Politics

WASHINGTON (AP) — For a state that’s home to Hollywood, there isn’t much star power in California’s governor race. It’s a somewhat different story in Los Angeles, where a reality television personality is running for mayor as the city prepares to host the Olympics.

More primaries are being held on Tuesday as well. Democrats are banking on a rare chance to regain ground in Iowa, a rural state that has repeatedly eluded them in recent years. Republicans, meanwhile, are grappling with a New Jersey congressman whose unexplained absence could put their already slim majority at risk.

Here are some things to watch as voters in California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota cast ballots.

Ronald Reagan. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jerry Brown. Gavin Newsom.

The governor’s office in California typically attracts some of the highest-wattage names in politics, but not this year.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla took a pass on the race. And with Newsom barred from seeking a third term, the campaign to succeed him turned into a sprawling, often messy contest.

In the final stretch, much of the attention has focused on Democrats Xavier Becerra, the former congressman and state attorney general who was also health secretary under President Joe Biden, and Tom Steyer, a billionaire known for his climate activism. Republican Steve Hilton is campaigning with President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

Under California’s primary system, all candidates appear on a single ballot and the top two finishers advance to the November general election, regardless of party. The absence of a front-runner incentivized virtually anyone with political ambition and a modicum of organization to join the race, leaving Democrats worried that their candidates would divide the vote and ultimately be shut out of the fall campaign. But those fears have eased in the primary’s closing weeks, with the party now expecting to secure at least one slot on the November ballot.

The results could offer insight about how voters are feeling in a state where Democrats have dominated statewide elections for two decades.

In a city still recovering from the most destructive wildfire in its history, Mayor Karen Bass is in a tough fight for reelection.

The mayor, who is a frequent target of Trump’s criticism, was in Ghana as part of a presidential delegation when the blaze began. She has acknowledged mistakes but has centered her campaign around a message of recovery and progress.

Bass is facing a spirited challenge from reality television personality Spencer Pratt, who has blamed Bass for presiding over destruction that claimed his own home. Pratt, who rose to fame on “The Hills,” has shared videos created by artificial intelligence that show him taking on a superhero persona to battle street criminals and Democratic politicians.

The race is officially nonpartisan, but Bass is a Democrat, as is progressive city council member Nithya Raman, who made a last-minute decision to challenge her one-time ally. Pratt is a registered Republican who has received a nod of approval — if not an outright endorsement — from Trump.

Unless a candidate receives a majority of the vote in the primary, the top two will advance to a general election in November.

Los Angeles hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since Richard Riordan won his second term in 1997, and the results will be closely watched for signs of dissatisfaction with liberal urban governance. The winner will emerge as a national and global figure as the city prepares to host the Olympics in 2028.

Iowa wasn’t always a Republican stronghold.

Before Trump reshaped American politics, this was the state the lifted the political career of Barack Obama and sent Tom Harkin to the Senate for five terms.

The party is particularly excited about Rob Sand, who is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor. A native of Decorah, Iowa, he has the rural roots that have become rare among Democrats. Perhaps most importantly, he’s a proven winner in a Republican-leaning state, having been elected twice as auditor.

Republicans head into the primary with five candidates. Trump jumped in last week to endorse Rep. Randy Feenstra.

This is the first open contest for the governor’s seat since 2006. Democrats are hoping that a combination of the economic fallout from Trump’s tariff policies, rising gas prices stemming from the Iran war and the lack of a Republican incumbent could give them their best opportunity in years. Sand also has a fundraising advantage over the Republicans, including Feenstra.

State Rep. Josh Turek and state Sen. Zach Wahls are competing in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by incumbent Republican Joni Ernst. The race has divided in part along questions of who should lead the party in Washington, with Wahls openly criticizing Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. Republicans have largely coalesced behind U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson as their candidate for the Senate seat.

In the final frenzied days before an election, voters can sometimes grow tired of hearing from candidates so much. But in New Jersey’s 7th congressional district, they’re not hearing from one candidate at all.

Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. is running unopposed in Tuesday’s primary. But he’s facing growing scrutiny for an unexplained medical absence that has stretched for three months, causing him to miss more than 100 votes in Congress.

That’s not an ideal statistic for any lawmaker, but it’s especially problematic for someone running in one of the few genuinely competitive congressional districts. While gerrymandering has yielded most U.S. House seats reliably Democratic or Republican, Kean’s district has flipped between the parties in each of the last two midterm elections. Republican Leonard Lance lost to Democrat Tom Malinowski in 2018. Malinowski lost to Kean in 2022.

As they cling to a narrow majority in the House, Republicans can’t afford to lose a district like Kean’s. Several Democrats vying to take on Kean in the fall have made his absence — and the lack of clarity surrounding it — a central part of their message.

New Jersey was one of the first places that voter pushback to Trump became apparent last year when Democrat Mikie Sherrill won the governor’s race by more than 14 percentage points. The turnout in the 7th district on Tuesday could provide clues about whether that Democratic enthusiasm remains in place.

Democrats are hopeful they can mount a serious challenge against Republican Senate candidates in deep-red South Dakota and Montana this fall. But their best hope may not be the Democrats featured on Tuesday’s primary ballot.

Both states feature higher-profile independent candidates, who, because they’re not running to represent a political party, do not have to compete in primary elections.

In Montana, there are five Democrats competing for the party’s Senate nomination. But independent Seth Bodnar, the former University of Montana president, has raised more money than all of them combined. He’s even significantly out-raised Trump-backed Republican candidate Kurt Alme.

In South Dakota, three-term incumbent Republican Mike Rounds is expected to cruise to his party’s nomination on Tuesday. He’ll face Democrat Julian Beaudion, a former highway patrol trooper and small business owner, on the November ballot. But it’s a former Democrat now running as an independent, Brian Bengs, a military veteran, who may be the tougher challenger.

source

By Alexandra Alper

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) – Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim on Monday slammed the Trump administration for potentially allowing advanced American AI chips to be sent to overseas units of Chinese firms, and called on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify to Congress on the issue, according to a statement.

In a surprise move, the Department of Commerce, which oversees U.S. exports, on Sunday issued guidance to close a potential loophole that may have led companies to export the world’s most advanced chips – like Nvidia’s <NVDA.O> most sophisticated Blackwell processors – to subsidiaries of Chinese companies located outside China.

“On Sunday afternoon, the Trump Administration revealed that its failure to update export control regulations over the last year and a half may have inadvertently allowed America’s most advanced AI chips to flow to companies headquartered in China, potentially fueling China’s military capabilities” said Warren, who also serves as ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee.  

“Secretary Howard Lutnick should testify before the Senate Banking Committee about how his reckless mismanagement of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is putting our national security at risk.”

The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper)

source

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Democrats will choose their U.S. House nominee on Tuesday in a New Jersey battleground district represented by Republican incumbent Tom Kean Jr., who’s been absent from Congress for months as he deals with an unspecified medical issue.

New Jersey’s 7th District, which includes suburban towns and rolling farmland — and one of President Donald Trump’s golf clubs — is the state’s highest-profile primary. Four Democrats are competing to take on Kean, whose aides have said he plans on seeking a third term.

Kean’s absence — his last vote was in early March — has supercharged interest in the seat, which Democrats view as key to winning control of the narrowly divided House and Republicans recognize as important to defend. Voters in the district have ousted two incumbents during midterm elections over the past decade.

Democratic voters are deciding between Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot whose background mirrors Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s, Michael Roth, a former Small Business Administration official, Tina Shah, an intensive care unit doctor, and Brian Varela, a businessman with backing from progressive groups.

The campaign has been hotly contested, with each candidate bringing in seven figures in fundraising and walking a line between appealing to the party’s base and to more independent general election voters.

Bennett’s campaign has come under fire from a political action committee that’s spent about $650,000 in the primary, attacking her from the left. Bennett said in an interview she believes the group, whose donors haven’t been disclosed, is Republican-backed and aiming to weaken her candidacy because they fear her in the general election.

The Democrats are leaning into the rising costs of groceries and gasoline caused by the Iran war and Trump’s sweeping tariffs. They’re casting blame at Republicans and Kean in particular, who they say is a bad fit for the district, pointing to his support for the president’s signature tax cut legislation.

Kean’s absence has raised eyebrows. Kean posted on X last month that he’s dealing with a “personal medical issue” and is expected to return soon, though he provided no details on what the issue is and his staff and political aides have declined to elaborate.

The district was redrawn after the most recent census to become more favorable to Republicans, but it’s gone back and forth in recent years. Kean ousted incumbent Democrat Tom Malinowski in 2022, who defeated Republican Rep. Leonard Lance in 2018.

Also being watched Tuesday is a Republican Senate primary. The party has been adrift in New Jersey since last year when its Trump-backed candidate for governor lost by double digits. Voters face a four-way race between attorney Justin Murphy, surgeon Robert Lebovics, Army veteran Richard Tabor and former TV reporter Alex Zdan.

The winner will face Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, who is running for a full third term.

More House seats could have noteworthy campaigns in the fall.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew is seeking a fifth term in southern New Jersey’s 2nd District. He was originally elected as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party during Trump’s first term.

Rep. Bonnie Watson is retiring from the heavily Democratic 12th District, where a crowded primary field is vying to succeed her.

Dr. Adam Hamawy, a surgeon and Army veteran, has shot to prominence with endorsements from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and other progressives. Some of his opponents recently began criticizing him over his connection to Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiring to blow up the United Nations and other New York-area landmarks.

Hamawy was a defense witness in the sheik’s trial but wasn’t accused of wrongdoing. He has condemned violence and distanced himself from the sheik during the campaign. Abdel-Rahman died in federal prison in 2017.

Republicans are picking their nominee in northern New Jersey’s 9th District, choosing between attorney Tiffany Burress and Clifton City Councilwoman Rosie Pino, to take on first-term Democratic Rep. Nellie Pou. Pou’s margin of victory in 2024 was narrower than her long-serving predecessor, Rep. Bill Pascrell, and coincided with Trump winning a county in the district.

source

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Democrats on Tuesday will settle one of the party’s last competitive U.S. Senate primaries, choosing between two state lawmakers who each say he is better poised to flip a retiring Republican’s seat.

Either Josh Turek or Zach Wahls will go up against a full-throttled Republican defense of two-term Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat, which the GOP considers pivotal to keeping its Senate majority. It’s one of many competitive races in Iowa attracting national interest, including from the White House. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have both touched down in the state this year to shore up Republican enthusiasm.

U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson is seeking the GOP nomination and has the backing of Trump and Ernst. She is running against former state Sen. Jim Carlin.

Democrats feel hopeful that high prices, lost manufacturing jobs, shuttered healthcare facilities and a struggling agricultural economy will help the party dismantle the all-GOP federal delegation and Republican statehouse trifecta. Leading the ticket is State Auditor Rob Sand, the candidate for governor and the lone Democrat currently holding statewide office. Unopposed in his primary and absent a clear Republican opponent, Sand has had a long runway to hone his moderate message, remind voters of his rural upbringing and amass an $18 million campaign fund.

Republicans, meanwhile, must close the door on a five-way primary Tuesday for the nominee to replace outgoing Gov. Kim Reynolds.

As Democrats look to reclaim Senate control, Iowa is one of the last states on the map where candidates are still fighting to be the party’s nominee. The GOP Senate campaign arm has committed $29 million to help the party’s nominee.

The Democratic Party’s ongoing debate over the party’s direction and strategy to win back disaffected voters is playing out in Iowa, albeit with different dynamics than it did in Maine or Texas.

Turek and Wahls are aligned on many Democratic positions, including a public health insurance option, higher minimum wage and more labor bargaining rights. They both talk about corruption in politics benefiting corporate interests and hurting working-class people.

But they campaigned on different visions for how to win statewide in November — and attracted distinct lines of attack from their Republican opponents.

Turek is a relative newcomer to elected office. He played professional wheelchair basketball in Europe, and he competed for the U.S. in four Paralympics, including as recently as 2021. He won his state House seat in 2022.

Wahls rose to national fame in 2011 as a 19-year-old who defended his two moms to lawmakers considering a resolution against same-sex marriage. He addressed the Democratic National Convention the following year. He won his first state Senate term in 2018 and was Senate Democrats’ leader for nearly three years.

Wahls said at the time that his “vision for change” was what led his Senate colleagues to oust him as minority leader. He emphasized in a debate last month that “we desperately need a new vision for small town and rural Iowa” and said his message is resonating with working-class voters frustrated with both parties.

Wahls’ opposition to U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer as party leader has been a defining tenet of his campaign. He has criticized a coastal playbook that doesn’t work in Iowa.

Turek referred to himself as an underdog when he launched last August, but a flood of outside support has boosted him in the final stretch. Democratic political operation VoteVets has spent $10 million to blanket the airwaves, social media and mailboxes in support of Turek. Political organizations affiliated with Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senate campaign arm, have both recently contributed to Turek’s campaign committee.

Responding to Wahls’ criticism of the cash, Turek has said he’s not a “D.C. insider.” He has argued his success in a Trump-won district can translate statewide.

Five Republicans are in the primary to replace Reynolds, who opted out of a third bid. The nominee will face a well-funded Sand.

The candidates are U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, state Rep. Eddie Andrews, businessman and former conservative political director Zach Lahn, former state Rep. Brad Sherman and former director of the state Department of Administrative Services Adam Steen.

Trump endorsed Feenstra on Friday, saying on social media that “Randy is MAGA all the way!”

If no candidate earns at least 35% of Republican primary voters, the nominee would be selected at a contested state party convention scheduled for June 13.

Iowa Republicans have not had a competitive primary for governor since former Gov. Terry Branstad won the nomination in 2010. Reynolds became governor in 2017 when Branstad was appointed U.S. ambassador to China.

While Republicans celebrate years of progress under Reynolds, the primary has unearthed sticking points over economic development, tax policy and property rights, as well as the relationship between the state’s water quality, farm conservation practices and rising cancer rates.

Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, endorsed by Trump, again faces a 1st District challenge from businessman David Pautsch, who earned 44% of votes against the incumbent congresswoman in the 2024 primary. Three-time Democratic candidate Christina Bohannan, who came about 800 votes shy of unseating Miller-Meeks in the last election, has the Democratic congressional committee’s support but must first fend off her primary opponent, first-time candidate Travis Terrell.

In northeastern Iowa, former state Rep. Joe Mitchell, endorsed by Trump, and state Sen. Charlie McClintock are Republicans seeking Hinson’s open 2nd District seat. Three Democrats want the nomination: state Rep. Lindsay James, former nonprofit leader Clint Twedt-Ball and Kathy Dolter, a former dean of nursing at an Iowa community college.

Republican incumbent Rep. Zach Nunn and Democratic state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott are both unopposed on the primary ballot in the competitive 3rd Congressional District.

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — Candidates for New Mexico governor and other top state and federal offices will compete for their parties’ nominations in a state primary on Tuesday.

The election takes place as the war in Iran continues to send gas prices soaring, creating an unanticipated windfall in the nation’s No. 2 oil-producing state that the new governor will play a key role in managing. Outgoing Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is term-limited.

Running for the Democratic nomination to replace Lujan Grisham are former congresswoman and former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman. Haaland was the first Native American cabinet secretary and, if elected, would be the first Native American woman to serve as governor of any state.

The candidates in the Republican primary are former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull, medical cannabis entrepreneur and former state cabinet secretary Duke Rodriguez and small business owner Doug Turner.

At the top of the ballot, Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján seeks a second term. He faces a challenge from business owner and community organizer Matt Dodson.

No names will appear on the Republican primary ballot for the U.S. Senate, but 2024 state Senate candidate Larry Marker is running for the nomination as a certified write-in candidate. He previously ran as a write-in candidate for land commissioner in 2022.

Under New Mexico election law, when a certified write-in candidate is the only candidate in a primary, that candidate must reach a certain vote threshold to win the nomination. The vote threshold is the same as the number of signatures required to qualify as an official write-in candidate. For statewide Republican primaries, the threshold is 2,351 votes. If Marker fails to reach the required vote threshold, no Republican U.S. Senate nominee will appear on the general election ballot.

In the Republican primaries for state auditor, treasurer and state House Districts 14 and 44, a lone write-in candidate is the only candidate seeking the nomination for each office. A Democratic write-in candidate is the sole candidate seeking the nomination for state House District 38. Each candidate must reach the vote threshold for their specific office to advance to the general election.

Bernalillo County, home to Albuquerque, is the state’s most populous and plays a pivotal role in both primaries and general elections. Other key counties to watch are Doña Ana, Santa Fe, Sandoval, San Juan and Valencia.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

Polls close at 7 p.m. MT, which is 9 p.m. ET.

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, land commissioner and state House. The AP will also determine whether write-in candidates for U.S. Senate, auditor, treasurer and three state House districts will advance to the general election.

Registered party members may vote only in their own party’s primary. In other words, Democrats can’t vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent or unaffiliated voters may participate in either primary.

As of April 30, there were about 1.4 million registered voters in New Mexico, including about 573,000 registered Democrats, about 443,000 registered Republicans and about 378,000 voters not affiliated with any party.

About 125,000 Democratic primary votes and about 118,000 Republican primary votes were cast in 2022 gubernatorial primaries.

About 55% of Democratic primary votes and about 48% of Republican primary votes in the 2024 primaries were cast before primary day. This was slightly higher than in the 2022 primaries.

As of Friday, about 94,000 Democratic primary ballots and about 46,000 Republican primary ballots had been cast in Tuesday’s election.

New Mexico’s 33 counties vary in terms of when they release different types of vote results. More than half tend to release all or almost of their mail and early in-person voting results in the first vote update of the night. In-person Election Day vote results are also included in the first vote update in some counties, but most are released over the course of the night.

In the 2022 gubernatorial primary, the AP first reported results at 9:11 p.m. ET, or 11 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 2:50 a.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Recounts in New Mexico are automatic if the vote margin is less than 0.25% of total votes cast in federal or statewide office, less than 0.5% for public education commissioner, district attorney and some countywide offices, and less than 1% for all other offices, including state legislators. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

As of Tuesday, there will be 154 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

source

DENVER (AP) — Tina Peters, the former county clerk convicted of participating in a scheme to chase election conspiracy theories promulgated by President Donald Trump, was released from state prison Monday after the president successfully pressured Colorado’s Democratic governor into commuting her sentence.

Shortly after her release was confirmed by the Colorado Department of Corrections, Peters appeared on the program of Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser who was part of the right-wing campaign to free Peters. Gov. Jared Polis said he would shorten Peters’ sentence if she expressed regret about her actions.

But in her interview with Bannon, Peters repeated the debunked conspiracy theory that voting machines cheated Trump out of reelection in 2020 and portrayed herself as a martyr to the effort to expose it.

“I know that the Democrats are going to cheat, and no one is really addressing the problem that I spent my time in prison as retribution for,” Peters said.

Multiple reviews, recounts and audits in the battleground states where Trump disputed his 2020 loss have all affirmed that Democrat Joe Biden won. Dominion Voting Systems, the company used for Colorado elections, has also succeeded in multiple defamation cases against conservative news outlets and others who repeated the false claims that its voting systems were somehow manipulated to change the outcome.

Peters’ sentence was shortened by Polis last month after Trump waged a lengthy pressure campaign against the governor and his state. Peters served less than a quarter of her nine-year sentence.

“She really is extremely grateful to Donald Trump,” Peters’ attorney, Peter Ticktin, said in an interview. “If it weren’t for Donald Trump, she’d still be behind bars.”

In her interview with Bannon, Peters said she plans to spend “the next few weeks regaining my health and with loved ones and family.” She said she is interested in becoming involved in prison reform and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4.

Peters also is challenging her conviction, a case her attorneys hope to take to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed. She told Bannon she will “fight to clear my name and bring out the truth of why they came after me the way they did.”

Peters was the first local election official to be charged with breaching security after the 2020 election. She snuck in an outside computer expert affiliated with My Pillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell — who himself denied that Trump lost the White House in 2020 — and the person copied the county’s Dominion Voting Systems computer server as it was updated in 2021.

Peters then joined Lindell onstage at a “cybersymposium” that promised to reveal proof that the election was rigged. Video and photos of the computer system upgrade, including passwords, were posted online. The move stoked false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Trump.

Last year, a federal jury found that Lindell had defamed a former Dominion employee over claims related to the 2020 election.

Peters was convicted in 2024 of attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, violation of duty and other crimes by jurors in Mesa County, a Republican stronghold that supported Trump. An appeals court upheld her conviction in April, but ordered Peters to be resentenced because it said the judge who sent her to prison wrongly punished her for speaking out about election fraud.

Trump had championed Peters’ case, but because she was convicted under state law, he did not have the power to pardon her. Instead, the president pressured Polis to do so, lambasting him on social media and disinviting him to a White House meeting with other governors. The Trump administration also announced plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and relocated the U.S. Space Command to Alabama.

Polis commuted Peters’ sentence on May 15. In a letter, he wrote that although Peters was convicted of serious crimes and deserved to spend time in prison, the sentence was “extremely unusual and lengthy” for a first-time non-violent offender.

Polis launched a Substack over the weekend and his first post was a lengthy explanation of his reasoning in pardoning Peters. He said he was concerned about the First Amendment implications of Peters’ sentence and didn’t want to leave her in prison while she waited for the legal fight over that to conclude in the courts.

“I wanted to provide finality to this case, and as Governor I used my constitutional power of clemency to do what I believe is right,” Polis wrote.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, on Monday released a statement warning that the release will “embolden the election denier movement.”

Colorado’s Democratic Party has already censured Polis for the pardon, and the state’s Democratic politicians kept piling on Monday.

“Tina Peters is walking free. A felon, convicted by a jury of her peers, walking free,” Sen. Michael Bennet, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor, said in a video he released shortly after Peters’ release.

Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesperson for Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who also is running for governor, said the state’s top prosecutor “remains concerned about her conduct upon returning to Mesa County given her lack of remorse for her crimes.”

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two candidates for California governor will emerge from a massive field of 61 hopefuls in a state primary on Tuesday, when voters will also select U.S. House nominees using a new map they approved in a 2025 ballot measure.

Also on the ballot is a long list of state and local contests, including a Los Angeles mayoral race where the Democratic incumbent mayor faces more than a dozen challengers. Among them is a former reality TV personality whose candidacy has caught the eye of another former reality TV personality, President Donald Trump.

California’s top-two primary format, where all candidates run on the same ballot regardless of party, has complicated the campaign calculus in several high-profile races, including the one to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. While Democratic candidates often welcome the opportunity to run head-to-head against a Republican in the dark blue state, the number of well-known Democrats in the race threatens to split the vote and inadvertently clear the path for two Republicans to advance to the general election, which would guarantee a Republican governor.

The Democratic field includes former U.S. health secretary Xavier Becerra, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, billionaire 2020 presidential candidate Tom Steyer and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Republicans vying for the seat include Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative commentator Steve Hilton, who has Trump’s endorsement.

Democrats Eric Swalwell and former state Controller Betty Yee will also appear on the ballot, although both have withdrawn from the race. Swalwell was a top contender in the campaign but withdrew on April 12 following sexual assault allegations he has denied. He resigned from Congress two days later.

In the race for control of the narrowly divided U.S. House, a new congressional map favorable to Democrats has complicated the reelection bids of several Republican House incumbents. Voters approved the new district boundaries in a Nov. 2025 referendum, which was a response to Trump’s initiative in Texas and other states to maximize the number of GOP seats heading into the fall midterm election.

In the 6th Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley considered his limited options and left the Republican Party in March to run for reelection as an independent.

Republican U.S. Reps. Ken Calvert and Young Kim are competing against each other in the 40th Congressional District. Democrat Esther Kim Varet is one of several challengers hoping to snag one of two spots in the general election.

Also on the ballot is a special election in the 1st Congressional District to complete the term of the late Republican U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who died in January. The five-person field pits the Democratic state Senate President against the Republican state Assembly Minority Leader. If no candidate receives a vote majority, the top two finishers will compete one-on-one on Aug. 4. The winner will serve under the current district boundaries, not the new map going into effect in the next Congress.

A special election to fill Swalwell’s vacant 14th Congressional District seat will be held June 16, also under the current boundaries.

In the race for Los Angeles mayor, Democrat Karen Bass seeks a second term in the nonpartisan office against tech entrepreneur Adam Miller, former MTV reality show cast member Spencer Pratt, City Councilmember Nithya Raman and others. Trump recently said of Pratt, “I’d like to see him do well.”

Democrats have a significant advantage over Republicans in statewide races based on their overwhelming support in the populous areas surrounding Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego. Republicans tend to perform best in the more sparsely populated areas of northern California and the Central Valley, while running competitively in Southern California suburbs outside of Los Angeles and San Diego. A Republican has not won statewide office in California since 2006.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

Polls close at 8 p.m. PT, which is 11 p.m. ET.

The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in contested races for U.S. House, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, controller, treasurer, attorney general, insurance commissioner, state school superintendent, Board of Equalization, state Senate, State House, mayor of Long Beach, mayor of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County sheriff.

Any registered voter in California may participate in the state primary.

As of April 3, there were about 23.1 million registered voters in California, including about 10.4 million Democrats, about 5.8 million Republicans and about 5.3 million not registered with any party.

About 7.3 million votes were cast in the U.S. Senate primary in 2024, roughly a third of registered voters.

About 89% of vote in the 2024 U.S. Senate primary was cast before primary day.

As of Thursday, about 2.6 million ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.

About four out of every five California counties release some or most of their results from mail voting in the first vote report of the night, usually before any in-person Election Day results are released. Almost half the counties release most or all of their in-person early voting results in the first vote report.

Since mail voting tends to favor Democrats and in-person Election Day voting tends to favor Republicans, the release of mail voting results at the start of the night could result in an early lead for Democratic candidates, while Republican candidates may narrow the gap as more Election Day results are counted.

In the 2024 primaries, the AP first reported results at 11:08 p.m. ET, or eight minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 6:01 a.m. ET with about 52% of total votes counted. The count reached 99% of total votes about two weeks later on March 20 at 7:47 p.m. ET.

The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

There are no automatic recounts in California. Any registered voter may request and pay for a recount. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

As of Tuesday, there will be 14 days until the June 16 special primary in Congressional District 14, 63 days until the Aug. 4 special general election in Congressional District 1, 77 days until the Aug. 18 special general election in Congressional District 14 and 154 days until the Nov. 3 general election.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — A standoff between the White House and the Senate remains unresolved after Republican senators defiantly left town 10 days ago without passing legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies.

Senate Republicans who are returning to Washington on Monday say they won’t have the votes to pass the Homeland Security spending bill until the White House works with them to place parameters on a new $1.776 billion settlement fund designed to compensate Trump’s allies. But Trump has shown little interest in doing so, even after a judge temporarily halted any payouts.

It’s unclear how they will settle the dispute.

The Trump administration is “going to have to come up with some suggestions and ideas,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said before the Senate left town on May 21. Thune, of South Dakota, said that the settlement money — some of which could potentially go to Trump supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — “just makes everything way harder than it should be.”

The impasse over the “anti-weaponization” fund could be an inflection point as Republicans try to keep their majority in this year’s elections and advance their agenda. Trump’s campaign year push to defeat GOP lawmakers who he sees as disloyal, including some of Thune’s most reliable Republican votes in the narrow 53-47 Senate, has only added to the tension.

Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas both lost reelection in May after Trump endorsed their primary opponents, and it is unclear how supportive they will be of the president’s agenda going forward. And a growing number of GOP senators have become frustrated with the president as he ignores what they see as their political needs.

“I think it’s hard to divorce anything that happens here from what’s happening in the political atmosphere around us,” Thune said.

Democrats have said they plan to offer several amendments to the immigration bill to scale back or eliminate the settlement. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a letter to colleagues Monday morning that Democrats will launch “a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door.”

“No matter what Republicans do, we will force them to vote on it,” he wrote.

As anger among Senate Republicans swelled, Trump made clear that he wasn’t highly concerned.

“I don’t care about the midterms,” Trump said last week in a discussion about the Iran war.

At a closed-door meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche before they left town, Republican senators gave an ultimatum of sorts — put some limits on the settlement or we will do it for you.

GOP senators had been discussing several ways that they could curb the fund, including limiting who can receive payouts, changing the makeup of the commission in charge of settlement decisions, adding some sort of judicial review for applicants or scrapping the fund altogether. Republicans have discussed adding parameters on the settlement to the unrelated immigration enforcement measure but would prefer that the White House make changes on its own.

There were few sings of progress over the Memorial Day recess.

Sen. Todd Young of Indiana told The Associated Press last week that he hadn’t seen any indications “that would suggest they sent us a plan that our leadership thought was acceptable.”

“It’s in their court,” Young said of the White House.

Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee said on Fox New Channel’s “Fox News Sunday” that there are discussions underway “to get to something that’s going to work.”

“I think there were just more details and more questions last week that needed to be resolved,” Hagerty said, adding that “I’m looking forward to seeing the details this coming week.”

Blanche told the AP in an interview Thursday that “a lot of the questions will be answered in the short term.” But he would not elaborate, saying that “talking in hypotheticals is something that I don’t think is fair to the process.”

The acting attorney general’s meeting with senators before they left town was “angry,” according to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who described it on his podcast. Cruz said that of around 45 Senate Republicans who attended, “at least half of them were blasting the attorney general.”

The Senate had planned to stay in session late that night to vote on the immigration spending bill, but leaders canceled votes and sent everyone home. Cruz said Republican senators were “yelling” and told Blanche that the fund, which was part of a settlement that resolves Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, “feels like self-dealing” and “feels like Trump cut a deal with himself.”

Cruz, who said he supports the fund, noted that Democrats had said they would offer amendments to kill it. Republicans “would have lost every vote” if they had stayed in session, he said.

He predicted that “we will see the administration announcing at a minimum a modification of this, because if they don’t, they’ve got a full-on revolt in the Senate.”

Cruz said that there were a lot of questions from senators about the Jan. 6 defendants and that Blanche reassured them that no one who committed an act of violence or assaulted law enforcement would get a payout. But Blanche has repeatedly declined to say that publicly, telling the AP that “there is no limit to who can apply.”

Asked about people who were violent on Jan. 6, Blanche suggested that might be too hard to define.

“Who is it? I mean, you tell me, right?” Blanche said. “You have to define something and then stick to it. So that’s something I’ve been hesitant to try to do because it’s very fact intensive.”

Trump has pardoned more than 1,500 defendants who were charged and prosecuted in the 2021 attack, including hundreds who were convicted for violently beating and injuring police as they broke into the Capitol.

The divide over the fund comes after Republicans already abandoned $1 billion in security funding for the White House, including for Trump’s new ballroom, as Democrats and some Republicans questioned using taxpayer money for the massive project at a time of economic hardship. Besides the settlement, Democrats had planned to force Republican senators to vote for or against the ballroom money.

Left in the legislation is funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, which Democrats have blocked for months in protest of the administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown.

Republicans are using a complicated budget maneuver called reconciliation to fund the agencies through the end of Trump’s term without Democratic support. Still, success requires GOP unity and Trump’s eventual signature.

Democrats say they hope that their Republican colleagues continue to stand up to the White House. Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan said last week that he thinks the settlement fund is ”probably one of the most corrupt things that we’ve ever seen an American president do.”

It is “a bridge too far for some of my Republican Senate colleagues,” Peters said. “I hope they realize that what was done is simply unacceptable and that they’ll stand firm.”

___

Associated Press writers Steven Sloan and Joey Cappelletti in Washington and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — South Dakota’s governor, the speaker of the state House, the state’s lone representative in Congress and a businessman will face off in a competitive Republican primary for governor on Tuesday. Primary voters will also choose nominees for other state and federal offices, while Sioux Falls residents will elect a new mayor.

Gov. Larry Rhoden seeks a full term as the state’s chief executive. He was previously lieutenant governor under then-Gov. Kristi Noem but assumed the top job when Noem stepped down in early 2025 to join President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.

Serving less than half a term as governor was not enough for Rhoden to clear the Republican field. He faces strong challenges from U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, state House Speaker Jon Hansen and businessman Toby Doeden.

The winner will face former state Sen. Dan Ahlers in the general election. Ahlers is unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

At the top of the ballot is the race for the U.S. Senate, in which Republican Mike Rounds seeks a third term. His opponent in the primary is Justin McNeal, a U.S. Navy veteran who ran as an independent in 2024 against Johnson for his U.S. House seat but was kept off the ballot over invalid signatures on his nominating petition.

Nonprofit executive and former state trooper Julian Beaudion is unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Attorney and military veteran Brian Bengs is running in the general election as an independent. Bengs previously ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022 and received 26% of the vote against Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

State Attorney General Marty Jackley is running to replace Johnson in the U.S. House. He faces Republican James Bialota in the primary.

Trump has endorsed Rounds for U.S. Senate and Jackley for U.S. House. He did not endorse a candidate for governor.

In South Dakota primaries for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House, candidates must receive at least 35% of the vote to win the nomination. If no candidate reaches that threshold, the top two vote-getters advance to a June 23 runoff.

In Sioux Falls, the state’s most populous city, five candidates are competing to replace term-limited Mayor Paul TenHaken. If no candidate receives a vote majority, the top two finishers will advance to the runoff.

The key counties to watch on primary night are on opposite ends of the state. Minnehaha County on the eastern border is home to Sioux Falls. Pennington County on the western border is home to Rapid City.

South Dakota is one of the most reliably Republican-voting states in general elections, so the winners in Tuesday’s GOP primaries should enter the general election campaign with a considerable advantage.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET. Polls in most of the state are in Central time and close at 8 p.m. ET, but some polls are in Mountain time and close at 9 p.m. ET.

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, state Senate, state House and mayor of Sioux Falls.

Registered party members may vote only in their own party’s primary. In other words, Democrats can’t vote in the Republican primary or vice versa. Independent voters or those with no party affiliation may participate in the Democratic primary but not the Republican primary.

As of April 1, there were about 674,000 registered voters in South Dakota, including about 318,000 registered Republicans, about 138,000 registered Democrats and about 157,000 independents or voters with no political affiliation.

Nearly 119,000 votes were cast in the Republican U.S. Senate primary in 2022.

About 19% of the 2024 primary vote and about 20% of the 2022 primary vote was cast before primary day.

As of May 26, about 17,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, roughly 79% in the Republican primary and roughly 15% in the Democratic primary.

In South Dakota, results from mail and in-person early voting are usually released together with results from in-person Election Day voting. More than a third of the state’s 66 counties tend to release most or all of their results, including in-person Election Day results, in the first vote update.

Although South Dakota spans two time zones, state law requires that no results are released until the final polls have closed at 9 p.m. ET.

In the state’s most recent U.S. Senate primary in 2022, the AP first reported results at 9:02 p.m. ET, or two minutes after the last polls closed. The final vote update of the night was at 3:22 a.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Recounts in South Dakota are automatic only in cases of tie votes. Losing candidates for statewide office may request a recount if the vote margin is 0.25% or less of the total votes cast. Candidates for state legislative and local offices have a higher threshold: 2% of the total votes cast. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

As of Tuesday, there will be 154 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — The retirements of two of Iowa’s most prominent Republican officeholders, Gov. Kim Reynolds and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, have had ripple effects throughout Tuesday’s state primary, creating competitive nomination contests to replace them and a chain reaction of open seats down the ballot.

The winners will compete in November’s critical midterm elections, in which Iowa’s U.S. Senate and House seats could determine control of the narrowly divided chambers. The next governor could also play a pivotal role in the 2028 election, given the state’s long history of making or breaking presidential hopefuls.

Two Republicans and two Democrats are competing in primaries to replace Ernst, who announced in 2025 that she would not seek a third term. U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson faces former state Sen. Jim Carlin in the Republican primary, while state Rep. Josh Turek and state Sen. Zach Wahls compete for the Democratic nomination. Carlin ran for Iowa’s other U.S. Senate seat in 2022, receiving about 27% of the primary vote against U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Reynolds also announced in 2025 that she would not seek a third term. Vying for the GOP nomination are state Rep. Eddie Andrews, U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, entrepreneur and private school co-founder Zach Lahn, former state Rep. Brad Sherman and former state administrative services director Adam Steen. President Donald Trump has endorsed Feenstra.

The winner will face Democratic state Auditor Rob Sand, who is unopposed in his primary. Sand is Iowa’s only Democrat in elected statewide office.

Hinson’s and Feenstra’s statewide campaigns have created open seat contests in the state’s 2nd and 4th Congressional Districts, respectively. Feenstra’s district is heavily Republican and is unlikely to play a major role in determining control of the chamber. Hinson’s district is more competitive, although she won reelection in 2024 with 57% of the vote.

In Iowa’s most competitive congressional seats, Republican U.S. Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of the 1st District and Zach Nunn of the 3rd District are both seeking reelection. Miller-Meeks faces a rematch with her 2024 primary opponent, advertising executive David Pautsch, who received about 44% of the vote. The Democratic field includes former state Rep. Christina Bohannan, who came within 1 percentage point of defeating Miller-Meeks in one of the closest U.S. House races of 2024.

In the 3rd Congressional District, both Nunn and his Democratic opponent, state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, are unopposed in their primaries.

Trump received roughly 54% of the 2024 presidential vote in both the 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts and about 52% of the 3rd District vote.

Polk, Linn and Scott counties are Iowa’s most populous, and all three play major roles in both Republican and Democratic statewide primaries. Johnson County is the fourth largest, but as home to Iowa City and the University of Iowa it is an overwhelming Democratic stronghold and tends to exert much less influence in Republican primaries.

Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:

Polls close at 8 p.m. CT, which is 9 p.m. ET.

The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, auditor, state Senate and state House.

Only voters registered with a political party may participate in that party’s primary. However, voters may change their party affiliations at the polls on the day of the primary.

As of May 4, there were about 2.1 million registered voters in Iowa, including about 692,000 registered Republicans, about 496,000 registered Democrats and about 589,000 voters not registered with any party.

About 196,000 Republican primary votes and about 157,000 Democratic primary votes were cast in the 2022 U.S. Senate primaries.

About 16% of the Republican primary vote and about 25% of the Democratic primary vote in the 2022 U.S. Senate primaries was cast before primary day.

As of Friday, about 48,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, roughly 30,000 in the Democratic primary and more than 18,000 in the Republican primary.

Nearly all counties release the results of absentee-by-mail voting at the start of the night. However, counties vary in terms of when they release in-person absentee voting results.

In the last contested state primary in 2022, the AP first reported results at 9:12 p.m. ET, or 12 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 2:29 a.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Iowa does not have an automatic recount law, but candidates may request and pay for a recount. Candidates do not have to pay for recounts when the margin is less than 1% of the total vote or fewer than 50 votes, whichever is larger. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

As of Tuesday, there will be 154 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.

source