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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Maanvi Singh (now) and Joan E Greve and Richard Luscombe (earlier)

US primary elections live updates: Governor Brian Kemp beats Trump-backed David Perdue in Georgia primary – as it happened

Donald Trump David Perdue Brian Kemp Republican United States Joe Biden Georgia
Voters look over ballots at a polling place in Sandy Springs, Georgia.
Voters look over ballots at a polling place in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Photograph: John Amis/EPA

Primary night summary

That’s it from us after an eventful night of primaries across several states. Here’s where the night stands so far:

  • A shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, cast a devastating shadow over today’s primaries. At least 19 children and two adults were killed when a gunman opened fire in Robb elementary school. Joe Biden expressed outrage over the tragedy, calling on Congress to pass stricter gun laws. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?” Biden said.
  • Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, defeated former Senator David Perdue, who had been endorsed by Donald Trump. Perdue’s loss marked a significant defeat for Trump’s reputation as a kingmaker in the Republican party, as the former president has used the power of his endorsement to wield influence over candidates and lawmakers. Perdue’s defeat raises questions about the impact of Trump’s endorsement, particularly for candidates challenging incumbents. In November, Kemp will face off against voting rights leader Stacey Abrams, who won the uncontested race for the Democratic nomination.
  • Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state who attracted Trump’s ire for refusing to “find” enough votes to reverse Biden’s 2020 victory in the state, is projected to win the Republican primary for his position. Raffensperger is above 50% in his race against Trump-backed candidate Jody Hice, who has embraced the former president’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, and is expected to avoid a runoff and advance to the November general election.
  • Trump acolytes performed better in Arkansas and Texas. Trump’s former press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, secured the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Arkansas, meaning she will likely follow in her father’s footsteps to become governor. Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, who filed a lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 election, also easily defeated land commissioner George P Bush in his runoff race. Bush’s loss will have long-lasting repercussions for a political dynasty that has produced two presidents and helped shape Texas politics for several decades.
  • Congresswoman Lucy McBath defeated fellow House Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux to win the nomination in Georgia’s seventh congressional district. McBath currently represents the sixth congressional district, but she chose to run in the neighboring seventh district after Republican redistricting altered the state’s congressional map. McBath’s victory had particular resonance in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. McBath got into politics after her son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed at the age of 17 in 2012. Since his death, she has staunchly advocated for stricter gun laws in honor of her son’s legacy.
  • A winner has still not been called in the runoff race between Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar and Jessica Cisneros in Texas’ 28th congressional district, which pitted a longtime centrist incumbent against a progressive challenger. Progressive groups had rallied around Cisneros, attacking Cuellar over his opposition to abortion rights as the country prepares for the likely reversal of Roe v Wade. But organizations backing Cuellar had spent heavily to help the vulnerable incumbent, and he currently leads Cisneros.

Updated

Incumbent Brad Raffensperger is expected to win the Republican secretary of state primary, NBC and CNN project.

Raffensperger, who famously defied Donald Trump’s ask that he “find” Republican votes in the 2020 election, has nonetheless backed traditional Republican efforts to restrict voting.

Trump-backed candidate Jody Hice, who embraced the former president’s election fraud conspiracy theories, was trailing significantly.

Updated

Incumbent Kay Ivey won the Republican nomination for Alabama governor, the AP projects.

Ivey declared victory in her Republican primary race as she speaks at her election watch party in Montgomery.
Ivey declared victory in her Republican primary race as she speaks at her election watch party in Montgomery. Photograph: Mickey Welsh/AP

Ivey is poised to avoid a runoff, surpassing 50% of the vote despite attacks from within her party. She ultimately aligned herself with Donald Trump, who did not endorse a candidate in the race. She signed one of the most extreme laws restricting healthcare for trans youth and embraced right-wing conspiracy theories on immigration and the 2020 election.

Progressive representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denounced Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders for supporting incumbent Texas Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar, who is anti-abortion, opposes gun restrictions and promotes oil drilling, calling their endorsement an “utter failure of leadership”

Bee Nguyen appears poised to advance in Georgia’s Democratic secretary of state race.

Nguyen, a state representative and ally of Stacey Abrams, has vowed to fight Republican efforts to restrict voting rights. The secretary of state position in Georgia has taken on new importance after Donald Trump and his allies tried repeatedly to undermine the 2020 election results, and Republicans moved to pass sweeping voting restrictions following Democratic victories in 2020.

Brad Raffensperger, who is currently leading the Republican secretary of state race, famously refused Trump’s request that he “find” votes in 2020. But he has “wholeheartedly championed traditional Republican efforts to restrict voting access”, my colleague Sam Levine writes:

He is a staunch defender of a new Georgia law that bans handing out food or water to people standing in line to vote. He believes Georgia should get rid of no-excuse mail-in voting. He also supports getting rid of a federal blackout period that prevents people from being purged from the voter rolls within 90 days of an election. The centerpiece of his campaign is preventing non-citizen voting, which is virtually nonexistent, according to Raffensperger’s own office.

Whoever win’s each party’s nomination will preside over voting in the 2024 presidential election.

Updated

Lucy McBath, who is the projected Democratic winner in Georgia’s seventh congressional district, said she has been forced to deliver a very different victory speech than she had planned.

“Because just hours ago, we paid for the weapons of war on our streets again with the blood of little children sitting in our schools,” said the representative, who entered politics after her son was shot and killed in 2012. “We cannot be the only nation where one party sits on their hands as children are forced to cover their faces in fear. We are exhausted.”

McBath is a staunch advocate for stricter gun laws. In 2012, a white man shot and killed her teenage son, who was sitting in a friend’s car at a convenience store.

Updated

Despite Donald Trump’s criticism of Georgia governor Brian Kemp and secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, many Republican voters still went to the polls to support the two Republican incumbents.

Kemp easily defeated his Trump-backed challenger, David Perdue, and Raffensperger is currently leading in his race by 17 points.

One primary voter who spoke to the Guardian’s Sam Levine, 82-year-old Carolee Curti, said she believed the sitting lawmakers had done a good job handling the 2020 election, despite Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud.

“I know it upset Trump, and I’m a Trump person, but fair is fair,” Curti said.

Updated

The AP has not yet projected a winner in the Georgia secretary of state Republican primary, where incumbent Brad Raffensperger has maintained his lead over Jody Hice.

With roughly 74% of votes counted, Raffensperger leads Hice by 17 points, capturing 51.1% of the total vote.

The important question is whether Raffensperger can stay above 50% and avoid a runoff against Hice. If Raffensperger’s support dips below 50%, he and Hice will face off in a one-on-one race next month.

Hice received Donald Trump’s endorsement after embracing the former president’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election. One of Trump’s other candidates, David Perdue, has already lost tonight.

Updated

After winning the Republican Senate nomination in Georgia, Herschel Walker was asked whether he believes Congress should pass new gun laws in response to the shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

“What I like to do is see it and everything and stuff. I like to see it,” Walker told CNN. He did not expand further.

In November, Walker will face off against Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock in what is expected to be a very close race, as Republicans try to regain control of the Senate.

McBath defeats Bourdeaux in member v member primary

Congresswoman Lucy McBath has defeated fellow House Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux to win the nomination in Georgia’s seventh congressional district, AP projects.

When the AP called the race, McBath led Bourdeaux by 32 points, putting her on track to easily avoid a runoff.

McBath currently represents the 6th congressional district, but that district was significantly altered in Republican redistricting. Rather than running in the Republican-leaning district, McBath instead chose to run in the neighboring 7th district, which Bourdeaux currently represents.

McBath got into politics after her son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed at the age of 17 in 2012. Since his death, McBath has been a staunch advocate for stricter gun laws.

McBath’s victory came just hours after a shooting occurred at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, leaving at least 18 children dead.

Updated

George P Bush had tried to distance himself from his family members’ criticism of Donald Trump by highlighting the former president’s praise of him.

“This is the only Bush that likes me! This is the only one,” Trump said at a 2019 rally in Texas. “This is the Bush that got it right. I like him.”

At one point, Bush’s campaign even distributed koozies highlighting the comments:

But Trump’s past praise was not enough to oust Ken Paxton, a fierce defender of the former president. As attorney general, Paxton filed a lawsuit challenging the results of the 2020 election, despite no evidence of widespread fraud.

Now that Paxton has secured the Republican nomination, he will likely face off against Democrat Rochelle Garza, a civil rights lawyer, in November.

Updated

Paxton defeats Bush in Texas attorney general primary

Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has won his runoff primary race against George P Bush, son of Jeb Bush and grandson of George HW Bush, AP projects.

Paxton currently leads Bush, who serves as Texas land commissioner, by about 35 points with roughly half of the votes counted.

Bush’s loss marks a significant defeat for a political dynasty that has produced two presidents and helped shape Texas politics for several decades.

Paxton, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, managed to easily beat Bush despite a number of scandals attached to the attorney general. He has been under indictment on securities fraud charges for seven years.

Former Trump spokesperson Sanders wins Arkansas gubernatorial primary

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who previously served as White House press secretary under Donald Trump, has won Arkansas’ Republican gubernatorial primary, AP projects.

As of now, Sanders leads the primary race with more than 80% of the vote, after polls indicated she was likely to win the nomination.

Sanders will also be heavily favored to win the general election in November to replace the current Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, who is term-limited.

If she wins the general election, Sanders will follow in the footsteps of her father, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who led the state from 1996 to 2007.

In Georgia’s seventh congressional district, Democratic congresswoman Lucy McBath is leading her House colleague Carolyn Bordeaux by about 32 points, with roughly 40% of votes counted.

If McBath can stay above 50%, she will avoid a runoff and advance to the general election, where she will be the favored candidate in the race.

McBath currently represents Georgia’s sixth congressional district in the House, but she decided to run in the seventh district after Republican redistricting dramatically altered her chances in November.

McBath’s victory would be particularly meaningful tonight, in the wake of the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

McBath’s son, Jordan Davis, was shot and killed at 17, and the congresswoman has been a staunch advocate for gun control legislation in honor of her son’s legacy.

Updated

Extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wins primary

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the extremist Republican congresswoman who has repeatedly sparked outcry by embracing conspiracy theories and attacking her Democratic colleagues, has won her primary.

The AP called the race about two hours after polls closed in Georgia, projecting that Greene would defeat the five candidates who challenged her for the Republican nomination.

Greene will have a significant advantage in the general election this November, as Georgia’s 14th congressional district skews heavily Republican.

Greene’s victory comes after a group of her critics attempted to keep her off the ballot by arguing that her role in the January 6 attack at the Capitol made her ineligible, but that effort failed.

Chris Christie, who was once a close ally of Donald Trump, celebrated Brian Kemp’s victory in the Georgia gubernatorial primary and mocked the former president’s efforts to unseat Republicans who have not embraced the big lie.

“Enormous win tonight for @BrianKempGA,” Christie, who previously served as governor of New Jersey, said on Twitter.

“I am so proud of and happy for my friend – and just as importantly for the Georgia GOP and the people of Georgia. They were not going to kick out a great Governor or be willing participants in the DJT Vendetta Tour.”

Trump endorsed former Senator David Perdue in the gubernatorial primary after Kemp did not take steps to block the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia.

Since leaving office last year, Trump has been focused on ousting Republicans who have criticized his lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

In a statement earlier this month, Trump attacked Christie and two sitting Republicans who had endorsed Kemp as “RINOs,” meaning Republicans in name only.

Updated

The Republican Governors Association, which had backed Brian Kemp in Georgia’s gubernatorial primary, took a victory lap after the incumbent was declared the winner of the race.

“Tonight, voters proved that Governor Brian Kemp is a results-driven leader who has always put Georgia first,” said Republican Governors Doug Ducey and Pete Ricketts, co-chairs of the RGA.

Ducey and Ricketts condemned Stacey Abrams’ “radical agenda” for Georgia, saying that Kemp would again defeat the voting rights leader in the general election this November.

“Voters rejected her self-promoting antics and out-of-touch agenda four years ago and will do so again,” Ducey and Rickets said. “As we were in the primary, the RGA is all-in and we will be there to ensure Governor Kemp is re-elected this fall.”

Updated

Kemp defeats Trump-backed Perdue in Georgia gubernatorial primary

Governor Brian Kemp has defeated former Senator David Perdue in Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial primary, the AP projects.

As of now, Kemp leads Perdue by about 51 points, meaning the incumbent governor is poised to easily avoid a runoff in the race.

Kemp will now face off against Stacey Abrams in November, which will mark a rematch between the two candidates. Kemp narrowly defeated Abrams in 2018.

Kemp’s victory marks a significant defeat for Donald Trump, who had endorsed Perdue and criticized the governor for not taking steps to block the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Georgia.

Perdue’s loss will likely intensify discussion over the influence and limitations of Trump’s endorsement, particularly in races where the former president is opposing an incumbent.

The blog will have more updates and analysis coming up, so stay tuned.

Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger has opened a considerable lead over his Republican challenger Jody Hice in the GOP primary for secretary of state.

With around 20% of the vote reported, Raffensperger leads Hice by roughly 40,000 votes. But a more important number will be whether Raffensperger, seeking a second term as Georgia’s top election official, can get more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff. He’s been hovering around that number all evening.

The race is one of the most important primaries in the country. Raffensperger earned the ire of Donald Trump after refusing to overturn the election results in Georgia in 2020. Trump endorsed Hice, who backed efforts to get Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia thrown out.

Incumbent Brian Kemp continues to enjoy a significant lead over David Perdue in Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial primary.

With about 236,000 votes counted, Kemp leads Perdue by 51 points. If he can maintain that advantage, Kemp will easily avoid a runoff against Perdue.

Assuming Kemp wins the nomination, he will face off against Democrat Stacey Abrams in November. That race would mark a rematch for the two candidates, after Kemp narrowly defeated Abrams in the 2018 election.

Walker wins Republican Senate nomination, setting up race against Warnock

Herschel Walker, the former professional football player, has won the Republican Senate nomination in Georgia, the AP projects.

Walker’s victory means he will face off against Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock in November, as Republicans try to regain control of the US Senate.

Walker had received the endorsement of Donald Trump, and he easily avoided a runoff, capturing 70% of the vote when the AP called the race.

The Georgia Senate race is sure to attract nationwide interest and donations, with Democrats seeking to retain the seat that they just flipped in 2021.

Warnock wins Senate nomination as he looks to secure full term

Incumbent Raphael Warnock has officially won the Democratic senate nomination in Georgia, easily defeating Tamara Johnson-Shealey, the AP projects.

Warnock was first elected in January 2021, making him the first Black person to represent Georgia in the US Senate. He defeated Republican Kelly Loeffler, who had been appointed to serve out the remainder of Johnny Isakson’s term. The 2022 election will give Warnock his first opportunity to secure a full term in the Senate.

Warnock is expected to face off against Republican Herschel Walker in November, although the AP has not yet officially called that primary.

The Georgia Senate race will be closely watched by both parties, as Republicans look to flip the seat in the battleground state and regain control of the upper chamber of Congress.

Updated

While Governor Brian Kemp has jumped out to a big lead with the first batch of votes reported in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger is currently in a much closer race.

With roughly 23,000 votes counted, the incumbent secretary of state leads his primary challenger, Jody Hice, by 14 points.

If neither Raffensperger or Hice can get at least 50% of the vote, the two candidates will be forced into a runoff race to determine the Republican nominee for secretary of state.

Hice has received Donald Trump’s endorsement, and he has embraced the former president’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

This primary race will test how the “big lie” is influencing Republican voters, as the Guardian’s Sam Levine reported last week:

We are getting the earliest results in the Georgia gubernatorial race, and with roughly 8,000 votes counted so far, Governor Brian Kemp leads David Perdue by about 57 points.

As a reminder, Kemp needs to secure at least 50% of the vote in order to avoid a runoff against Perdue and have a chance to face Democrat Stacey Abrams in November.

There’s still a lot of counting left. Stay tuned.

Abrams wins uncontested Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Georgia

No surprise here: Stacey Abrams has officially won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Georgia, after running unopposed in the race, according to the AP.

Abrams, a voting rights leader who narrowly lost the 2018 gubernatorial race to Republican Brian Kemp, may have the chance at a rematch against the incumbent governor.

But first, Kemp will have to survive a primary challenge from former Senator David Perdue, who has received Donald Trump’s endorsement.

More results are still coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

Polls close in Georgia

It is 7pm ET, so the polls are closing in Georgia, which is holding a number of significant primary races tonight.

In the gubernatorial race, incumbent Republican Brian Kemp is facing off against former Senator David Perdue, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump.

Trump has also endorsed Jody Hice in his primary challenge against the incumbent secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger.

Those two races will test Trump’s reputation as a kingmaker in the Republican party. Although Trump’s endorsement carries immense sway with Republican primary voters, it’s unclear whether his support will be enough to oust two incumbents.

The blog will have updates as results start trickling in, so stay tuned.

Polls will close in Georgia in about five minutes. As a reminder, here is when polls close in each state holding races tonight:

  • Georgia: Polls close at 7pm local time.
  • Alabama: Polls close at 7pm local time.
  • Arkansas: Polls close at 7.30pm local time.
  • Texas: Polls close at 7pm local time.

Progressive groups have rallied around congressional candidate Jessica Cisneros, even as organizations backing incumbent Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar have poured money into the race.

The climate group Sunrise Movement said it has made over 700,000 calls to primary voters in Texas’ 28th congressional district since the organization endorsed Cisneros last year.

“Voters in this district want someone who will fight for workers rights, reproductive freedoms, a champion on immigration – and Jessica is that person,” said Ezra Oliff-Lieberman, Sunrise’s electoral organizer in Texas.

“The choice is clear for Democrats – they can side with an anti-choice, anti-labor ‘Democrat’, and outcast young and working people in this fight, or they can fight with us for choice, clean air and water, and win elections.”

Updated

Polls will close in Georgia in less than an hour, as the state’s voters determine which candidates will advance to the general election in November.

In Georgia’s seventh congressional district, two incumbent Democratic House members, Carolyn Bourdeaux and Lucy McBath, are facing off in a contentious primary race.

Bourdeaux currently represents the seventh district, after winning her 2020 general election race by less than three points and flipping the previously Republican-held seat.

But after Georgia Republicans were able to redraw the state’s congressional map this year, McBath’s sixth district became safely Republican, so the two-term congresswoman instead decided to run in the neighboring seventh district.

Only Bourdeaux or McBath will be able to compete in November, meaning one of them will soon be out of a job. Results will start trickling in soon, so stay tuned.

Updated

Progressives are bracing for a nail-biter in south Texas tonight in the runoff primary between Jessica Cisneros and congressman Henry Cuellar.

The race is, in many ways, a perfect encapsulation of the ideological and generational fight for the soul of the Democratic party. A conservative nine-term incumbent backed by the party’s leadership is in the fight of his political life after being forced into a runoff by a young, progressive immigration lawyer.

The runoff is expected to be close, and progressives are eyeing the returns nervously after a stronger-than-expected showing in last week’s primaries. Should she win, it would be an upset and a massive victory for the left.

Cisneros was recruited by Justice Democrats, the progressive group that also recruited Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to run. Support for Cisneros flooded in after a draft supreme court opinion indicated the justices were poised to overturn Roe v Wade. Cueller is one of the last anti-abortion Democrats in Congress.

But more has been spent by outside groups to boost Cuellar, one of Congress’ last anti-abortion Democrats. Progressives are furious with spending and have demanded House speaker Nancy Pelosi condemn it.

“In a healthy political party, a human rights attorney and young, charismatic woman of color like Cisneros would be embraced. But the Democratic party establishment has put every barrier in her community’s fight for true representation,” Waleed Shadid, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, wrote in a memo on Tuesday.

“If Cisneros can mobilize and persuade enough younger and women voters and voters who want a change from the 17-year anti-choice, corporate-backed incumbent opposing reproductive rights and facing an FBI investigation, she’ll win.”

Updated

The Guardian’s Kari Paul is anchoring our live blog on the shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Governor Greg Abbott has said the gunman shot and killed 14 students and one teacher.

Joe Biden is expected to deliver remarks on the shooting later tonight, when he returns to Washington from Tokyo. Kari will have the latest updates as we learn more. Follow along:

Updated

Fourteen students and one teacher killed in Texas school shooting

Fourteen students and one teacher were shot and killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, according to the state’s governor, Greg Abbott.

Abbott said the gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Romas, had “shot and killed incomprehensibly 14 students and killed the teacher … the shooter, he himself is deceased and it is believed responding officers killed him”.

The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting and would speak about the tragedy when he returns to the White House tonight. The president was returning from Tokyo when news of the shooting broke.

The shooting comes months before the US is set to mark the 10-year anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school, which resulted in the deaths of 20 children and six adults.

In the decade since the Sandy Hook shooting, no major gun control legislation has passed Congress. Thousands of mass shootings have occurred in the years since, including one earlier this month in Buffalo, New York.

The Guardian will have a separate live blog to cover the latest news from Uvalde as we continue to provide updates on today’s primaries.

Updated

Texas is also holding primary runoff races today to determine nominees in a number of key statewide and congressional races.

In Texas’ 28th congressional district, Democratic incumbent congressman Henry Cuellar is facing a serious political threat from progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros.

Neither of the two candidates finished above 50% in the district’s 1 March primary, forcing them into today’s runoff.

The Guardian’s Alexandra Villareal reported on the race this week:

Texas-28 is a heavily gerrymandered, predominantly Latino congressional district that rides the US-Mexico border, including the city of Laredo, before sprawling across south-central Texas to reach into San Antonio. During the primary election in March, voters there were so split that barely a thousand votes divided Cuellar from Cisneros, while neither candidate received the majority they needed to win.

Now, the runoff on 24 May has come to represent not only a race for the coveted congressional seat, but also a referendum on the future of Democratic politics in Texas and nationally.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, House majority whip, James E Clyburn, and House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, have thrown the full-throated support of the Democratic establishment behind Cuellar, while endorsements from progressive icons such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have elevated Cisneros as a rising star on the national stage.

‘If Cuellar wins, this is a story of how the Democratic machine and the old system is still strong in the district. And if Jessica Cisneros wins, the narrative is this is another successful Latina politician … carrying the community forward,’ said Katsuo Nishikawa Chávez, an associate professor of political science at Trinity University.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, pointed to the expected record turnout in Georgia to dispute Democratic criticism of the state’s new voting law.

That law, which was signed by Governor Brian Kemp last year, imposed significant restrictions on absentee voting in Georgia. Voting rights activists argued that the law was an overt attempt to suppress turnout, particularly among Black voters.

Speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill, McConnell said the record turnout disproved Democrats’ claims that Republicans are attempting to limit access to the ballot box across the country.

“There’s no effort in America, in any state in America, to suppress voting,” McConnell told reporters.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 19 states passed 34 laws restrict­ing access to voting last year, as Donald Trump continued to spread the “big lie” of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Senate Republicans have also repeatedly blocked Democratic voting rights bills since Joe Biden took office.

Georgia on track to see record turnout for midterm primary

The polls in Georgia are scheduled to close in less than three hours, and the state is on track to set a new record for voter turnout in a midterm primary election.

Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer in the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said on Twitter, “We are on a solid path to surpass the record for midterm primary turnout. The previous record was 2018 with approximately 1,162,000.”

This year’s Georgia primaries have attracted nationwide interest because of Donald Trump’s endorsements in the gubernatorial and secretary of state races.

Trump has endorsed David Perdue, who is challenging incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp, and Jody Hice, who is running against current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The two races are being closely watched to determine if the former president’s endorsement has enough sway with Republican primary voters to oust two incumbents.

The blog will be closely following the results once polls close in Georgia, so stay tuned.

Thanks for joining me today. I’m handing over the blog now to my colleague Joan E Greve, who will guide you through the next few hours as polls close and results begin to come in from the five states holding their primaries today.

Here’s some of the races we looked at:

  • In Georgia, it’s a day of reckoning for Donald Trump, where his big lie-supporting endorsee David Perdue takes on incumbent Republican governor Brian Kemp. The former president’s power is also being put to the test in the race for secretary of state between incumbent Brad Raffensperger and his pick congressman Jody Hice.
  • In Texas, the incumbent Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar faces a stiff challenge from progressive Jessica Cisneros.
  • In Alabama, congressman Mo Brooks is looking to show that a Republican can not only survive having the endorsement of Trump taken away in his race, but actually thrive without it.
  • In Arkansas, former Trump mouthpiece Sarah Huckabee Sanders is expected to win the Republican nomination for governor easily. The former white House press secretary could follow her father Mike Huckabee into the governor’s mansion in November.

And elsewhere:

  • The deadlocked Republican senate primary in Pennsylvania could be heading for the supreme court, with party leaders backing TV doctor Mehmet Oz in a legal fight with challenger David McCormick over mail-in ballots.
  • In her new memoir, Kellyanne Conway lavishes abuse on Steve Bannon, calling the former White House strategist a “leaking dirigible” and an “unpaternal, paternalistic bore of a boor” more concerned with his own image than serving Donald Trump.
  • A Maryland man who draped himself in a far right-affiliated flag and sprayed a fire extinguisher at police during the deadly Capitol attack on January 6 has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison, according to federal court records.

Please stick with us through the rest of the afternoon and evening for all the developments in the primary election races.

In the battle for control of the Democratic party, progressives are increasingly confident they are winning. That’s how they explain the record sums of Super Pac money targeting their candidates in nominating contests for safely Democratic seats.

“There’s a set of people who are uncomfortable with a new brand of politics,” said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the progressive Working Families party. “They’re trying to set the clock back. But the genie’s outta the bottle.”

So far this election cycle, progressives have a mixed record. But a stronger-than-expected showing in last week’s primaries has energized the movement and set the stage, they hope, for even more success this summer.

In Pennsylvania, state representative Summer Lee overcame a deluge of outside spending to win her congressional primary. Lee was declared the winner after three days of counting. She tweeted: “$4.5 mill” with a fire and trash can emoji.

Oregon progressives cheered the victory of Andrea Salinas, who also went up against a crush of big money in one of the most expensive House Democratic primaries in the country. Meanwhile, the seven-term Oregon congressman Kurt Schrader, whose conservative politics drew the left’s ire, appears to be on the verge of losing his seat to progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner, though results have been delayed by a ballot-printing problem.

And in what will be one of the cycle’s most competitive Senate races, John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s iconoclastic, liberal lieutenant governor, beat Congressman Conor Lamb, a rising star of the center-left.

The next test of progressive political power comes today, in a Texas runoff election between Congressman Henry Cueller, a conservative Democrat backed by party leadership, and Jessica Cisneros, a progressive immigration lawyer endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders.

And after that, there are competitive intra-party primaries in Illinois, New York and Michigan.

“We’re not doing any victory laps,” Mitchell said. “If anything, those losses and the wins have redoubled our commitment and focus.”

Read the full story:

The Wisconsin Republican party says it has recovered all $2.3m stolen by hackers before the 2020 presidential election.

A chunk of the money, $600,000, was recovered by the FBI and given back to the party last month, the state party chair Mark Jefferson said Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

The party’s bank was able to get back $1.5m through its fraud until, and the rest was reimbursed through insurance payouts and donations, Jefferson said.

Officials contacted the FBI two weeks before election day in 2020 after they noticed money intended for suppliers of campaign materials, including Donald Trump hats, was being siphoned to the hackers.

Trump lost Wisconsin to Joe Biden by fewer than 21,000 votes.

Mallory McMorrow remembers the sting of being slandered by a colleague for wanting to “groom” and “sexualize” young children. “I felt horrible,” she says. But instead of shrugging it off or trying to change the subject, as Democrats are often criticised for doing, the state senator from Michigan decided to fight back.

In just four minutes and 40 seconds, McMorrow delivered a fierce, impassioned floor speech at the state capitol that went viral on social media and earned a laudatory phone call from the US president.

She also offered a blueprint for how Democrats can combat Republicans intent on making education a wedge issue. The New Yorker magazine described her as “a role model for the midterms”. The New York Times newspaper added: “If Democrats could bottle Mallory McMorrow … they would do it.”

Mallory McMorrow.
Mallory McMorrow. Photograph: Daniel Shular/AP

It was quite an ovation for a 35-year-old serving her first term in elected office. McMorrow, who previously worked as a car designer and branding and design consultant, is among a generation galvanised by resistance to Donald Trump and his red meat populism.

Soon after Trump’s election as president in 2016, she saw a video of middle school students chanting “Build the wall!” at another student; the school happened to be the polling place where she had voted. She felt motivated to go into politics and was elected in 2018 to the state senate for the 13th district, which covers suburbs just north of Detroit.

But the Michigan senate has been under Republican control since before McMorrow was born. In a time of acrimony and division, it was never going to be an easy ride.

Republican Lana Theis opened the latest senate session with an invocation that was part prayer, part Make America Great Again (Maga) battle cry: “Dear Lord, across the country we’re seeing in the news that our children are under attack. That there are forces that desire things for them other than what their parents would have them see and hear and know.”

McMorrow was among three Democrats who walked out in protest at the apparent reference to how schools address sexual orientation, gender identity and critical race theory – the target of Republican laws across the country.

She also tweeted criticism of the prayer, prompting Theis to lash out in a fundraising email: “These are the people we are up against. Progressive social media trolls like Senator Mallory McMorrow (D-Snowflake) who are outraged they can’t teach can’t groom and sexualize kindergarteners or that 8-year-olds are responsible for slavery.”

Grooming, a term used to describe how sex offenders initiate contact with their victims, has recently become a Republican buzzword and nods to QAnon conspiracy theories that hold Democrats run a pedophile ring. It is no less hurtful for being so preposterous.

Read the full story:

Key event

An independent commission is recommending new names for nine Army posts that commemorated Confederate officers. If approved, Fort Bragg in North Carolina would become Fort Liberty, and Fort Gordon in Georgia would become Fort Eisenhower.

The recommendations are the latest step in a broader effort by the military to confront racial injustice, most recently in the aftermath of the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Associated Press reports.

The list recommends naming bases for the first time after women and Black soldiers.

Fort Polk, Louisiana, would be renamed Fort Johnson, after Sgt William Henry Johnson, a Black medal of honor recipient who served in the first world war.

Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia would be renamed Fort Walker, after Mary Edwards Walker, a doctor who treated soldiers in the Civil War and later received a medal of honor.

As recently as 2015 the Army argued that the Confederate names did not honor the rebel cause but were a gesture of reconciliation with the South.

But following Floyd’s killing and subsequent racial unrest, the Pentagon and Congress pushed to rename military posts and other federal assets such as roads, buildings, memorials, signs and landmarks that honored rebel leaders.

My colleague Sam Levine has this look at one of the most consequential races of today’s primary elections, for Georgia secretary of state.

Incumbent Brad Raffensperger, who famously resisted Donald Trump’s demand to “find” him enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state is facing a tough battle for reelection. Sam has been talking to Georgia voters:

Today Georgia voters are casting ballots in what I believe is the most important primary election this year: the Republican primary for secretary of state.

Last week, we published a story from reporting I did earlier this month about the race between incumbent Brad Raffensperger, the Republican who became nationally known for refusing to overturn the election results, and his Trump-backed challenger and big lie peddler, Congressman Jody Hice. There has already been record turnout during early voting, and polls show a close race between Hice and Raffensperger.

Jay Williams, a Republican strategist in Georgia not affiliated with either campaign, told me Raffensperger had made a strategic error in pushing back on Trump and predicted Hice would win.

“He’s branded. And I think it’s gonna be difficult for Republicans to be able to go out and vote for the guy,” he said. “If you don’t have a big stick, don’t go after someone who has a bigger stick than you. He’s the president, he’s just not a big enough guy to go after him.”

Several polls over the last year have shown that the vast majority of Republicans believe Joe Biden’s victory was not legitimate. I was curious to see whether that belief was translating into who they were voting for. Would voters kick Raffensperger out of office for saying the election was legitimate?

To my surprise, I didn’t find a huge amount of momentum for Hice, who has said the 2020 election was stolen and tried to overturn it. Instead, I found a lot of voters who said they supported Trump, but were also voting for Raffensperger.

“I felt that under all that pressure, he did a good job. I know it upset Trump, and I’m a Trump person, but fair is fair,” said Carolee Curti, 82, who voted for Raffensperger in Rome, which is in the heart of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s deeply Republican district in north-west Georgia.

“I think something happened, but I don’t know anything like everybody else. I don’t know that Raffensperger did anything bad either,” said Judy C, 80, who declined to give her full name after she cast her vote for Raffensperger in Lawrenceville, an Atlanta suburb. “Trump, excuse me, he should keep his mouth shut.”

Another Republican voter, age 78, who only gave only his first name, Bob, said he had automatically ruled out voting for anyone who said the election was stolen. “If you claim the last election was fraudulent, I’m not voting for you,” he told me.

“If you asked people to go illegally to try and overthrow the election, I’m not voting for you.” He declined to say whom he voted for, but said it was probably safe to say he didn’t cast a ballot for Hice.

Read more:

Updated

The FBI claims an Islamic State sympathizer living in Ohio plotted to assassinate George W Bush, but confidential informants helped federal agents foil the plan, according to court records.

Details of the alleged scheme to kill the former president are laid out in a warrant that the FBI obtained in March to search the accused operative’s cellphone records, a 43-page document that was only unsealed in recent days.

NBC News reported that the man named in the warrant – Shihab Ahmed Shihab – had been arrested.

A spokesperson for Bush said in a statement Tuesday that the former president was unworried.

“President Bush has all the confidence in the world in the US Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities,” said the former president’s chief of staff, Freddy Ford.

A spokesperson for the FBI declined comment on the investigation, which Forbes was first to report Tuesday. Shihab could not be reached.

Read the full story:

Republican leaders back Oz in Pennsylvania lawsuit

The deadlocked Republican senate primary in Pennsylvania could be heading for the supreme court, with party leaders at state and national level throwing in with celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz.

Officials are opposing a lawsuit that could help Oz’s opponent, former hedge fund chief executive David McCormick, close the gap in votes. One week after last Tuesday’s primary, Oz leads by 997 votes, or 0.07% of 1,341,184 ballots cast.

David McCormick.
David McCormick. Photograph: Quinn Glabicki/Reuters

McCormick filed a lawsuit late Monday, the Associated Press said, less than 24 hours before today’s 5pm deadline for counties to report unofficial results to the state. He wants the state Commonwealth Court to require counties to obey a new federal appeals court decision and promptly count mail-in ballots that lack a required handwritten date on the return envelope.

Oz, who is endorsed by former president Donald Trump, has pressed counties not to count the ballots and the Republican National Committee and state party officials said they would go to court to oppose McCormick.

Trump, meanwhile, has urged Oz to declare victory before counting is completed.

RNC chief counsel Matt Raymer said in a statement: “Election laws are meant to be followed, and changing the rules when ballots are already being counted harms the integrity of our elections”.

McCormick is doing better than Oz in mail-in ballots and has insisted that “every Republican vote should count”.

A recount is virtually certain, which could push the official result as late as 8 June.

Donald Trump’s onetime attorney Rudy Giuliani testified to the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack at length on Friday but declined to discuss the involvement of congressional Republicans in efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Rudy Giuliani.
Rudy Giuliani. Photograph: Daniel Shular/AP

The move by Giuliani to refuse to give insight into Republican involvement could mean his appearance only marginally advanced the inquiry into his ploy to have the then vice-president, Mike Pence, unlawfully keep Trump in office after he lost to Joe Biden.

However, he did potentially pique the committee’s interest by discussing two notable meetings at the White House involving Trump that took place just weeks before the Capitol insurrection.

Giuliani asserted privilege and the work-product doctrine to decline to respond when asked to detail the roles played by House and Senate Republicans in the scheme to stop Congress’s certification of Biden’s victory on 6 January 2021, the sources said.

The panel was not expecting Giuliani to divulge damning information against Trump, since committee counsel had agreed with Giuliani in advance that he should not have to violate legitimate claims of privilege he might have as the former president’s attorney.

But Giuliani’s refusal to engage with questions about House and Senate Republicans frustrated the select committee, the sources said, not least because Giuliani personally urged them to object to Biden’s victory to delay its certification.

Full story:

Kellyanne bashes Bannon … and Trump

In her new memoir, Kellyanne Conway lavishes abuse on Steve Bannon, calling the former White House strategist a “leaking dirigible” and an “unpaternal, paternalistic bore of a boor” more concerned with his own image than serving Donald Trump.

Kellyanne Conway.
Kellyanne Conway. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP

But in doing so, the former senior counselor to the ex-US president criticises Trump himself, otherwise a notable escapee from her book.

“One of Trump’s biggest selling points,” Conway writes in one of many takedowns of Bannon, “was his refreshing lack of political experience. But the flip side of that quality was his occasional blind spots when it came to personnel decisions and political endorsements.”

Trump’s endorsements are the focus of fierce attention. In Georgia primaries on Tuesday his candidate for governor, David Perdue, seems doomed to defeat while his Senate candidate, Herschel Walker, is widely deemed unsuitable for the role.

Conway continues: “[Trump] was often too trusting of others who lacked transparency or talent, and insufficiently skeptical of those who were pushing the wrong people as candidates for office or as colleagues in the administration. I won some of those arguments and lost some.”

Full story:

It’s been almost three years since Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ spell as White House press secretary for Donald Trump came to an end.

During her two years at the podium, at least during the time she actually held briefings, her fiery rhetoric, attacks on Democrats and quarrels with reporters always felt more like political speeches anyway.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Photograph: Tork Mason/AP

Now Huckabee Sanders is about to become a prominent pro-Trump voice once again, and almost certain to wrap up the Republican nomination today for governor of Arkansas, a post once held by her father Mike Huckabee.

She faces former talk radio host Doc Washburn, and is a heavy favorite, according to the Associated Press.

Accompanied by her husband and three children, Huckabee Sanders cast her ballot in Little Rock shortly after polls opened Tuesday, and slammed Joe Biden as she spoke to reporters:

Paying attention to the bad policies and the failures of the Biden administration and the impact that they have on our state is critically important.

If they continue to fail the way that they have and put states in a difficult position, then absolutely, we’re going to call them out.

Trump, unsurprisingly, has given Huckabee Sanders his “complete and total endorsement”, calling her a “warrior who will always fight for the people of Arkansas”.

She released a book in 2020 detailing her time as White House press secretary, recalling an episode in which Trump told her North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was “hitting on her” at a summit in Singapore.

The pulling power of a former Republican president is on the line in a Texas primary run-off today, but for once it’s not Donald Trump.

George P Bush, son of former Florida governor Jeb, nephew of two-term president and former Texas governor George W, and grandson of president George HW, is challenging incumbent Ken Paxton for attorney general in a test of how much weight the Bush family name still carries in the state.

George P Bush leaves the stage after a 2021 rally in Austin.
George P Bush leaves the stage after a 2021 rally in Austin. Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

Paxton is a Trump ally and big lie advocate who spoke at the 6 January “stop the steal” rally in Washington DC that preceded the insurrection by Trump supporters.

He is also awaiting trial on securities fraud charges after being indicted in 2015, and under FBI investigation for corruption.

Earlier this month he claimed the state bar was threatening to sue him over the baseless lawsuit he and fellow Republican attorneys general filed to try to reverse Joe Biden’s 2020 win over Trump.

Yet Bush, the Texas land commissioner who has called his rival “a crook”, continues to trail Paxton, according to the few polls that are available, and finished 20 points behind him in a March primary that resulted in today’s run-off.

Bush spoke to reporters after casting his vote in Austin this morning, according to the Associated Press, insisting his candidacy wasn’t about his family name:

It’s not about dynasties. It’s not about some sort of myth. It’s about doing the right thing and supporting the right people for the right offices.

Anybody can plainly see that we’ve got a crook right now in our top law enforcement position who continually abuses his office.

One of the biggest Trump-endorsed winners in today’s primaries is likely to be former NFL star Herschel Walker, who is handily placed to win the Republican nomination for senator in Georgia.

Walker is, as journalist Justin Glawe observed in this profile for the Guardian, a relatively rare political being: a Black, Trump-supporting Republican with a base consisting of largely white conservatives.

Herschel Walker.
Herschel Walker. Photograph: Matt Hamilton/AP

Already a household name from his years in football, Walker went into today’s election with an almost certainly unassailable lead, ahead in some polls by more than 55 points, according to Real Clear Politics.

Some Republican opponents have questioned the electability of Walker, a close friend of Trump, according to the Associated Press. He has a history of violence against women and has made multiple gaffes on the campaign trail.

He also skipped the primary debates. He has been open about his long struggle with mental illness and acknowledged violent urges.

Glawe says opinions are mixed, largely depending on a voter’s race:

African Americans are hesitant to say anything bad about Walker, but they are certainly not jumping at the chance to praise him. Whites, meanwhile, speak of Walker as the personification of the American Dream: he came from nothing, and now he’s something.

Assuming he wins today, Walker faces a far tougher fight in November to unseat Democratic senator Raphael Warnock, who is also far ahead in his own party’s primary.

A Maryland man who draped himself in a far right-affiliated flag and sprayed a fire extinguisher at police during the deadly Capitol attack on January 6 has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison, according to federal court records.

Matthew Ryan Miller, 23, pleaded guilty in February to felony obstruction of an official proceeding – that day’s joint congressional session to certify Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election – as well as assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers.

At a hearing on Monday, Miller was sentenced to two years and nine months. Judge Randolph Moss also ordered Miller to spend two years on probation after his release and to pay $2,000 in restitution.

Federal prosecutors had asked the judge for a sentence of four years and three months. Seeking leniency for his client, Miller’s attorney, A Eduardo Balarezo, argued that the defendant was abusing alcohol and marijuana and therefore was not thinking logically on the day of the Capitol riots.

“Matthew is a young man who made a terrible decision,” Balarezo wrote in a court filing ahead of the sentencing. “He recognizes that his personal conduct and participation in the riot were not born of a rational decision but rather were fueled by alcohol and marijuana abuse.

“He fully accepts responsibility for what he has done and is not making excuses.”

Balarezo also condemned Trump’s claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by electoral fraudsters as “lies” that drove Miller to join other Trump supporters in the nation’s capital on the day the riots occurred because he thought “it would be cool to be part of history”.

Read the full story:

Confirming what almost everybody in Washington DC circles already knew, MSNBC has announced that the former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who resigned earlier this month, is joining the network as a host and political analyst.

Reports that Psaki had already lined up a job with MSNBC began circulating weeks before her resignation. It sparked questions during some White House briefings about the integrity of being the public face of the Biden administration while negotiating her own paid role within the media.

Jen Psaki.
Jen Psaki. Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AP

But she was widely recognized as a safe pair of hands in the role, and restored stability and daily press briefings to the White House after the turbulence of successive press secretaries during the administration of Donald Trump.

According to MSNBC, she will appear as an analyst during the midterm election season leading up to November, and begin presenting her own streaming show next spring.

In a statement, MSNBC president Rashida Jones said:

Jen’s sharp wit and relatability combined with the mastery of the subjects she covers have made her a household name across the nation.

Her extensive experience in government and on the campaign trail and perspective as a White House and Washington insider is the type of analysis that sets MSNBC apart. She’s a familiar face and trusted authority to MSNBC viewers, and we look forward to her insight during this consequential election season.

Kandiss Taylor has been making waves as the official “fire and brimstone” candidate in Georgia’s race to become Republican candidate for governor.

In an extraordinary campaign rally speech on Sunday, in front of a banner referencing Jesus, guns and babies, the “Christian wife and mother” called for the execution by firing squad of sheriffs who “don’t do the will of the people”.

In a tweet earlier this month, she slammed the “satanic regime” currently running Georgia, and vowed to “bring it to its knees” as “the ONLY candidate bold enough to stand up to the Luciferian Cabal”.

The post earned a rebuke from fans of the late, legendary country artist Charlie Daniels, whose most famous song The Devil Went Down to Georgia tells the tale of of a musician winning Satan’s golden fiddle in a play-off for his soul.

According to RealClearPolitics, Taylor has the support of 6% of Republican voters.

While Mike Pence was rallying with Brian Kemp in person on Monday night in Georgia, Donald Trump appeared on a virtual link to speak up for David Perdue, his choice to become Republican candidate for this fall’s election for governor.

Perdue, Trump said in an election day statement issued Tuesday morning, complete with trademark random uppercase letters, is “a Conservative fighter who isn’t afraid of the Radical Left, and is the only candidate in Georgia who can beat Stacey ‘The Hoax’ Abrams” in November.

Abrams, who lost to Kemp in 2018, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

Repeating the lie that Kemp “allowed massive Election Fraud to take place” in Georgia in 2020, Trump insisted: “he can’t win because the MAGA [make America great again] base - which is enormous - will never vote for him”.

Trump went on to repeat his endorsement of former NFL star Herschel Walker for the Georgia Republican senate nomination, a primary race he has dominated, according to polls.

Donald Trump’s reputation as the undisputed Republican kingmaker is on the ballot in today’s Georgia primary, where former vice-president Mike Pence showed up last night to twist the knife further in his old boss’s back.

As polls opened in the party’s primary for governor this morning, Trump’s preferred candidate and former senator David Perdue trailed incumbent Brian Kemp by a significant margin.

Pence, the once loyal deputy tipped for his own White House run in 2024, amplified his divergence from Trump by rallying for Kemp in Kennesaw on Monday night.

“When you say yes to Governor Brian Kemp tomorrow, you will send a deafening message all across America that the Republican party is the party of the future,” Pence said in another stinging rebuke for Trump’s backwards-looking obsession with his 2020 election defeat.

Mike Pence campaigns for Georgia governor Brian Kemp in Kennesaw on Monday.
Mike Pence campaigns for Georgia governor Brian Kemp in Kennesaw on Monday. Photograph: John Amis/EPA

Trump’s thirst for revenge over Kemp for refusing to block Joe Biden’s win in Georgia, or support the big lie that the election was stolen, became calcified in his backing of Perdue, but if polls prove accurate and his preferred candidate goes down, the value of the once-coveted Trump endorsement will be further eroded.

Pence is among a number of senior Republicans who are working to achieve that, however inadvertently. At a conservative conference in Florida in February, Pence said Trump was wrong to think the election could be overturned, and that to try to do so was “un-American”.

In Georgia, particularly, and elsewhere, other Republican Trump critics and former and current governors including Chris Christie of New Jersey and Doug Ducey of Arizona have worked to weaken Trump’s influence.

According to a New York analysis today, most of the big lie-supporting candidates he endorsed in Republican primaries for this year’s midterms won, but many were running unopposed or against unknown or poorly funded opponents.

His record in bigger races is less convincing. Celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz failed to deliver a knockout blow in the Pennsylvania senate primary, and is still locked in a tight race with former treasury department official David McCormick, which is heading for a recount.

And the extremist, scandal-plagued congressman Madison Cawthorn was ousted in North Carolina despite Trump’s pleas for voters to give him another chance.

My colleagues Sam Levine and Alvin Chang have taken this look at the Trump-backed, big-lie advocates running for office in several states in what many say is an alarming attack on democratic principles in the US:

Updated

Primary day in Georgia and several other states

Good morning and welcome to Tuesday’s US politics blog. It’s primary day in Georgia and a handful of other states, so buckle in: it’s going to be an absorbing day.

It’s a day of reckoning, kind of, for Donald Trump, when his big lie-supporting endorsee David Perdue takes on incumbent Brian Kemp in the long-awaited Republican primary for governor of Georgia.

Kemp became a target of the former president by refusing to block Joe Biden’s victory in the state, but leads the former Georgia senator Perdue by a handy margin in many polls. And last night Mike Pence, Trump’s former vice-president, showed up to rally for Kemp in another rebuke for his old boss.

Defeat for Perdue would severely dent Trump’s carefully-crafted reputation as Republican kingmaker.

Other intriguing races are taking place in Texas, where the incumbent Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar faces a stiff challenge from progressive Jessica Cisneros, and in Alabama, where Republican congressman and Trump loyalist Mo Brooks is seeking the party’s Senate nomination having lost Trump’s endorsement.

We’ll look at some of the key races throughout the day, and have all the developments in our “after-hours” blog later today hosted by my colleague Joan E Greve.

Here’s what else we’re watching today:

  • Joe Biden is heading home from Asia, where he ruffled Chinese feathers with comments on the defense of Taiwan, and met with Indo-Pacific leaders to bolster US partnerships in the region.
  • Rudy Giuliani stonewalled the 6 January House inquiry into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his election defeat during lengthy testimony Friday, the Guardian has learned. The former president’s personal attorney refused to discuss Republican politicians’ involvement in Trump’s plotting.
  • New York’s criminal inquiry into Trump’s business dealings, meanwhile, has subpoenaed his longtime executive assistant for a deposition next week. State attorney general Letitia James plans to question Rhona Graff about allegedly fraudulent financial statements.
  • Vice-president Kamala Harris will be wearing in Alina Romanowski as ambassador to Iraq, and Deborah Lipstadt as special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
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