Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate approved nearly $40 billion in aid for Ukraine on Thursday sending the bill to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law as Washington races to keep military assistance flowing nearly three months after Russia’s invasion.

The Senate voted 86-11 in favor of the package of military, economic and humanitarian assistance, by far the largest U.S. aid package for Ukraine to date. All 11 no votes were from Republicans.

“This is a large package, and it will meet the large needs of the Ukrainian people as they fight for their survival,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, urging support for the emergency supplemental spending bill before the vote.

“By passing this emergency aid, the Senate can now say to the Ukrainian people: help is on the way. Real help. Significant help. Help that could make sure that the Ukrainians are victorious,” Schumer said.

The House of Representatives passed the spending bill on May 10, also with every “no” vote from Republicans. It stalled in the Senate after Republican Senator Rand Paul refused to allow a quick vote. Biden’s fellow Democrats narrowly control both the House and Senate, but Senate rules require unanimous consent to move quickly to a final vote on most legislation.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had urged lawmakers to work quickly, telling congressional leaders in a letter that the military had enough funds to send weapons to Kyiv only until Thursday, May 19.

When Biden signs the supplemental spending bill into law, it will bring the total amount of U.S. aid approved for Ukraine to well over $50 billion since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24.

The package includes $6 billion for security assistance, including training, equipment, weapons and support; $8.7 billion to replenish stocks of U.S. equipment sent to Ukraine, and $3.9 billion for European Command operations.

In addition, the legislation authorizes a further $11 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows Biden to authorize the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

It also includes $5 billion to address food insecurity globally due to the conflict and nearly $9 billion for an economic support fund for Ukraine.

The war has killed thousands of civilians, forced millions of Ukrainians from their homes and reduced cities to rubble. Moscow has little to show for it beyond a strip of territory in the south and marginal gains in the east.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Vote counting in Pennsylvania’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate dragged into a third day as Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick remained essentially tied with tens of thousands of ballots left to tally.

Oz, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by 1,240 votes, or 0.09 percentage points, out of 1,334,376 ballots counted as of midday Thursday. The race remained close enough to trigger Pennsylvania’s automatic recount law, with the separation between the candidates inside the law’s 0.5% margin.

Oz’s margin has narrowed in the past day, as county election officials continue to count mail ballots, but election workers still have thousands of ballots left to count in the exceptionally close race. Pennsylvania’s Department of State, which oversees elections, said Thursday that there are about 51,000 mail-in and absentee ballots — 17,000 in the Republican primary — left to be counted.

The hard-fought primary for the Republican nomination to fill retiring GOP Sen. Pat Toomey’s seat is expected to be among the top races in the country in the November general election. The winner will face Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who won the Democratic nomination just days after suffering a stroke. He said he expects a full recovery, and remained in the hospital Thursday.

Oz and McCormick have said they believe victory is near.

On Thursday, McCormick told a Philadelphia radio show host that “we’re pretty confident that we’re going to end with me in the win column.” On Wednesday night, Oz told Fox News host Sean Hannity that “this election is ours. We have done well.”

Trump has encouraged Oz to preemptively declare victory — much like the former president did in the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. But Oz has made no indication of doing so, and McCormick, when asked about it, shrugged it off, saying, “I’ve been rough and tumble before in my life, and I’m ready for it.”

Statewide, McCormick was doing better than Oz among mail ballots, while Oz was doing better among votes cast on election day. Counties also must still count provisional, overseas and military absentee ballots before they certify their results to the state by next Tuesday’s deadline.

County election officials have counted almost all ballots cast in person on election day, with the exception of Allegheny County, according to an Associated Press survey of county election officials.

McCormick leads Oz in Allegheny County among mail ballots and those that were cast on election day.

Delaware County and Philadelphia also have some precinct results from election day still left to be counted, according to the McCormick campaign.

Republican turnout exceeded 38%, the highest midterm primary turnout in at least two decades, boosted by more than $70 million in advertising and other spending in the Senate GOP campaign.

Oz was helped by the endorsement from Trump, while a super PAC backing McCormick weighed in heavily, spending about $20 million, much of it to attack Oz.

Both men spent millions of their own dollars on the campaign, as well, and battled accusations of being carpetbagger s — Oz moved from a mansion in northern New Jersey overlooking Manhattan to run, while McCormick moved from Connecticut’s ritzy Gold Coast.

A rival, conservative activist Kathy Barnette, appeared to be surging in polls in the days leading up to the election, but she finished third.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden departs on a six-day trip to South Korea and Japan aiming to build rapport with the two nations’ leaders while also sending an unmistakable message to China: Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine should give Beijing pause about its own saber-rattling in the Pacific.

Biden departs Thursday and is set to meet newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Their talks will touch on trade, increasing resilience in the global supply chain, growing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program and the explosive spread of COVID-19 in that country.

While in Japan, Biden will also meet with fellow leaders of the Indo-Pacific strategic alliance known as the Quad, a group that includes Australia, India and Japan.

The U.S. under Biden has forged a united front with democratic allies that has combined their economic heft to make Russia pay a price for its invasion of Ukraine. That alliance includes South Korea and Japan. But even as Biden is to be feted by Yoon at a state dinner and hold intimate conversations with Kishida, the U.S. president knows those relationships need to be deepened if they’re to serve as a counterweight to China’s ambitions.

“We think this trip is going to put on full display President Biden’s Indo-Pacific strategy and then it will show in living color, the United States can at once lead the free world in responding to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and that at the same time chart a course for effective, principled American leadership and engagement in a region that will define much of the future of the 21st century,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

The war in eastern Europe has created a sense of urgency about China among major U.S. allies in the Pacific. Many have come to see the moment as their own existential crisis — one in which it’s critical to show China it should not try to seize contested territory through military action.

Biden’s overseas travel comes as he faces strong domestic headwinds: an infant formula shortage, budget-busting inflation, a rising number of COVID-19 infections, and increasing impatience among a Democratic base bracing for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that is likely to result in a roll back of abortion rights.

The conundrums Biden faces in Asia are no less daunting.

China’s military assertiveness has grown over the course of Biden’s presidency, with its provocative actions frequently putting the region on edge.

Last month, China held military drills around Taiwan after a group of U.S. lawmakers arrived for talks on the self-governed island. Late last year China stepped up sorties into Taiwan’s air space. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state, but Beijing views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve unification.

Japan has reported frequent intrusions by China’s military vessels into Japanese territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The uninhabited islets are controlled by Japan but claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday criticized what he called negative moves by Washington and Tokyo against Beijing during a video call with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

“What arouses attention and vigilance is the fact that, even before the American leader has set out for the meeting, the so-called joint Japan-U.S. anti-China rhetoric is already kicking up dust,” Wang said, according to China’s Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, South Korea could tilt closer to the U.S. under Yoon, who took office last week. The new South Korean president has criticized his predecessor as “subservient” to China by seeking to balance the relationships with Washington and Beijing. To neutralize North Korea’s nuclear threats, Yoon has pledged to seek a stronger U.S. security commitment.

The Biden administration has warned China against assisting Russia in its war with Ukraine. In March, the U.S. informed Asian and European allies that American intelligence determined that China had signaled to Russia a willingness to provide military support and financial backing to reduce the blow of severe sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies.

Biden administration officials say that the Russian invasion has been a clarifying moment for some of the bigger powers in Asia as financial sanctions and export bans have been put in place to check Russia.

U.S. Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, Biden’s top envoy to Japan, said the Japanese have stood out by rallying eight of 10 members of Association of Southeast Nations to back a U.N. vote against the Russian invasion.

“Japan has been a pacesetter that has picked up and set the pace for South Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and others here in the Indo Pacific area,” Emanuel said of Tokyo’s support of Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

Biden, who is making his first presidential trip to Asia, met Kishida briefly on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference last year shortly after the Japanese prime minister took office. He has yet to meet with Yoon face-to-face. The South Korean leader, a former prosecutor who came to office without political or foreign policy experience, was elected in a closely fought election.

Biden arrives in the midst of an unfolding crisis in North Korea, where a mass COVID-19 outbreak is spreading through its unvaccinated population. North Korea acknowledged domestic COVID-19 infections for the first time last week, ending a widely doubted claim it had been virus-free.

In recent months, North Korea has test-launched a spate of missiles in what experts see as an attempt to modernize its weapons and pressure its rivals to accept the country as a nuclear state and relax their sanctions.

Sullivan said U.S. intelligence officials have determined there’s a “genuine possibility” that North Korea will conduct another ballistic missile test or nuclear test around the time of Biden’s visit to Asia.

To be certain, China will also be carefully watching for “cracks in the relationship” during Biden’s trip, said Scott Kennedy, a China economic analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Sullivan confirmed that Biden will use the trip to launch the long-anticipated Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a proposed pact to set rules for trade and digital standards, ensuring reliable supply chains, worker protections, decarbonization and tax and anticorruption issues. Known as IPEF, it’s a planned substitute for the Trans-Pacific Partnership that President Donald Trump left in 2017 and that the Biden administration has not rejoined.

In terms of economic power, the U.S. slightly lags China in the Pacific, according to the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. But the institute’s analysis shows the possibility that a trade pact could magnify the combined power of the U.S. and its allies relative to China. Biden’s challenge is that IPEF would not necessarily cut tariff rates or give allied signatories greater access to U.S. markets, something Asian countries seek.

Biden and his fellow leaders also have their own national interests and differences over what it means to strengthen supply chains that have been rattled by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Democratic president says the U.S. must increase computer chip production on American soil. The shortage has fueled inflation by delaying production of autos, life-saving medical devices, smartphones, video game consoles, laptops and other modern conveniences. Yet allies in Asia are talking about the need to expand their capacity for making semiconductors — a valuable export — in their own countries.

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By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – U.S. Representative Lucy McBath has been a rising Democratic star since 2018, when she ended 40 years of Republican dominance in a suburban Atlanta seat.

Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux staked her own claim to fame in 2020, when she captured the district next door and became the only Democratic House candidate in the country to flip a Republican seat that year.

But a new Republican-drawn congressional map aimed at eliminating one of their seats now has the two women squaring off for their party’s nomination in Georgia’s reconfigured 7th district. That ensures only one will advance from Tuesday’s primary to November’s general election, to the irritation of activists who spent years turning Atlanta’s suburbs Democratic.

“I was really frustrated with the process of redistricting,” said Mary Baron, a retired attorney who volunteered for McBath’s two previous runs and donated to Bourdeaux’s campaign. “It seemed clear to me that they created it to put a Republican into office.”

The race is one of a half-dozen around the United States in which redistricting has pushed incumbents from the same party to run against one other, an awkward result of the once-a-decade process of drawing new congressional lines.

The rare contests often serve as a proxy for the larger tensions roiling each party – which, this time around, means establishment Democrats and Republicans competing against the progressive left and Trump-dominated right.

In New York this week, a court-appointed special master released a draft congressional map, after the state’s top court invalidated a Democratic-drawn plan as an illegal gerrymander.

The new proposal could pit two pairs of Democratic incumbents against one another, including powerful representatives Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, who have each spent three decades in Congress and will face off this August in what will be a massively expensive primary.

INTRAPARTY TENSIONS

In some states, such as Georgia, the intraparty contests stem from a deliberately partisan effort by one party to draw favorable lines.

In other cases, the match-ups are an inevitable outcome of redistricting. West Virginia lost one of its three seats as a result of sluggish population growth, forcing two incumbents to face off. Republican U.S. Representative Alex Mooney defeated fellow Republican congressman David McKinley in last week’s primary election.

In Illinois, Republican first-term U.S. Representative Mary Miller – endorsed by former President Donald Trump – is going after fellow Republican Rodney Davis, who has served a decade in the House.

Miller, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, has attacked Davis for his vote in favor of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Davis, who is seen as a more traditional Republican, has the backing of the state’s party infrastructure.

New York’s new map immediately highlighted the antagonism between the Democratic Party’s establishment and left wings. Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the national Democratic Party’s congressional campaign arm, announced within minutes of the map’s release that he would run in a new district made up mostly of liberal Black Democrat Mondaire Jones’ seat.

Jones criticized the decision in an interview with Politico but has not said whether he will challenge Maloney. Jones could also run against Jamaal Bowman, a fellow first-term Black progressive Democrat, who occupies a neighboring district.

The Georgia race has been particularly galling for Democrats, given that McBath and Bourdeaux’s victories were notched in suburban Atlanta – ground zero for President Joe Biden’s surprising statewide win in 2020, as well as for twin Senate runoff elections in 2021 that gave the party control of Congress.

Bourdeaux has attacked McBath for abandoning her district, which was redrawn to be heavily Republican, rather than fighting to keep it.

“Everything that we have been fighting for, you have been undermining by coming and fighting me here,” Bourdeaux said at a recent debate.

McBath has responded by noting that polls suggest she is leading the race, arguing that shows voters know her and the work she has done on their behalf.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Rosalba O’Brien)

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By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden meets the leaders of Sweden and Finland on Thursday after the nations set aside their long-standing neutrality and moved to join the NATO alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Hours before his first trip to Asia as president, Biden will sit down with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö at the White House to discuss their NATO applications.

“This is a historic event, a watershed moment in European security. Two nations with a long tradition of neutrality will be joining the world’s most powerful defensive alliance,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Biden has made uniting Europe against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a top priority. Turkey has raised questions about including Finland and Sweden in the alliance, asking Sweden halt support for Kurdish militants it considers a terrorist group and both to lift their bans on some sales of arms to Turkey.

Sullivan told reporters on Wednesday that U.S. officials are confident Turkey’s concerns can be addressed. All 30 NATO members need to approve any new entrant.

Biden’s meeting comes as he seeks approval from the U.S. Congress for $40 billion in aid for Ukraine to provide weapons and humanitarian assistance through September.

U.S. officials said Wednesday the United States has collected intelligence showing some Russian officials are aware there are abuses being conducted against Ukrainians in Mariupol.

“Some Russian officials recognize that despite claiming to be ‘liberators’ of the Russian-speaking city of Mariupol, Russian forces are carrying out grievous abuses in the city, including beating and electrocuting city officials and robbing homes,” the official said, citing declassified intelligence.

Russian officials worry these abuses “may further inspire Mariupol residents to resist Russian occupation,” the official said.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Reuters was unable to verify the intelligence claim.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons and Lincoln Feast.)

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By Jarrett Renshaw and David Morgan

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -Pennsylvania’s hotly contested U.S. Senate Republican primary between TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund executive David McCormick was still undecided on Wednesday and could drag on into next week, with a possible recount looming.

Oz, whose candidacy was propelled by a late endorsement from former President Donald Trump, led McCormick by just over 500 ballots cast on Tuesday out of nearly 1.3 million counted, while conservative political commentator Kathy Barnette trailed at a distant third, according to Edison Research.

Under Pennsylvania law, any margin of 0.5% or less triggers an automatic recount.

A top state election official told CNN that ballot counting would continue in coming days and said authorities should know by the middle of next week whether a recount will be necessary.

Oz and McCormick, who have Pennsylvania roots but only recently moved back to the state, have both struggled with questions about their authenticity and commitment to Trump-style populism.

Either could be at a disadvantage in November against Democratic nominee John Fetterman — the goateed, tattooed lieutenant governor with an “everyman” appeal.

“A lot of Republicans, especially populist Republicans, didn’t find Oz or McCormick to be populist enough. And of course, they’re both seen as carpetbaggers,” said Jeffrey Brauer, a political science professor at Keystone College.

A McCormick adviser estimated there were 30,000 to 50,000 votes still uncounted, with some 23 counties still tallying votes.

The two leading campaigns focused on Lancaster County, where a technical error caused delays.

POLL WATCHING

The Oz and McCormick campaigns have poll watchers in the county and will be also sending people to monitor the processing of provisional and military ballots across Pennsylvania, according to campaign officials.

Trump waded into the contest on Wednesday by saying Oz should “declare victory” and suggesting without evidence that his chosen candidate could lose through voter fraud. Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud, an allegation refuted by multiple courts, state election officials and members of his own administration.

“It makes it much harder for them to cheat with the ballots that they ‘just happened to find’,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social media platform.

Both Oz and McCormick told supporters late on Tuesday that they wanted all the votes counted, with each predicting ultimate victory.

On the Democratic side, Fetterman defeated moderate U.S. Representative Conor Lamb just hours after having had a pacemaker implanted to address irregular heart rhythms that caused a stroke last week. He has said doctors expect a full recovery.

The contest between Oz and McCormick represents the latest test of Trump’s influence with Republicans, after an election night in which candidates bearing his endorsement won their party’s nominations for governor of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Senate in North Carolina.

Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates as he tries to solidify his status as his party’s kingmaker, though his picks have not always prevailed.

One such endorsee, U.S. Representative Madison Cawthorn, lost his bid for a second two-year term in North Carolina after a dizzying string of self-inflicted scandals. Trump’s pick for Idaho governor, Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, failed in her bid to oust the incumbent Republican, Brad Little.

But another Trump-endorsed candidate in North Carolina, U.S. Representative Ted Budd, won the state’s Republican U.S. Senate nomination. He will face Democratic former state Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who is seeking to become the state’s first Black senator.

The Pennsylvania and North Carolina Senate races are two of the most important midterm contests, as Democrats fight to retain slim majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate. Both seats are held by retiring Republicans: Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Richard Burr in North Carolina.

Republicans are well positioned to regain control of the House, which could enable them to stonewall President Biden’s legislative agenda. Biden’s public approval rating is at 42%, with 50% of Americans disapproving of his performance, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday.

Democrats have a better chance of keeping control of the Senate, currently split 50-50 between the parties with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote.

Trump-endorsed Republican Doug Mastriano, who has amplified Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and who marched on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will face Democratic Attorney General Josh Shapiro in a Pennsylvania governor’s race that could have major implications for abortion rights and election integrity.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia, David Morgan in Washington and Joseph Ax in New York; Editing by Scott Malone, Ross Colvin, Will Dunham, Howard Goller and Jonathan Oatis)

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Family members of the late U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota say his widow, Jennifer Carnahan, who is running to replace her husband in Congress, hasn’t come through on a promise to pay them back medical expenses related to his cancer treatments.

Carnahan calls it a political stunt.

Two lawsuits filed Monday by Hagedorn’s mother, stepfather and sister allege they helped pay for cancer treatments he received at Envita Medical Centers in Arizona. Carnahan made a “clear and definite promise” to use inheritance she was to receive after his death to reimburse his family members, according to the complaints.

Carnahan said Hagedorn’s estate is required to go through the probate process in the courts to determine how to divide up his assets and there is nothing more she can do at this time.

“Grief affects everyone differently. Handling the affairs of my husband’s estate should be a private matter,” Carnahan said in a statement. “It’s unfortunate a very simple process has been turned into a political stunt.”

Hagedorn died after a long battle with kidney cancer on Feb. 17. He was told in January that there were no more treatments available for him at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which is his congressional district, so he sought additional treatments at the facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Star Tribune reported.

A suit filed by Hagedorn’s mother, Kathleen Kreklau, and stepfather said they used $10,000 of a $25,000 home equity loan to help cover medical costs. In a separate complaint, Hagedorn’s sister, Tricia Lucas, said she charged $10,000 on a credit card to help cover the costs of his treatment and was promised repayment by Carnahan.

Both lawsuits allege Carnahan was to receive a $174,000 death benefit from the United States government after Hagedorn died, as well $174,000 from his life insurance policy.

Carnahan closed her statement by saying she wishes “Jim’s family well and know this time has been very difficult for all of us.”

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By James Oliphant and Jarrett Renshaw

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After far-right candidate Doug Mastriano won the Republican primary for Pennsylvania governor, Democrats quickly warned voters that he poses a threat to abortion access, voting rights and election integrity should he win in November.

Josh Shapiro, the state’s attorney general and the Democratic nominee for governor, called Mastriano the most extreme gubernatorial candidate in the country.

The Republican supports abortion bans with no exceptions for rape, incest or the health of the mother. He has proposed restrictions on mail-in voting and eliminating ballot drop boxes, and he backs former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential contest.

Shapiro’s campaign said it had raised about $200,000 since the polls closed in the Republican primary on Tuesday night, and the Democratic candidate asked for more donations on Wednesday.

Democrats view the Pennsylvania governor’s race as one of the most critical contests in the country. The current governor, Democrat Tom Wolf, has blocked measures from the Republican-controlled state legislature that would limit abortion and voting rights.

Some Republicans in Pennsylvania are also alarmed by Mastriano, who marched in Washington before the Jan. 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol. They said they fear Mastriano is all but unelectable and could drag down the party’s entire state ticket with him.

“We are going to lose state house and state senate races,” said Val Biancaniello, a Republican state committee member from Philadelphia’s suburbs. “It is very difficult for someone like me to rally behind Doug Mastriano, who is going to get his butt kicked in November because he is a far-right extremist.”

Mastriano, who was endorsed by Trump the weekend before the primary, disputed that he is a far-right candidate.

“I repudiate that,” he said in his victory speech on Tuesday. “That is crap.”

ABORTION, VOTING RIGHTS AT PLAY

As voters worry about inflation, the coronavirus pandemic and crime, Democrats are looking to leverage the battle over abortion rights to boost turnout among women and young voters, including independents and some Republicans.

Shapiro has vowed to veto any abortion restrictions that come before him as governor.

Mastriano, a state senator, has proposed a so-called “heartbeat” bill that would ban abortions after six weeks. He recently called abortion “genocide.”

The Pennsylvania legislature has introduced a bill that would prevent the state Supreme Court from declaring abortion a right if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its Roe v. Wade precedent and sends the issue of legalization back to individual states.

“With our fundamental rights on the line, we must work harder than ever to ensure that an anti-choice extremist like Doug Mastriano never holds the governor’s office,” said Ally Boguhn, a spokesperson for NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Mastriano also has championed Trump’s stolen election claims, proposing a state audit of the 2020 results.

A retired Army colonel, Mastriano was seen outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters breached the building. He has said he peacefully participated in a pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” rally that day but left before the siege.

Some influential Republicans in the state, such as Sam DeMarco, a Republican Party committee chair in Pittsburgh, warned ahead of the primary that Mastriano was unelectable, pointing to survey research that predicted swing voters would shift to Shapiro in large numbers if Mastriano won the nomination.

Analysts say Shapiro, a candidate who has won statewide and went unchallenged in the Democratic primary, has the edge in the race. Heading into the primary, Mastriano had about $800,000 in his campaign account, while Shapiro was sitting on a war chest of more than $18 million.

Mastriano “needs to start showing how he’s going to appeal to moderate Republicans and independent voters,” said Charlie O’Neil, a veteran of Republican campaigns in Pennsylvania. “You don’t win Pennsylvania by winning the Republican base.”

(Reporting by James Oliphant in Washington and Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Osterman)

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By Jarrett Renshaw and Joseph Ax

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -Voters in Pennsylvania and North Carolina will pick nominees in critical U.S. Senate and gubernatorial contests on Tuesday that provide another test of former President Donald Trump’s sway with Republican voters ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Idaho’s incumbent Republican governor also faces a Trump-backed primary rival, while Trump ally Madison Cawthorn, a first-term Republican congressman who has generated numerous controversies, hopes to fend off a primary challenge in North Carolina.

President Joe Biden’s fellow Democrats are fighting to retain their slim majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate in the Nov. 8 congressional elections. Democrats in Pennsylvania and North Carolina are trying to win Senate seats currently held by Republicans.

The Pennsylvania Republican senatorial primary has turned into an unpredictable three-way battle in its final days after conservative political commentator Kathy Barnette surged into contention against two better-funded rivals: Trump-endorsed TV wellness celebrity Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund chief executive David McCormick.

Barnette’s rise has worried some establishment Republicans concerned that the right-wing activist could prove too conservative for general election voters choosing a successor to retiring Senator Pat Toomey.

A weekend opinion poll by the Trafalgar Group, a Republican firm, showed Oz leading Barnette 28.5% to 26.8%, within the margin of error, with McCormick trailing at 21.6%.

In the Democratic primary, progressive Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, who is finishing his primary campaign from a hospital after suffering a stroke last week, faces centrist U.S. Representative Conor Lamb.

Final results may not be known tonight. State officials said voters had requested 908,000 absentee or mail ballots, and state law prevents them from being processed until election day.

In North Carolina, Trump-endorsed congressman Ted Budd leads former Governor Pat McCrory as they vie to succeed retiring Senator Richard Burr. Cheri Beasley, the first Black woman to serve as chief justice of North Carolina’s Supreme Court, is expected to win the Democratic nomination.

More than 580,000 voters had already cast their ballots in person or by mail, nearly twice as many as four years ago, according to figures provided by the state Board of Elections. Those voters returned slightly more Democratic than Republican ballots.

Trump has endorsed more than 150 candidates as he tries to solidify his status as his party’s kingmaker, though his picks have not always prevailed. His support helped author J.D. Vance win the Ohio Senate primary, but his favored candidate lost in Nebraska’s gubernatorial race last week.

Republicans are well positioned to regain control of the House, which could enable them to frustrate Biden’s legislative agenda. Democrats have a better chance of keeping control of the Senate, currently split 50-50 between the parties with Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote.

HEALTH SCARE

The 6-foot-8-inch (2.03 m) tattooed and goateed Fetterman, who has a penchant for hoodies and liberal stances, has proven to be an adept fundraiser and a social media force. On Tuesday, his campaign released a photo showing him voting an absentee ballot from the hospital.

His health scare has added a new wrinkle to the Pennsylvania race. Fetterman revealed on Sunday he had suffered a stroke two days earlier. He said he was recovering and had not sustained cognitive damage.

Polls show Fetterman leading Lamb, whose moderate politics make him a better general election candidate in the view of many party insiders.

Barnette, seeking to become Pennsylvania’s first Black U.S. senator, has called her rivals insufficiently conservative. She was photographed, according to news reports, marching toward the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, alongside members of the far-right Proud Boys group shortly before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building in a failed bid to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Barnette’s campaign in a statement to NBC said she did not take part in or condone the destruction of property and has no connection to the Proud Boys.

Trump last week endorsed state Senator Doug Mastriano, who is leading the polls in Pennsylvania’s Republican gubernatorial primary and was present outside the Capitol on the day of the riot.

Mastriano has also said he would pursue a statewide abortion ban. Abortion has become a flashpoint issue in the race since a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationwide.

Some Pennsylvania Republicans view Mastriano, like Barnette, as too extreme to win a general election.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the front-runner in the Democratic primary, has vowed to protect abortion rights. Shapiro said on Tuesday that he was isolating at home after testing positive for COVID-19.

In North Carolina, Cawthorn, at 26 the House’s youngest member, faces a challenge from Republican state Senator Chuck Edwards. Cawthorn has turned some in his own party against him with a string of embarrassing episodes, including a claim that legislative leaders invited him to a cocaine-fueled orgy, two attempts to bring a gun onto a plane, and a old video that appeared to show a naked Cawthorn gyrating against someone.

In Idaho, incumbent Republican Governor Brad Little faces Trump-backed primary challenger Janice McGeachin, the state’s lieutenant governor.

Primary elections also take place in Kentucky and Oregon.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia, Joseph Ax in New York and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone, Will Dunham and Rosalba O’Brien)

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BRADDOCK, Pa. — Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the leading contender in Tuesday’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, is getting a pacemaker following last week’s stroke.

His campaign said Tuesday that Fetterman was “about to undergo a standard procedure” to get a pacemaker with a defibrillator. Campaign officials say the pacemaker will “protect his heart and address the underlying cause of his stroke.”

Fetterman has said his stroke was caused by atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat that’s potentially serious but treatable.

The stroke put him in the hospital in the campaign’s closing days. The 52-year-old says he’s expected to make a full recovery.

Fetterman is facing three other candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey is retiring.

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Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, Idaho and Oregon are holding primary elections Tuesday. Former President Donald Trump put his endorsement record on the line in two key Republican primaries for open U.S. Senate seats in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Voters in three states — Pennsylvania, Idaho and Oregon — are picking their nominees for governor.

HERE’S WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW:

— Election 2022: Pennsylvania, North Carolina hold key races

— 2022 Midterms: What to watch as 5 states hold primaries

— Pennsylvania governor’s race divides Republicans, unites Democrats

— North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn faces voters after missteps

— Oregon Democrat at risk as 5 states hold US House primaries

— Idaho governor faces Trump-backed challenger in GOP primary

Follow all AP stories on the midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

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