Results for key races in Tuesday’s primary elections in Idaho, 3 other states, and McCarthy’s replacement in California

Voters in Idaho, Georgia, Oregon and Kentucky headed to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in the states’ primary elections. California voters also picked a replacement for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Most of the key races were between congressional candidates, but Georgia voters also weighed in on whether to flip a seat in the state’s Supreme Court and decided if Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, the prosecutor and judge in Georgia’s election interference case against former President Donald Trump, should keep their jobs, according to ABC News.

Idaho’s 2nd Congressional District race

For more than two decades, Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson has represented the Gem State’s 2nd District after he was first elected in 1998. The 2nd District includes most of Idaho’s capital city of Boise; other major communities within the district are Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Rexburg and Twin Falls. Prior to that, Simpson, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also served as speaker of the Idaho State House for six years, from 1992 to 1998.

Simpson has maintained relatively centrist positions throughout his time representing Idaho’s 2nd District, a staunchly red district, and has been able to beat out past challengers and did this time as well, according to The New York Times.

Simpson beat out his two Republican challengers, Scott Cleveland and Sean Higgins, and will face Democrat David Roth and third-party candidates in the Nov. 5 general election.

Georgia’s state Supreme Court, 3rd Congressional District races

Georgia’s typically nonpartisan Supreme Court election heated up this year over the issue of abortion: Only one of the four justices who was up for reelection had a challenger: the court’s newest member, Justice Andrew Pinson, who was appointed in 2022 by Gov. Brian Kemp. Pinson’s challenger was former Democratic congressman John Barrow.

“Barrow says he believes Georgians have a right to abortion under the state constitution, while Pinson says it’s inappropriate for him to talk about issues and important not to make the race partisan,” according to The Associated Press.

The Associated Press called the race for Pinson on Tuesday evening.

Two key figures in former President Donald Trump’s election interference case found themselves on the ballot in Georgia:

• Prosecutor Fani Willis was challenged a second time by lawyer Christian Wise Smith, per The New York Times. Willis ended up besting her Democratic primary opponent and will face Republican Courtney Kramer in November.

• Scott McAfee, the presiding judge over Trump’s trial in Georgia, was challenged by civil rights attorney and radio host Robert Patillo II, the Times reports. He won his nonpartisan race.

Georgia’s reliably Republican 3rd District race had five GOP candidates in the running: Jim Bennett, Mike Crane, Mike Dugan, Brian Jack and Philip Singleton. Jack, who worked for Trump during the 2016 presidential election and was the former White House political director, had Trump’s endorsement. He was ahead Tuesday night, but didn’t cross the 50% threshold, so will face Mike Dugan in a runoff.

Oregon’s 3rd and 5th congressional district races

With the retirement of U.S. Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District had its first open Democratic primary since 1996.

Three Democrats competed in the race to replace Blumenauer, “Susheela Jayapal, a former county commissioner and the sister of Rep. Pramila Jayapal, as well as state Rep. Maxine Dexter and a Gresham city councilor, Eddy Morales,” the Times reports. Dexter won the race, pulling well ahead of second-place finisher Jayapal.

In Oregon’s 5th District, “which will likely be home to one of the most competitive races in the country,” per AP, Democrats hope to reclaim the district from the GOP, which flipped the district in 2022 with Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Congressional Democrats supported winning candidate Janelle Bynum, who they predicted can win in November, rather than Jamie McLeod-Skinner, AP reports.

“This is one of the big swing districts nationally that both parties are really looking for to hold on to, or recapture, the House,” Ben Gaskins, associate professor of political science at Lewis & Clark College, said of Oregon’s 5th District. “I think that the big question is, to what degree are the Democratic voters really going to prioritize electability?”

Presidential candidates on the ballot in Kentucky

Candidates who have already ended their 2024 presidential campaigns, such as Nikki Haley, Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy, were still on the ballot in Kentucky for primary elections. Although Kentucky is far from a swing state, this gave voters the opportunity to cast protest votes, per the Times. Trump ended up with 85% of the vote, while Haley captured 6%, with 95% of the votes in.

After his part in a recent unsuccessful attempt this month to remove Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who supported Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the failed ousting, did not anticipate any negative fallout, according to AP. He ended up winning his race handily.

“It’s a lot of inside baseball and ultimately, because he’s still the speaker, I think a lot of people don’t care,” Massie, who previously backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, said in a recent interview, per AP. Massie held onto Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District seat in the Republican primary, beating challenger Eric Deters, an avid Trump supporter.

Who will replace Kevin McCarthy in the House?

The winner of a a special election held in California’s 20th Congressional District was Republican Vince Fong, a California state assemblyman who had the support of Trump, according to CNN. He will serve out the remainder of McCarthy’s term, then will have to defend the seat again in November.