Democrats were on track to avoid getting locked out of the general election in a number of key, battleground House districts as the vote count from California's top-two primary continued on Wednesday.

The party has scrambled to avoid being shut out of the general election in three Southern California districts where large numbers of Democratic candidates split the party's votes. Under the state’s “jungle” primary system, that would have allowed two Republicans to advance to the November general election for seats Hillary Clinton carried in 2016.


With the votes still being tallied Wednesday, Democratic candidates were in second place in those three districts — and The Associated Press had called one of the contests.

The closest results were in the 48th District, in Orange County. Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher was in first place, with 30 percent of the vote, but the race for second place was tight: Democrats Harley Rouda and Hans Keirstead were both at 17 percent, but Republican Scott Baugh was just behind at 16 percent. The Associated Press hadn’t yet projected whom Rohrabacher would face.

Democrats had more breathing room elsewhere in Orange County: Democrat Gil Cisneros was projected as the second-place finisher Wednesday morning in the 39th District, where he will face Republican Young Kim. And in the race to replace retiring Rep. Darrell Issa in the 49th District, three Democrats were bunched behind Republican nominee Diane Harkey, though the AP has not projected which one will be Harkey's opponent.

If the current vote totals hold, Democrats would avoid their most feared scenario. The party is hoping to make significant inroads in California as part of their effort to overcome Republicans’ 23-seat edge in the House. Getting shut out of even a small number of competitive districts would have made that task significantly tougher.

But the drama is expected to last for days — if not weeks — as local elections officials tabulate mail ballots that could be postmarked as late as Tuesday.

In the top-of-the-ticket race for governor, Republicans avoided a lockout of their own. Republican John Cox finished second and will face Democratic Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a prohibitive favorite, in the fall. Cox's surge came after a GOP push to consolidate Republican votes behind the businessman that included Twitter endorsements from President Donald Trump.

Republicans had feared that a Democrat-vs.-Democrat race between Newsom and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa could depress GOP turnout in the fall, but Villaraigosa faded to a distant third as Cox surged. The general election for Senate will feature two Democrats, however: The AP projected Wednesday morning that former state Senate President Kevin de León finished second and will take his challenge to Sen. Dianne Feinstein to November.





Morning Score newsletter Your guide to the permanent campaign — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Elsewhere, GOP Rep. Martha Roby was forced into a primary runoff against Democrat-turned-Republican Bobby Bright in Alabama, where her opponents used Roby's critical 2016 comments about then-candidate Donald Trump to tag her as insufficiently supportive of the president.

Tuesday night’s primaries also kicked off a key Senate race in Montana: Republican voters chose state Auditor Matt Rosendale to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in a state President Donald Trump carried by more than 20 percentage points in 2016.

The primaries are also yielding House candidates in potential battleground districts in Iowa, New Jersey and New Mexico, as well as nominees for governor in five states.

Here’s a state-by-state guide to what was on the ballot:

Alabama

Nothing on the ballot this spring approaches the high drama of last year’s special Senate election. But GOP Rep. Martha Roby, who spoke out against Trump and said she wouldn’t vote for him during the 2016 presidential election, is headed for a runoff in the crowded primary in the 2nd District. Roby had 38 percent of the vote with 85 percent of precincts reporting, narrowly edging out two of her challengers but not hitting the 50 percent she needed to capture renomination outright.

She will go head-to-head against her best-known challenger, former Rep. Bobby Bright, whom Roby narrowly defeated in the 2010 general election, when Bright was a Democratic member of Congress.

Gov. Kay Ivey, the former lieutenant governor who ascended to the top job when a sex scandal brought down Robert Bentley, won a five-way Republican primary and avoided a runoff

California

In retiring GOP Rep. Darrell Issa's 49th District, three Democratic candidates — Mike Levin, Sara Jacobs and Doug Applegate — are ahead of the pack in the race for second place, behind Republican nominee Diane Harkey, who has nearly a quarter of the vote. In the 39th District, which is also open after Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) retired, Cisneros has a solid claim on second place behind Kim, the Republican.

But another surprisingly tight race has played out in the 10th District, where Democrat Josh Harder is hanging on to a second place finish behind GOP Rep. Jeff Denham. Republican Ted Howze, a former Turlock city councilman who raised $5,000 for his congressional bid, is nipping at Harder’s heels.

Democrats are assured of getting general election candidates through the primary in three other Clinton-won, Republican-held districts in California. Democrats Bryan Caforio and Katie Hill are locked in a close battle to take on Republican incumbent Steve Knight in the 25th District, and Democrat Katie Porter has a slim advantage over Dave Min in the primary to face GOP Rep. Mimi Walters in the fall in the 45th District.

Montana

Republicans are targeting 10 Democratic senators from states Trump carried in the last presidential election, and they chose their nominee for one of them Tuesday night.

State Auditor Matt Rosendale won a narrow victory against former state legislator and judge Russ Fagg and two other candidates. Rosendale’s bid was bolstered by the conservative Club for Growth, which has spent big to support him in the primary and expects to continue that in the general election.

Tester, meanwhile, drew Trump’s ire recently for his role scuttling the president’s pick to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, which could add another twist to the general election.



Iowa

Two more battleground House districts were on the ballot in Iowa Tuesday night. Abby Finkenauer, who’s running to take on GOP Rep. Rod Blum in eastern Iowa, could be the first woman in her 20s elected to Congress after winning a Democratic primary in Eastern Iowa on Tuesday. In Des Moines and the surrounding area, Democrat Cindy Axne won the nomination to take on GOP Rep. David Young in a battleground district this fall.

In the governor’s race, wealthy businessman Fred Hubbell cruised to victory in a crowded Democratic primary. Republicans are united around Gov. Kim Reynolds, the former lieutenant governor who took over when ex-Gov. Terry Branstad became the U.S. ambassador to China.

Mississippi

Rep. Gregg Harper’s retirement announcement spurred six Republicans to jump into the primary in his deep-red 3rd District. With the field that crowded, neither of the top two candidates, Michael Guest and Whit Hughes, could reach a majority of the vote, and they will have to compete in a runoff later this month.

New Jersey

Democrats hope to run competitive races in almost every New Jersey House district held by a Republican, putting unusual focus on Tuesday’s primaries. In two districts, Jeff Van Drew, a centrist state senator, and Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy pilot and prosecutor, easily won Democratic primaries in the open races to replace Reps. Frank LoBiondo and Rodney Frelinghuysen, who both decided not to seek reelection in a pair of suburban districts.

“I think even Republicans can admit that Jeff Van Drew and Mikie Sherrill put those seats in play,” said Bill Cortese, a New Jersey-based Republican consultant. “But those are still red districts, at the end of the day.”

Democrat Tom Malinowski, a former Obama administration official, will face GOP Rep. Leonard Lance, who is running for reelection. Republicans, meanwhile, will decide a nasty two-way primary to face Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer in a district Trump carried narrowly last year.

In the Senate race, wealthy businessman Bob Hugin, the former CEO of a pharmaceutical company, easily won the Republican nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez. Menendez won his primary but ran weakly compared to past results. He had just 62 percent of the vote with 99 percent of precincts reporting, as he faced voters for the first time since being indicted but not convicted on corruption charges.





New Mexico

A pair of House members are seeking promotion to statewide office here. Rep. Steve Pearce ran unopposed in the Republican primary for governor, while Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham defeated several challengers on the Democratic side despite recent questions about her role in a company that sold health insurance to high-risk patients in New Mexico. The recent bad headlines didn't appear to be a major drag for Lujan Grisham, who had more than 70 percent of the vote when the Associated Press called the race with just 29 percent of precincts reporting.

Lujan Grisham’s statewide run prompted a large, messy primary to replace her in the Democratic-leaning 1st District, won by former state party chair Deb Haaland. Democrats have challenged for Pearce’s 2nd District in the past, but GOP primary winner Yvette Herrell ought to be a favorite to take over the conservative-leaning seat against Democratic nominee Xochitl Torres Small.

South Dakota

Republican Rep. Kristi Noem defeated Attorney General Marty Jackley in the gubernatorial primary, with current Gov. Dennis Daugaard unable to run for reelection because of term limits. Noem won 56 percent of the vote compared to 44 percent for Jackley. The race turned rough down the stretch, with Noem attacking Jackley’s handling of a harassment complaint and Jackley going after Noem’s votes in Congress.

Noem’s run for governor sparked a three-way GOP primary to replace her in Congress, which was won by Dusty Johnson, Daugaard's former chief of staff.