Michigan’s high-stakes Democratic primary for US Senate seat too close to call – live updates

James is, notably, a fervent election denier who has repeated Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 race was “rigged”.

The GOP nominee, an army veteran, received Trump’s endorsement in the governor’s race, after having launched two failed US Senate bids in 2018 and 2020. He won the US House seat he now holds in 2022.

While the Republican Governors Association heralded James’s win, Michigan Democrats called him a “failed politician” who voters “have already rejected” twice. “That’s exactly what we’re going to make sure happens for a third time this November,” they said in a statement.

Congressman John James has won the Republican nomination in the Michigan governor’s race.

James, who represents the state’s 10th congressional district, beat Perry Johnson – a businessman who ran against Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election but withdrew before the primaries.

James will now face Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, in November’s general election.

Voters in Missouri overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would make it harder to amend the state constitution. Almost 80% voted “no” on the ballot measure in Tuesday’s primary election.

It would have required citizen initiatives to pass in all congressional districts rather than by a simple statewide majority.

Cindy Holscher, a state senator, won the Democratic nomination in Kansas’ gubernatorial race. She beat two other Sunflower state politicians to advance to the general election.

It’s set to be a fierce competition as Republicans are angling to retake the governor’s mansion following eight years under Laura Kelly, the term-limited Democratic incumbent.

Ty Masterson, the Trump-backed Kansas state senate president, clinched the GOP nomination in a crowded race.

Mallory McMorrow, the Michigan state lawmaker, who suspended her campaign for the Democratic nomination for US Senate earlier this year, said that it was vital for Democrats to “come together tonight” regardless of which candidate wins the race in an interview with CNN.

However, McMorrow did not reveal who she voted for in Tuesday’s primary.

“I voted for great Democrats up and down the ballot, and I made a commitment that whoever wins the Senate race tonight, I will be endorsing as soon as that race is called,” she said. “I will be headed to their election night party to show we all come together after whatever happens tonight, so that we can be a team as we head in November.”

Only 28% of the votes in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary have been counted so far. And in the state’s largest county – Wayne county – only 7% of the votes have been counted.

Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, clinched the Democratic nomination in the governor’s race, beating Chris Swanson – the Genesee county sheriff.

The Republican contest has yet to be called by the Associated Press. The winner will face-off against Benson to replace the term-limited governor Gretchen Whitmer.

Reporting from Detroit

The pro-Palestine IMEU Policy Project placed the biggest bet in the group’s short history on Michigan’s Democratic midterm race.

Formed in 2024, the organization has spent $1.5m on independent expenditures so far, and $400,000 of that, its largest single investment, went to Abdul El-Sayed.

“When he wins the primary tonight, it will send an undeniable message that support for Palestinian rights is an asset for Democratic voters,” Margaret DeReus, the group’s executive director and a Pal Pac co-founder, said at the sidelines of his watch party downtown Detroit. “Supporting Israel today is a big risk, and that is true no matter how much money Aipac puts into a race – they have a deeply unpopular agenda.”

A quick note that the remaining counties in Michigan that keep central time have now closed their polls.

In the first round of results that the Associated Press have called in the state, Michael Bouchard won the Republican primary in Michigan’s 10th congressional district. This is a GOP stronghold that the party is hoping to hold on to this year as the incumbent, John James, vies for the Republican nomination for governor.

In Michigan’s 11th district, state senator Jeremy Moss won the Democratic primary to face Ethan Baker, the Republican running unopposed, in November. This is the seat currently held by Democratic Senate candidate Haley Stevens, who flipped the district blue in 2018.

The Democratic congressman Wesley Bell won his primary in the St Louis area on Tuesday, ending the progressive former representative Cori Bush’s bid for a comeback and blunting the momentum pro-Palestinian candidates have shown in recent elections.

Bell unseated Bush, a democratic socialist who opposes aid to the US ally and accuses it of committing a genocide in Gaza, in the Democratic congressional primary two years ago with the help of millions of dollars in spending from pro-Israel groups.

Their rematch this year came amid a spate of primary defeats of Democratic incumbents at the hands of progressive outsiders.

Shortly after polls closed, the Associated Press declared that Bell had prevailed. The first district’s heavily Democratic lean makes Bell the favorite to win a second term in the November election.

Reporting from Detroit

Chris Rabb, the Democratic nominee from Philadelphia’s third district, while at the watch party in Michigan, sees proof of a national realignment.

Pointing to fellow winners like mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York and Adam Hamawy in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, he argues the same economic-populist, inclusive message is now winning across urban and rural ground alike, not just in deep blue enclaves.

“This is not just among coastal elites,” Rabb said at El-Sayed’s watch party. “That’s something that could benefit Democrats: if they have the collective wisdom to move us forward, not left or right. Because if they don’t learn this lesson, it’ll be through all of our defeats.”

The Associated Press has called the first batch of results for three House primaries in Virginia.

• First congressional district: Shannon Taylor, a longtime prosecutor, has won the Democratic primary in Virginia’s first congressional district. Backed by establishment Democrats who hope she can flip the seat – which includes the Richmond suburbs – after voters there supported Democratic governor Abigail Spanberger last year, Taylor will challenge Republican incumbent Robb Wittman, who ran uncontested, in November.

• Second congressional district: Elaine Luria, a former congresswoman, has clinched the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s second district. Luria, who served two terms before losing to Republican Jennifer Kiggans in 2022, will now face the incumbent again in a rematch for the battleground district that includes Virginia Beach.

• Seventh congressional district: Meanwhile, in Virginia’s seventh district, Republican voters chose Doug Ollivant, an army veteran, to take on freshman Democrat Eugene Vindman, also a former service member, in the general election. The seat – formerly held by Spanberger – is one of the state’s most competitive. It was in GOP hands from 2000 until 2018, when Spanberger flipped it blue.

Ahead of polls closing, my colleague Joseph Gedeon has been speaking with voters in Detroit today.

For David Sernick and Bonnie White, who live in Roseville Park, one race on the ballot mattered the most – the Democratic Senate primary. Sernick backed Abdul El-Sayed again, the same candidate he supported for governor in 2018. Sernick said he was drawn to a politician willing to be self-critical. “He’s comfortable criticizing ourselves as liberals, and we’ve got to do that,” Sernick said. White also backed El-Sayed, but for a different reason. “I’m thinking about Israel and Palestine because that’s been a hot topic in the news recently,” she said. “I’ve been hearing a lot of noise around that.”

Others noted that no matter who goes on to clinch the Democratic nomination, the party needs to band together and support them moving forward. “We’re really on the same team. How we go about it is the only difference,” said Roy Harris.

For Mike Shane, a retired, self-described socialist stumping for Rashida Tlaib, this primary is a reckoning bigger than one Senate seat. He watched pro-Israel outsider groups, led by Aipac, blitz Haley Stevens’ campaign with $60m in ad buys trying to beat El-Sayed, and he thinks the fight is only getting harder from here – including for rural conservatives losing hospitals, Medicaid, and food stamps. “This could be the Democratic party’s Whig moment,” he mused, describing the party’s collapse and elimination in the 19th century. “We have similar questions right now with the rise of white supremacy, and we need to deal with it once and for all.”

Polls have closed in Missouri, and we will be bringing you the results as they come through. We’ll be keeping an eye out on the Democratic primary in the state’s deep-blue first congressional district – where the pro-Israel incumbent, Wesley Bell, is facing a challenge from Cori Bush, a former progressive congresswoman who accuses Israel of perpetrating genocide in Gaza.

Along with a heated Senate primary in Michigan, the Missouri contest has become a proxy battle over the Democratic party’s role in supporting Israel’s military before the November midterm elections.