Tomorrow’s marquee political event will, of course, be the first debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. But Tuesday will also be the final primary day of the 2024 election cycle, with voters in New Hampshire, Delaware and Rhode Island casting ballots for down-ballot contests.
Here are a few worth keeping an eye on:
Battleground governor’s race: Tuesday’s primaries will set up the matchup for one of just two gubernatorial races in presidential battleground states this year (the other being North Carolina).
On the Republican side, former Sen. Kelly Ayotte is the leading candidate in the race to replace outgoing Gov. Chris Sununu. Her main opponent is former state Senate President Chuck Morse, who has attempted to attack Ayotte as insufficiently loyal to Trump.
As for the Democrats, former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig is facing off against Cinde Warmington, a former health care lobbyist and a member of the state’s Executive Council, in what polls show is a relatively close race.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter has rated the general election as a “toss up.”
Democratic divisions in New Hampshire: The Granite State is also hosting one of the most bitter Democratic House primaries of the year, a contest that has split the loyalties of key party power brokers.
Maggie Goodlander, a former senior official in the Biden White House and the Justice Department, and Colin Van Ostern, a former member of the state Executive Council, are squaring off for the seat held by Rep. Annie Kuster, who’s retiring after six terms.
The two have traded increasingly sharp attacks over who would be a better champion for reproductive rights and the influence of outside money, with campaigns and groups combining to spend $3.5 million on the race.
Goodlander, who is married to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, is backed by national figures like Hillary Clinton and EMILY’s List, while Van Ostern touts support from Kuster and other local party officials. However, former Gov. John Lynch recently switched his endorsement from Van Ostern to Goodlander, citing “the tension and the nastiness” of the campaign.
The winner of the primary will enter the general election as the favorite in the blue-leaning 2nd District.
Breaking barriers in Delaware: State Sen. Sarah McBride is expected to take another step toward becoming the first transgender person elected to Congress. She is the heavy favorite in the Democratic primary for Delaware’s at-large congressional district, raking in campaign cash and winning endorsements from key party officials.
If McBride wins the Democratic nomination as expected, she will be the clear front-runner to win the deep-blue Delaware seat in November. McBride has already broken several barriers: She was the first out trans individual to speak at a Democratic National Convention in 2016, and became the first out trans state senator in the country in 2021.
McBride is running for the seat currently occupied by another history-making Delaware Democrat, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is seeking the Senate seat Sen. Tom Carper is vacating. Blunt Rochester became the first woman and the first Black person to represent Delaware in Congress after her 2016 election.
Now she’s running unopposed for the Democratic Senate nomination and will likely coast to victory this fall. Blunt Rochester and Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks are seeking to add to the ranks of Black women who have served in the Senate, currently at just three.