What were the results of the August 2 primary elections? Winners and losers

Voters in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington took to the polls for their state’s primaries on Tuesday, 2 August, and some made history.

With abortion rights on the ballot in Kansas, voters surpassed all electoral expectations, with thousands more people turning out to vote than expected in an off-year primary election.

Arizona

The Arizona governor’s race has been closely followed with two candidates, Karrin Taylor Robson, supported by Mike Pence and current governor Doug Ducey, and Kari Lake, backed by Trump, going head to head. Lake currently leads by 12,000 votes, but the race has yet to be called.

Katie Hobbs, the current secretary of state won the Democratic nomination, meaning she will face either Taylor Robson or Lake this November.

Additionally, Speaker of the Arizona House, Rusty Bowers, has lost his primary to David Farnsworth, who Donald Trump endorsed. Bowers rose to national prominence after he testified to the pressure he faced to say that Donald Trump had won the state of Arizona in the 2020 election.

As for the Senate, Democrat Mark Kelly will face Republican Blake Masters. Kelly is the incumbent and husband of former-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in January 2011.

Kansas

The main story of the night was stolen by Kansas, where voters with a seventeen percent margin rejected GOP attempts to curtail rights to abortion in the state. Voters came out in numbers never seen in a primary, with an incredible number of independents casting a their ballot on this measure alone. Those without party affiliation in the state are unable to vote in other primary elections because only registered members of each party are allowed to vote for the candidates running --Democrats can vote from Democrats, Republicans for Republicans.

With nearly ninety-five percent of the vote counted, the constitutional amendment has failed 59-41.

Michigan

Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, the incumbent Governor, will face Trump-backed Tudor Dixon in November

Redistricting in the state led to a competitive race between Congressional incumbents Haley Stevens and Andy Levin.

Stevens, the moderate in the race, gained the support of Hillary Clinton and major donors and won the primary election with around sixty percent of the vote. The largest donor to Stevens’ campaign was AIPAC, a conservative pro-Israel lobby accused of misrepresenting Jewish-Americans and their perspective on Israel. Other donors for Stevens included JP Morgan Chase, Bloomberg, Blackstone, and other major companies and financial institutions.

Levin, a Jewish progressive backed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, was not able to match the donations raised by Stevens. Last week, Levin was arrested after protesting the overturning of Roe v. Wade at the Supreme Court in Washington.

Missouri

The Senate primary for the Republicans gained national attention this week after Donald Trump endorsed “ERIC,” of which there were two in the race. The president did not clarify which Eric he was referring to, and both accepted the endorsement and thanked him on social media.

Eric Schmitt, the state’s attorney general, won the primary, with former impeached governor Eric Greitens coming in third. It became public in the spring that Greitens that been accused of abusing his wife and child.

Schmitt will face Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine in November to replace Senator Roy Blunt’s seat.

Washington

The main race of the night in Washington was the Senate primary to see which two candidates will make it to the ballot in November.

Unlike Kansas’ primary, the Washington election was open, meaning that rather than party members voting for the candidate they hoped to see on the November ballot, the two candidates across parties with the highest numbers of the vote would face off in just a few months.

Democratic incumbent Patty Murray will face Republican motivational speaker Tiffany Smiley this November.