Politics

By Richard Cowan and Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Then-President Donald Trump did not care that supporters at his Jan. 6, 2021, rally preceding the assault on the U.S. Capitol were armed, including with AR-15-style rifles, a White House aide at the time testified on Tuesday.

Instead, Trump expressed anger that the Secret Service, which is charged with protecting the president, was using magnetometers to keep armed people out of the fenced-off area where he gave a fiery speech in which he repeated his false claims that his defeat was the result of fraud, Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Mark Meadows, then Trump’s chief of staff, told the House of Representatives select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

“Take the effing mags away; they’re not here to hurt me,” Hutchinson quoted Trump as saying that morning.

The hastily called hearing marked the first time this month, during six hearings, that a White House official appeared for live testimony.

The House of Representatives committee over more than a year has been investigating the first attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power in U.S. history.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson opened the hearing saying new evidence was being presented on Tuesday “dealing with what was going on in the White House on Jan. 6 and the days prior” to the riot at the Capitol.

Thompson praised Hutchinson’s “courage” in coming forth to testify to the committee.

In video testimony during the last hearing last week, Hutchinson told the committee that Republican allies of Trump had sought White House pardons after supporting his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Testimony at the committee’s five prior hearings has shown how Trump, a Republican, riled thousands of supporters with false claims that he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden because of massive voter fraud.

The committee had said last week it would only reconvene publicly in July but announced a change of plans on Monday, a mere 24 hours before the start of Tuesday’s hearing.

This month’s hearings featured videotaped testimony from figures including Trump’s oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his former attorney general, Bill Barr. They and other witnesses testified that they did not believe Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud and tried to dissuade him of them.

Dozens of courts, election officials and reviews by Trump’s own administration rejected his claims of fraud, including outlandish stories about an Italian security firm and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tampering with U.S. ballots.

Trump, who is publicly flirting with another White House run in 2024, denies wrongdoing and accuses the committee of engaging in a political witch hunt. He has leveled harsh criticism particularly at Representative Liz Cheney, one of just two Republicans on the nine-member committee.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll early this month found that about two-thirds of U.S. Republicans believed Trump’s false election fraud claims.

The committee, sometime next month, is expected to hold one or two hearings on possible coordination of the Jan. 6 attack by right-wing extremist groups.

During the assault on the Capitol, thousands of Trump supporters smashed windows, fought with police and sent lawmakers, including Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, fleeing for their lives.

Four people died the day of the attack, one fatally shot by police and the others of natural causes. More than 100 police officers were injured, and one died the next day. Four officers later died by suicide.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Moira Warburton, additional reporting by Doinad Chiacu and Rose Horowitch; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)

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By Richard Cowan and Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. congressional committee began a hastily called hearing into the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by then- President Donald Trump’s supporters, summoning a former White House aide to testify and promising new evidence.

The House of Representatives committee, investigating the first attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power in U.S. history, was set to take testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Mark Meadows, then Trump’s chief of staff.

In video testimony during the last hearing last week, Hutchinson told the committee that Republican allies of Trump had sought White House pardons after supporting his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

Testimony at the committee’s five prior hearings has shown how Trump, a Republican, riled thousands of supporters with false claims that he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden because of massive voter fraud.

The committee had said last week it would only reconvene publicly in July but announced a change of plans on Monday, a mere 24 hours before the start of Tuesday’s hearing.

British filmmaker Alex Holder, who spent time filming Trump and his family in the weeks after the election, has in recent days testified before the committee behind closed doors and shared video of interviews he did with Trump and his family.

The committee has said it intends at some point to interview Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, following reports she may have been involved in efforts to stop Biden’s victory certification at the Capitol on Jan. 6. She has said she intends to speak to the panel.

U.S. law enforcement last week raided the home of Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, who was an enthusiastic supporter of Trump’s false fraud claims.

This month’s hearings featured videotaped testimony from figures including Trump’s oldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and his former attorney general, Bill Barr. They and other witnesses testified that they did not believe Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud and tried to dissuade him of them.

Dozens of courts, election officials and reviews by Trump’s own administration rejected his claims of fraud, including outlandish stories about an Italian security firm and the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tampering with U.S. ballots.

Trump, who is publicly flirting with another White House run in 2024, denies wrongdoing and accuses the committee of engaging in a political witch hunt. He has leveled harsh criticism particularly at Representative Liz Cheney, one of just two Republicans on the nine-member committee.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll early this month found that about two-thirds of U.S. Republicans believed Trump’s false election fraud claims.

The committee, sometime next month, is expected to hold one or two hearings on possible coordination of the Jan. 6 attack by right-wing extremist groups.

During the assault on the Capitol, thousands of Trump supporters smashed windows, fought with police and sent lawmakers, including Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, fleeing for their lives.

Four people died the day of the attack, one fatally shot by police and the others of natural causes. More than 100 police officers were injured, and one died the next day. Four officers later died by suicide.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)

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By Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The sixth day of congressional hearings into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol featured Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to then-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Hutchinson’s testimony focused on what Meadows and Trump knew about the attack in the days before and on Jan. 6, informed by her close working proximity to both men. Here are some takeaways from the hearing.

TRUMP RALLY ATTENDEES WERE ARMED

Many Republicans – including Trump and Republican Representative Louie Gohmert – have said the rioters were not armed, but Hutchinson’s testimony contradicted this claim. She testified that both Meadows and Trump knew many in the crowd were armed with AR-15s, handguns, brass knuckles and batons and equipped with body armor.

Trump was irate that many rally attendees were having to go through metal detectors, a standard security procedure for people near the president, because it gave the appearance of fewer people attending the rally.

“They’re not here to hurt me,” Hutchinson recalled Trump saying. “Let them in, let my people in. They can march to the Capitol after the rally’s over.”

WHITE HOUSE LAWYERS HAD LEGAL CONCERNS ABOUT JAN. 6

Hutchinson testified that White House lawyer Pat Cipollone told her on Jan. 3, 2021, that it would be “legally a terrible idea” for Trump to go to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“He said to me, ‘We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen,” Hutchinson testified. “‘We have serious legal concerns if we go up to the Capitol that day.’”

(Reporting by Moira Warburton, Richard Cowan, Rose Horowitch and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Howard Goller)

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By Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York state judge struck down a new law on Monday that gave hundreds of thousands of non-citizen residents of New York City the right to vote in municipal elections.

Judge Ralph Porzio, of New York State Supreme Court for Staten Island, ruled the law violated the state constitution, which says that “[e]very citizen” is entitled to vote.

The City Council, which is controlled by Democrats, passed the law last December, and it went into effect after both Mayor Bill de Blasio and his successor, Eric Adams, declined to either sign it or veto it.

The law allowed an estimated 800,000 to 1 million non-citizens living in the city as lawful permanent residents of the United States or with U.S. authorization to work here to vote in elections for city-wide office, but not in state-wide or federal elections. There are currently about 6.7 million people of voting age in New York City.

The law required that a person must have been a resident of the city for at least 30 days prior to the election they wished to vote in, which critics of the law said was too short. Republicans opposed the law in part on the belief that a majority of immigrants are more likely to vote Democrat.

Proponents of the law said it enfranchised the city’s huge population of non-citizens who pay taxes and contribute to the life and culture of a city that has long been a beacon for immigrants, as symbolized by the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

Opponents, including the Republican Party and New York lawmakers who sued the city, said the law unfairly and unconstitutionally diluted the power of citizens’ votes and would harm politicians by forcing them to restructure their election strategies.

There was no immediate comment from the City Council or the mayor’s office, who could challenge the ruling in a higher court.

Michael Tannousis, a Republican who represents parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn in the New York State Assembly, was one of the plaintiffs who accused the council of trying to manipulate the electoral system.

“As the son of immigrants that came to this country legally and worked tirelessly to become citizens, I consider voting to be a sacred right bestowed on American citizens,” he said in a statement. “The idea that a person can move to New York City and register to vote after 30 days is preposterous and ripe for fraud.”

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold a hearing on Tuesday to present recently obtained evidence, the panel said in a statement.

The hearing will be held at 1 p.m. (1700 GMT), the committee said on Monday. Details on witnesses or the topic were not immediately provided.

Congress is on recess until early July before the upcoming July 4 Independence Day holiday, and the panel had not been expected to hold further hearings until next month.

The committee has held five hearings on the deadly attack last year when former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed Congress as it sought to formalize Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over the Republican in the 2020 presidential election.

Panel chairman Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson said the panel would hold additional hearings after the first five. “Those hearings have spurred an influx of new information that the committee and our investigators are working to assess,” he said on Thursday.

Many of Trump’s fellow Republicans have testified as the committee laid out what it said was Trump’s seven-part plan to overturn the election. Multiple aides or officials close to Trump, however, have refused to cooperate.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — During Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 Supreme Court confirmation hearings, then-California Sen. Kamala Harris asked the judge if he thought women’s privacy rights extended to choosing to have an abortion. Kavanaugh declined to answer.

With Justice Kavanaugh now part of the court majority that voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and the senator now the vice president, Harris is warning that the court’s decision could trigger some of the same far-reaching privacy limitations she warned of during those hearings.

Taking to the issue with a passion linked both to her personal and professional background, Harris has spent recent weeks sounding the alarm that upending Roe could create precedent for new restrictions on everything from contraception and in vitro fertilization to gay marriage and the right to vote.

Justice Clarence Thomas seemed to validate such concerns, writing in a concurring opinion to the larger ruling on Roe that the high court “should reconsider” past decisions on access to contraception and same-sex marriage.

Harris has been a leading Biden administration voice on abortion rights since early May, when a leaked draft opinion previewed Roe v. Wade’s nullification. She was flying to Illinois for a maternal health event when the final decision was announced last week, and read it while still in the air — quickly shifting the focus of her planned remarks to the ruling.

The decision “calls into question other rights that we thought were settled, such as the right to use birth control, the right to same sex marriage, the right to interracial message,” Harris told her audience Friday at a suburban YMCA, adding that it would spark a “health care crisis.”

Becoming a leading voice on abortion access could be a better fit for Harris after President Joe Biden tasked her with overseeing other thorny issues that haven’t gone well: immigration and expanding voting rights. Sweeping legislation on both issues has stalled in Congress, prompting some advocates to say the vice president and the White House should’ve done more.

Harris symbolically presiding over the Senate didn’t stop Republicans from blocking efforts to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law before the court’s ruling overturning it. But Democrats are hoping anger around the issue will energize their base for the November midterm elections, when the party faces steep headwinds.

Getting straight to the politics of the matter after the ruling was announced, Harris said, “You have the power to elect leaders who will defend and protect your rights. With your vote, you can act. And you have the final word.”

After a Texas law effectively banned abortion in the state in the fall, Harris met providers and patients, which her office believes is the first time abortion providers have visited the White House. She stressed then that gender discrimination persists, saying that “women’s full participation in our nation” was still only a goal, not a reality.

After the draft Supreme Court opinion leaked, the vice president convened a virtual discussion with doctors and nurses providing abortion care in states with strict restrictions and met with Democratic attorneys general from states supportive of reproductive rights.

Biden has also forcefully defended abortion rights and warned that other rights are now at risk. But as a observant Catholic, he hasn’t always had a strong record on the issue.

Harris, the first female vice president and California’s former top prosecutor, brings unique personal perspective and legal expertise to the issue.

“Seeing women fight on behalf of other women is just very true to the core of who she is,” said Jacqueline Ayers, senior vice president of policy, organizing, and campaigns at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

She added that Harris has framed the issue to underscore “the disparity that it creates on Black and brown communities, and for people who are living with low income.”

Ayers said the high court’s action has allowed the vice president to highlight how she’s used her office to listen to women and advocate for improving their health care — perhaps even in ways Biden can’t.

“It’s not necessarily a wedge, it’s just a continuation of someone who has really staked their career around the issues that are key and drivers for them,” Ayers said of differences between Harris and Biden.

Rev. John Dorhauer, the general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, attended a recent virtual meeting on abortion rights that Harris hosted, and suggested she’s been less afraid than some top Democrats to advocate forcefully on the issue.

“To hear that from one of the highest offices in the land is incredibly encouraging,” Dorhauer said.

But some abortion opponents argue that Harris has hurt her cause by equating abortion access with other, more routine medical care.

“She has become emblematic of the abortion absolutism on the other side,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, which advocates for women who oppose abortion in politics.

As a senator, Harris introduced legislation to improve maternal health. During a 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate, then-candidate Harris said it was “outrageous” that abortion had been overshadowed by other issues, despite a woman’s right to the procedure being “under full-on attack” even then.

The vice president most forcefully signaled the outspoken role when she declared a day after the draft opinion leaked in May: “Those Republican leaders who are trying to weaponize the use of the law against women, well, we say, how dare they?”

She then used subsequent weeks to argue that undermining Roe v. Wade could soon wipe out other key privacy rights — the same theme she raised during Kavanaugh’s hearing.

Harris says many states moving to fully ban abortion could restrict in vitro fertilization if legislatures argue that human life begins at fertilization. They could prohibit contraception methods, including intrauterine devices and the “morning after” pill, she argued.

Law enforcement might scrutinize data collected from millions of women who use menstrual cycle tracking apps, or those doing internet searches on getting abortions in other states, the vice president said.

Also ultimately at stake, Harris maintains, is the legalization of gay marriage, noting that states with the strictest abortion laws often also have past LGBTQ prohibitions that the Supreme Court could revive. Once those rights have fallen, the argument goes, voting rights could be next. She convened a recent meeting with privacy experts to discuss the matter.

“That slippery slope is really slippery,” said one of the meeting’s participants, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, the women and democracy fellow at the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice in New York. “We’re barreling right down it right now.”

Michele Goodwin, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, told attendees to be prepared for “the coming of a new Jane Crow,” as efforts to limit abortion begin to emulate antiquated laws that once sanctioned open discrimination against Black people.

Dannenfelser countered that Harris and others are exaggerating, saying the current Supreme Court is “the least likely to do what she’s saying. They believe in the rule of law.”

“It’s intended to scare people and to build a coalition on the other side outside of the abortion issue,” Dannenfelser said.

Harris’ office says she is indeed building a coalition, but it will be one of people who believe that Roe v. Wade’s effects far exceeded abortion, and not just for women. To help drive home that point, Harris met recently in Los Angeles with religious leaders, noting that “to support Roe v. Wade, and all it stands for, does not mean giving up your beliefs.”

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For AP’s full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion

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(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued another significant ruling broadening religious rights, siding with a Christian former public high school football coach in Washington state who sued after being suspended from his job for refusing to stop leading prayers with players on the field after games.

The court, especially its conservative bloc, has taken a wide view of religious liberty in numerous cases in recent years. Here is a look at some of the cases involving religious rights decided during its current term, which began in October.

KENNEDY V. BREMERTON SCHOOL DISTRICT

In the case decided on Monday, the court ruled 6-3 in favor of Joseph Kennedy, who until 2015 served as a part-time assistant football coach in the city of Bremerton. The justices rejected the local school district’s concerns that in a public school setting Kennedy’s prayers and Christian-infused speeches could be seen as coercive to students or a governmental endorsement of a particular religion in violation of the First Amendment’s so-called establishment clause. The justices overturned a lower court’s ruling siding with the school district.

CARSON V. MAKIN

In a 6-3 decision on June 21, the court endorsed more public funding of religious entities as it sided with two Christian families who challenged a Maine tuition assistance program that excluded private religious schools. The justices overturned a lower court ruling that had rejected the families’ claims of religious discrimination in violation of the U.S. Constitution, including the First Amendment protection of the free exercise of religion. Maine’s program provides public funds for tuition at private high schools of a family’s choice in sparsely populated areas lacking public secondary schools. Maine required eligible schools to be “nonsectarian,” excluding those promoting a particular religion and presenting material “through the lens of that faith.”

SHURTLEFF V. BOSTON

The court ruled 9-0 on May 2 that Boston violated the free speech rights of a Christian group by refusing to fly a flag bearing the image of a cross at City Hall as part of a program that let private groups use the flagpole while holding events in the plaza below. The justices decided that the city violated free speech rights protected under the First Amendment of the Christian group Camp Constitution and its director Harold Shurtleff. Boston had argued that raising the cross flag as Camp Constitution requested under a flag-raising program aimed at promoting diversity and tolerance in the city could appear to violate another part of the First Amendment that bars governmental endorsement of a particular religion. The justices overturned a lower court ruling in favor of Boston.

RAMIREZ V. COLLIER

The court ruled 8-1 on March 24 that Texas must grant a convicted murderer on death row his request to have his Christian pastor lay hands on him and audibly pray during his execution, bolstering the religious rights of condemned inmates. The justices overturned a lower court’s decision against John Henry Ramirez, who appealed the state’s rejection of his request for pastoral touch and prayer while he dies from lethal injection. Ramirez was sentenced to death for a fatal 2004 stabbing outside a convenience store.

(Compiled by Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s Republican Party has declared a tie in the primary race for a state Senate seat and says the winner will be chosen by lot.

A state party news release says the party’s Candidate Committee held a hearing Saturday and said the District 27 primary race between Auburn City Councilman Jay Hovey and incumbent Tom Whatley was officially a tie. It said the winner would be determined in accordance with the state election code.

News outlets reported that the committee held the hearing after provisional ballots were counted in the already close primary race and Hovey appeared to be ahead by only a single vote. The party did not release a reason for its decision.

Hovey in a message to The Montgomery Advertiser on Saturday night accused the party of counting an unregistered voter to bring the race to a tie.

“Certainly every vote is important and it’s unfortunate if anyone is mistaken that they are registered to vote,” Hovey wrote. It was unclear if he would challenge the decision.

The state election code says that in the event of a tie in a legislative race, the Secretary of State shall decide the winner by lot.

The district covers Tallapoosa, Lee and Russell counties. The GOP news release did not provide details on when the winner would be selected or the method to be used.

The Opelika-Auburn News reports that one method of deciding a tie by lot is to have the candidates draw slips of paper with one of them being marked as the winner.

“It could be a roll of a dice, high card, or rock-paper-scissors,” Secretary of State John Merrill told AL.com.

Whoever is declared the winner of the primary will run against Democrat candidate Sherri Reese of Opelika in the general election in November. Reese was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Democrats looking to unseat Republican Sen. Ron Johnson focused their attacks on him Sunday, and not each other, as the eight candidates made their case to party activists at the state convention held six weeks before the primary.

The Democratic Senate candidates blasted Johnson for his attempt to deliver fake Republican Electoral College ballots to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, his skepticism over COVID-19 vaccines, his voting for a tax law that benefited him, and his support for overturning Roe v. Wade.

The race in Wisconsin, which Donald Trump carried in 2016 but President Joe Biden won in 2020, could determine which party control the Senate. Polls show a tight Democratic primary between Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and Alex Lasry, who is on leave from his job as an executive for the Milwaukee Bucks.

Barnes highlighted his upbringing in a “hard working union household” in Milwaukee and contrasted that with Johnson, who is a millionaire and former owner of a plastics company.

“It feels like the deck is stacked against us,” Barnes said at the convention in La Crosse. “We don’t want a hand out, we just want a fair shot. And we know we will never get that fair shot as long as Ron Johnson is in the Senate.”

Lasry, a millionaire, touted his union support, his work to build the Fiserv Forum where the Bucks play and his role getting the Democratic National Convention to be in Milwaukee in 2020. He also contrasted himself with Johnson and blasted him for not fighting to persuade Oshkosh Defense to locate 1,000 jobs in Wisconsin rather than South Carolina.

“He’s attacked organized labor,” Lasry said. “Spread lies about COVID. Tried to overthrow the government. And he’s even advocating to ship Wisconsin jobs to South Carolina.”

Other candidates include state Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson, political organizer Steven Olikara, restaurant owner Kou Lee, state emergency management administrator Darrell Williams and attorney Peter Peckarsky.

Godlewski, the only woman in the race, said she would work to pass a law legalizing abortion now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.

“If we had more Democratic women at that U.S. Senate table, we would have gotten this done a long time ago,” Godlewski said.

Nelson, who has tried to run a humor-infused, folksy campaign similar to former Sen. Russ Feingold’s first bid for office 30 years ago, had some of the strongest words for Johnson, calling him a “lying, treason-loving, woman-hating, Putin stooge.”

He likened his own candidacy to a “strong Wisconsin beer,” holding up a bottle of Spotted Cow from New Glarus Brewing Co. and compared the other Democratic candidates to a bottle of Bud Light.

Olikara, running his first campaign for office, emphasized his work leading the Millennial Action Project, which lobbied Congress to enact bipartisan legislation. He said the best ideas in Congress should be coming from regular people, “not the big money special interests.”

The candidate were largely united on the issues, voicing support not for abortion rights, also gun control, ending the Senate filibuster, expanding voter rights and fighting climate change.

The winner of the Aug. 9 primary will advance to face Johnson, who is seeking a third term after previously promising to not run again. Johnson is also one of Trump’s loudest backers and has been endorsed by the former president. He has espoused conspiracy theories related to the Jan. 6 insurrection and attempted to shift blame for what happened away from Trump supporters.

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This version corrects that Nelson compared some of the other Democrats, not Johnson, to Bud Light.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Seven states are set to host primary elections Tuesday as the nation comes to terms with last week’s stunning Supreme Court ruling eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.

This week’s nominating contests could offer the first clues as to whether the political landscape has shifted. Abortion is particularly relevant in Colorado, where GOP voters are deciding whether to nominate a rare abortion-rights-supporting Republican for U.S. Senate.

And in Illinois, a Donald Trump-backed congresswoman ignited a political firestorm over the weekend by celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade as “a victory for white life,” phrasing that her spokesman later called a “stumble” and was meant to be “right to life.”

The primaries will also offer new insight about the state of the Republican Party, with the central issue in virtually every GOP contest being fealty to Trump and his baseless conspiracy theories. Those Republicans who have pushed back at all, including a senator in Oklahoma and a congressman in Mississippi, are facing fierce challenges.

Democrats have their own challenges. Illinois voters will decide a rare incumbent-on-incumbent primary for a House seat, while in South Carolina, Democrats are picking which candidate will take on South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott this fall.

In all, primary elections are playing out across Colorado, Illinois, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah on Tuesday. Nebraska is holding a special election.

What to watch:

COLORADO

GOP businessman Joe O’Dea, who has spoken publicly about his support for abortion rights, is running for the nomination to take on Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet this fall. O’Dea’s top rival is state Rep. Ron Hanks, who opposes abortion in all circumstances and attended the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

O’Dea said he backs a ban on late-term abortions and government funding of abortions, but the decision to terminate a pregnancy in the initial months is “between a person and their God.”

While Colorado has trended Democratic over the past decade, Tuesday’s top Republican primary contests will show whether far-right candidates are making progress in their quest to take on uncontested Democrats like Bennet, Gov. Jared Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who’s led the national fight against 2020 election deniers.

One of them is Republican Tina Peters, a conspiracy-theorist county elections clerk who’s been indicted for tampering with voting equipment and posting data online. Peters wants to unseat Griswold as Colorado’s top elections official despite calls from the state GOP for Peters to suspend her campaign. She’s running against Republican Pam Anderson, a former head of the state’s clerks association and defender of Colorado’s mail-in elections system.

Colorado’s congressional primaries will measure the staying power of first-term GOP firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert in a sprawling western Colorado district that leans more Republican after redistricting. She’s up against state Sen. Don Coram, a hemp farmer and GOP moderate.

In the Republican race to take on Polis, a former suburban Denver mayor, Greg Lopez, is facing Heidi Ganahl, the lone statewide-elected Republican as a University of Colorado regent.

ILLINOIS

As he is in most GOP contests, Trump is a central issue in Illinois’ Republican primary for governor.

Darren Bailey, a conservative farmer who earned Trump’s endorsement over the weekend and often reads from the Bible in campaign videos, is part of a six-candidate Republican field. His rivals include Richard Irvin, the first Black mayor of Illinois’ second-largest suburb, who had $50 million in support from billionaire Ken Griffin but was heavily targeted by Democrats who see Bailey as an easier matchup for Pritzker.

While Trump endorsed Bailey, he also campaigned alongside first-term Rep. Mary Miller, who is challenging five-term Rep. Rodney Davis in one of the state’s two incumbent-on-incumbent primaries.

But at Saturday’s rally, Miller described the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade as “a victory for white life.” A spokesperson later said she had intended to say the decision was a victory for a “right to life.”

But the Illinois congresswoman is no stranger to provocative statements. Soon after joining the House, Miller quoted Adolf Hitler, saying he was right to say that “whoever has the youth has the future.”

Davis is a powerful, more moderate lawmaker who is the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, which deals with election legislation and the Capitol complex.

Meanwhile, two Democratic incumbents — Reps. Sean Casten and Marie Newman — are facing off for a Chicago-area seat. Also on the Democratic side, about two dozen candidates are fighting to succeed Rep. Bobby Rush, the only lawmaker to ever defeat Barack Obama. They include John Jackson, son of civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Karin Norington-Reaves, who has Rush’s endorsement.

NEW YORK

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was vaulted into office last fall when Andrew Cuomo resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal, is trying to hold on to her job.

Hochul, a Democrat from western New York, is facing challenges from New York City’s elected public advocate, Jumaane Williams, and Rep. Tom Suozzi, a moderate congressman from Long Island.

Tuesday’s elections cover New York’s statewide offices and state assembly races, but primary elections for U.S. House seats and the state Senate will be held Aug. 23. Those elections were delayed because of a redistricting lawsuit that led a court to throw out new political maps.

Hochul, who was Cuomo’s lieutenant governor for six years, promised to restore New Yorkers’ faith in its government after stepping into the office last summer, but she hit a major stumbling block in April, when her handpicked lieutenant governor was arrested in a federal corruption probe.

Williams, a progressive running to Hochul’s left, said Hochul is either “consistently shamefully out of the loop, or shamefully enabling through her inaction.” Suozzi, running to Hochul’s right, says she’s not being tough enough on crime, suggesting she should have gone further to harden the state’s bail law.

On the Republican side, Rep. Lee Zeldin is considered the front-runner in a crowded field that features Andrew Giuliani, the son of New York City’s former mayor Rudy Giuliani; Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino; and businessman Harry Wilson. Former Vice President Mike Pence has endorsed Zeldin, who also enjoys the backing of the state GOP and Conservative Party, but Trump has stayed out of the race.

UTAH

The Republican primary for U.S. Senate pits one of Trump’s closest allies, GOP incumbent Sen. Mike Lee, against two challengers who have spent months questioning Lee’s loyalty to the former president.

Former state lawmaker Becky Edwards and political operative Ally Isom have attacked Lee as a divisive politician who cares less about governing than about television appearances and winning Trump’s favor. Unlike Lee, neither voted for Trump in 2020.

Both Republican challengers have highlighted the post-election text messages Lee sent to Trump’s chief of staff, which show his early involvement in efforts to overturn the election. Edwards has also stood out by saying she disagreed with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to revisit Roe v. Wade.

The Senate primary is testing whether Trump’s brand of divisive politics and conspiracy theories resonates with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who make up a majority of Utah’s population.

In November, the winner will take on independent Evan McMullin, a former Republican who won backing from the state Democratic Party in April.

MISSISSIPPI

Congressional primary runoffs are rare in Mississippi, but on Tuesday, two of the state’s Republican incumbents are fighting to keep their jobs in runoffs against challengers from their own party.

Rep. Steven Palazzo is seeking a seventh term and was considered vulnerable after being accused in a 2021 congressional ethics report of abusing his office by misspending campaign funds.

Rep. Michael Guest is seeking a third term. He voted to create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and was forced into a runoff amid criticism that he was disloyal to Trump.

Both Palazzo and Guest failed to cross the 50% threshold to win outright in their June 7 primaries. Palazzo is facing Mike Ezell, the sheriff of a coastal county, while Guest is going up against Michael Cassidy, a former Navy fighter pilot who has highlighted his allegiance to Trump.

OKLAHOMA

Republicans are picking two U.S. Senate nominees on Tuesday.

A crowd of high-profile GOP contenders is vying to replace retiring Sen. Jim Inhofe, including Trump’s former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, who resigned from his Washington post under a cloud of ethics scandals. Other candidates include Rep. Markwayne Mullin; T.W. Shannon, the state legislature’s first Black House speaker; and Luke Holland, Inhofe’s longtime chief of staff.

Republican Sen. James Lankford is facing a primary test of his own that centers on Trump.

Lankford, among the Senate’s most conservative members, has faced backlash from Trump loyalists for not embracing the former president’s lies about election fraud. Lankford is facing Tulsa evangelical pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, a political newcomer endorsed by Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser.

NEBRASKA

A judge on Tuesday will sentence longtime Nebraska congressman Jeff Fortenberry on campaign contribution charges on the same day voters will decide who should serve out the Republican’s term. Fortenberry resigned in March.

Republican Mike Flood will be favored to win the election in the Republican-leaning district over Democrat Patty Pansing Brooks. Both are state legislators.

Regardless of who wins the special election, Flood and Pansing Brooks will face off again in the November general election. The eastern Nebraska district includes Lincoln and parts of suburban Omaha as well as rural area.

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Associated Press writers Michelle Price in New York; Sara Burnett in Chicago; Sam Metz in Salt Lake City; Jim Anderson in Denver; Grant Schulte in Omaha, Neb.; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this report.

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