File image(Reuters)
Republican commentator Tudor Dixon won Michigan’s Republican gubernatorial primary to face incumbent Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer in November’s general election.
The Associated Press called the race for Dixon, who was backed by former President Donald Trump, with 24.4% of votes counted at 9:41 p.m. Meanwhile, John Gibbs, who is challenging incumbent Representative Peter Meijer, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US CAPitol, led 50.8% to 49.2% with 13.4% of ballots counted.
Michigan is a key battleground state that President Joe Biden carried in 2020 and that Trump won in 2016. The former president has endorsed 20 candidates in the state up and down the Republican ballot, with most of his hand-picked choices backing his debunked claims that the election was stoled from him.
There is much at stake for Michigan Republicans. Polls show Whitmer, whom the GOP had eyed as vulnerable, with a double-digit lead over Dixon. Further down the ballot, Democrats see a chance to take back the state Senate for the first time since 1984.
On the Democrat side of the primary is a key US House race, where centrist Democrat Haley Stevens led progressive candidate Andy Levin 57.7% to 42.3% with 33.1% of ballots cast, according to AP. Due to a redrawn district, the two incumbents are facing off over one seat.
Besides Michigan, primaries are taking place in Arizona, Kansas, Missouri and Washington.
Voters in Kansas are casting ballots on a proposed amendment that would add to the state constitution that there is no right to abortion -- a step that would free the Republican-controlled state Legislature to pass restrictions or an outright ban.
A "yes” vote on the proposed amendment would overrule a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision that found the state Constitution grants abortion rights.
Some 65.4% of voters said "no” with 47.2% of ballots counted, according to AP.
In Missouri, AP called the Republican US Senate primary for Eric Schmitt with 45.1% of the vote and 47% of ballots counted. On the Democrat side Trudy Busch Valentine, an heiress to the Busch beer fortune, had 44% of the vote, with 30.7% of ballots counted, according to AP.
