likely to flip red in 2018.

The sole congressional district in the state is a safe Republican seat with Kelly Armstrong winning her primary as expected after her main rival dropped out.



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