A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Another round of primaries offer a glimpse into the midterm landscape.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Last night, President Trump's pick for governor of Iowa lost his race. The loss is a blow for Trump, who has seen almost all of his chosen candidates this cycle sail to victory or advance to runoff elections. Democratic voters chose candidates they hope give them the best shot at flipping congressional seats in November.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR political reporter Stephen Fowler has been watching all the primaries for us. He's here with some pretty important takeaways. So let's start with Iowa, a state with a number of competitive races in November. What do the matchups look like?
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Well, Democrats chose their nominee for U.S. Senate. Republicans chose their pick for governor. Three of the four House races are indeed viewed as the few competitive races in November. For Senate, the nominee is statehouse Representative Josh Turek. He's a Paralympian who holds a seat that voted for Trump and argued that his background and campaign strategy is the best way for Democrats to win in a red state. Primary voters agree, picking him over a progressive state senator by a 2-1 margin. Turek now faces Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, who had a nominal challenger in her race.
MARTÍNEZ: What about Iowa's governor's race?
FOWLER: Rob Sand is the Democratic nominee. He ran unopposed and is the only statewide Democratic elected official. While Trump endorsed Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra, ultimately, The Associated Press called the race for businessman Zach Lahn in a narrow victory that also allowed Iowa Republican voters to signal displeasure with the president. That race starts out as a true toss-up for November.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. Now Montana, another red state where Democrats are hopeful they could capitalize on Trump's unpopularity.
FOWLER: Montana's 1st District is an open race where Democrats see a shot in this particular political environment where Trump has lost a little bit of support from Republicans and a lot of it from basically everyone else. The Senate race is another interesting one there. That's because of a candidate who wasn't on the ballot yesterday. Independent Seth Bodnar outraised the Trump-backed U.S. attorney and all of the Democratic candidates in another race worth watching.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So I'm in California. It takes a little while to count all the votes here, thanks to the state's mail-in voting laws. Anything, though, that we do know based on what's been tallied so far?
FOWLER: Well, as you also know, in California, the top two advance to the general election regardless of party. So for the governor's race, we do know that almost all of the 60 candidates on the ballot won't make that short list. Sorry, Barack D. Obama Shaw and LivingForGod AndCountry DeMott. There is a three-person race for the top two spots - billionaire Tom Steyer, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and former Fox News host Steve Hilton, a Republican backed by Trump. This is important because it's possible that the two Democrats advance, leaving Republicans without a top-of-the-ticket champion to help them with some House races affected by redistricting.
MARTÍNEZ: The past few weeks, we've been tracking the incumbents in both parties who have lost their primary. Anyone else to add to the list?
FOWLER: Well, there are a number of older California incumbent Democrats who face challenges from younger candidates who want generational change. So far, those older incumbents are all in first place, but November is a long way away. After California redrew their lines late last year, several California Republicans are finding themselves in much more difficult races. Some of them retired. One became an independent. And then there's Ken Calvert and Young Kim. These two Republican lawmakers were drawn together in the nationwide redistricting war and will face off in November.
And in the South Dakota Republican governor's primary, the front-runner heading into a runoff there is a political outsider who finished ahead of the incumbent governor, the state's sole House representative and speaker of the statehouse in a tight four-way race.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That is NPR political reporter Stephen Fowler. Stephen, thanks.
FOWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
