Results from most states have started to come in while West Coast polls remain open. Here’s what to know.

Incumbent Gov. Kristi Noem will win the South Dakota Republican nomination for governor, CNN projects.

Noem fended off a primary challenge from state Rep. Steve Haugaard. She is seeking a second term leading a red state that backed former President Donald Trump by 26 points in 2020.

Noem, a forceful champion of Trump, has been talked about as a potential running mate for the former President if he were to run again in 2024 and is considered a potential 2024 presidential contender herself. She raised more than $800,000 ahead of the primary, according to campaign finance reports. 

She has been outspoken on a number of issues, including Covid-19 restrictions and gun rights. Earlier this year, she accused President Joe Biden in a speech of projecting weakness on the world stage, saying he had been “wrong on every major foreign policy decision that he has been part of for almost 50 years” and charging that his leadership style has emboldened leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Though she has risen to the national spotlight, in South Dakota, Noem’s ambitions have been clouded by the controversy over a July 2020 meeting that she held with members of her staff, her daughter — who was applying to become a state-certified real estate appraiser at the time — and top state officials who oversaw that program.  

Noem also previously hired her daughter Kennedy Noem in 2018 as a policy analyst as Kennedy was graduating from college.

For the first time in Iowa history, both Democrats and Republicans in the state will have women as their nominees for governor. Incumbent GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds and Democrat Deidre DeJear were unopposed in their primaries Tuesday and advanced to the November general election, CNN projects.

Reynolds was the state lieutenant governor when she was elevated to the governorship after Gov. Terry Branstad resigned to become US ambassador to China under President Donald Trump. Reynolds was elected to a full term in 2018. She attracted national attention earlier this year when she gave the GOP response to President Biden’s State of the Union address.

DeJear was the losing Democratic nominee for Iowa secretary of state in 2018.

Reynolds is the favorite to win in November in a state that has trended red in recent elections.

In two New Jersey districts, Tuesday’s House primaries were a family affair. 

CNN projects that Robert Menendez Jr. — the son of Sen. Bob Menendez — will capture the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 8th District while Thomas Kean Jr. — the son of former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean — will win the GOP primary for New Jersey’s 7th District. 

Both candidates enjoyed high name recognition and strong polling numbers throughout their respective primaries. Sen. Bob Menendez has represented New Jersey in the Senate for over 15 years and chairs the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The older Kean, meanwhile, served as New Jersey’s governor from 1982 to 1990. Kean’s grandfather, former US Rep. Robert Kean, also represented New Jersey in Congress for 20 years. 

Menendez Jr. rebuffed questions about his father on the campaign trail, telling reporters it’s not something voters are concerned with and only describing his dad as a “trailblazing political leader” on his website without naming him.  

Kean Jr.’s campaign website leans more into his family’s political legacy, stating, “Tom’s allegiance to public service has been inspired by the proud heritage of the Kean family,” with the younger Kean committed to “continuing a legacy of dedicated public service to New Jersey.”

Menendez Jr. is an attorney and serves as Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey while Kean Jr. served as minority leader of the New Jersey state Senate until January.

It has been a year of difficult choices for families in California’s 22nd Congressional District — a place Democrats have long eyed as one of their top pickup opportunities as they look to hold onto the US House in this fall’s midterms. But as the Golden State contends with the highest gas prices in the nation, the financial pain felt by families is overshadowing every other issue as they weigh their choices in the primary election.

Yessenia Maldonado, a 46-year-old dental assistant and single mom of six, makes weekly calculations of what she must give up in exchange for one extra gallon of gas.

“Am I going to buy the milk for my kids or am I going to buy the gas to go to work? Because it’s kind of the same price,” she said during a recent grocery trip to Costco, adding that she now limits her drives to the essential trips.

Mary Conrad, 69, resorted to applying for food stamps as she tries to get by on her Social Security and disability checks.

What this means for Democrats: Many people say they don’t see anything happening in Washington to address their concerns. The frustration with the party in power is palpable, a foreboding sign for Democrats in districts like this one where the party had hoped their recruit, California state Assemblyman Rudy Salas, could unseat GOP Rep. David Valadao, who won his seat back in 2020 at the same time President Joe Biden was carrying it after losing it in 2018.

When the nonpartisan redistricting commission drew its final lines for the Golden State last year, Democrats viewed California as a treasure trove of opportunities with as many as eight to 10 competitive House races up and down the state. 

To Democratic strategists, Valadao initially looked even more vulnerable because he had voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021, insurrection, which angered some GOP voters. But out of the six House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump and are running for reelection, Valadao is the only one the former President has not yet endorsed against.

Democrats will be closely watching to see how Salas finishes in the primary as they try to determine whether their party’s voters are motivated to cast ballots in this sour economic climate.

With inflation showing no signs of abating — and gas prices in the state topping an average of $6.15 per gallon on Memorial Day — Democrats’ success increasingly hinges on the ability of candidates like Salas to show frustrated voters that they understand the economic pain and are trying to address it.

Read more about how gas prices and economic issues are dominating congressional races.

Incumbent Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will win the New Mexico Democratic nomination for governor, CNN projects.

Lujan Grisham, who became the first Democratic Latina to be elected governor in the United States in 2018, ran unopposed for the nomination.

After serving as the secretary of health under New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Lujan Grisham was elected to Congress in 2012. During her time on Capitol Hill, she chaired the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. She then opted to run for governor in 2018, when she easily defeated Republican Steve Pearce.

Republicans are looking at the general election as an opportunity to pick up a governor’s seat in a key border state, where immigration is an important issue. CNN has not yet projected in the Republican primary.

The Republican Governors Association has slammed Lujan Grisham over her response to the situation at the Southern US border as well as high inflation and Covid-19. Republicans have also attacked Lujan Grisham for controversy during his first term in office. Lujan Grisham and her gubernatorial campaign settled last year with a former staffer who accused the Democrat of sexually mistreating him during a meeting.

Lujan Grisham was once a leading contender to join the Biden administration as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, but the role ultimately went to Xavier Becerra, California’s first Latino attorney general.

Former Rep. Ryan Zinke, who left his seat for a scandal-plagued tenure as Trump’s interior secretary, is attempting a political comeback in Montana — but is facing familiar questions about whether he spends most of his time there or in California.

Zinke, a former Navy SEAL and Montana state senator who was first elected to the House in 2014 and reelected in 2016 before resigning to join Trump’s Cabinet, is seizing on an opening created when the 2020 census results handed the Treasure State a second congressional district. Rep. Matt Rosendale, who holds the state’s one at-large district seat, is running for reelection in the newly created 2nd District, while Zinke campaigns in the 1st District.

But Zinke is facing criticism from rivals to his right over whether he was sufficiently supportive of Trump and the former President’s effort to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.

He also faces questions about whether he lives in Montana after Politico reported last month that his wife had claimed a home in Santa Barbara, California, as her primary residence on tax records and other forms. Zinke’s campaign responded to the report by saying he lives in Whitefish, Montana, and that his wife had inherited and kept her parents’ former home in California, of which she is the sole owner.

Zinke faces four other candidates in Tuesday’s primary, including former state Sen. Albert Olszewski and pastor Mary Todd.

Read about Montana’s redistricting here.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew has won the GOP primary in New Jersey’s 2nd District, CNN projects, advancing to a general election bid for his third term in Congress. 

Van Drew’s win is another affirmation of his abrupt departure from the Democratic party in 2019. At the time, Van Drew cited his discomfort with impeaching then-President Donald Trump, though detractors cast the switch as a more craven political calculation to stay in power. 

That decision culminated in an Oval Office photo-op with Trump, where Van Drew pledged his “undying support” to the then-President. “I think they were very kind, very gracious, very nice, very supportive,” Van Drew said at the time about the Republican welcome to his change in affiliation. “And I appreciated that.”

Van Drew’s South Jersey seat became slightly more Republican in redistricting. While Trump carried it by 3 points in 2020, he would have carried the redrawn seat by 5 points.

It’s 9 p.m. ET, and polls are closing in New Mexico, Iowa and across South Dakota.

Here are the key races to know in each state:

In New Mexico, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham faces her first gubernatorial reelection campaign. Five Republicans are running to go up against her in the fall. Election officials can start processing and counting mail ballots before election day, so the first results released will likely be early votes.

In Iowa, former US Rep. Abby Finkenauer faces retired Navy Vice Adm. Mike Franken and Minden City Council Member Glenn Hurst in the Democratic primary to take on Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in November. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Democrat Deidre DeJear, who ran for Iowa secretary of state in 2018, are running unopposed in their gubernatorial primaries. And three of the state’s four US House members face competitive races this fall.

In South Dakota, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, a potential 2024 presidential contender, is running for reelection in the reliably red state. She faces a primary challenge from state Rep. Steven Haugaard, a former state House speaker.

Rep. Tom Malinowski will win the Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 7th District, CNN projects.

Malinowski narrowly won a second term in 2020 from an ancestrally Republican Central Jersey district that Biden carried by 10 points.

His GOP opponent in that race, Tom Kean Jr., the son of a popular former governor, is back for a rematch, with much-improved prospects in a swing seat that became more Republican in redistricting — Biden would have carried the new version by 4 points. Malinowski is also facing an ongoing congressional ethics investigation over allegations that he failed to properly disclose stock transactions.

Kean, a former state Senate minority leader, is viewed as the favorite in the GOP primary, which also includes pastor and 2021 gubernatorial candidate Phil Rizzo, state Assemblyman Erik Peterson and businessman John Isemann.

Malinowski was first elected in 2018, unseating Republican Rep. Leonard Lance by 5 points as Democrats flipped four seats in the Garden State amid that year’s blue wave. He held on to his seat two years later, beating Kean by just over a point.