Jim Marchant, vocal proponent of election lies, will win the GOP secretary of state primary in Nevada

Jim Marchant will win the Republican nomination for secretary of state in Nevada, CNN projects.

Marchant, a former state assemblyman and 2020 congressional candidate, has been a vocal proponent of election lies, even saying on his website that his number one priority will be to “overhaul the fraudulent election system in Nevada.”  

After Marchant lost a 2020 congressional bid to Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford, he brought a lawsuit claiming voter fraud, but it was later dismissed.

Adam Laxalt will win the Nevada Republican nomination for Senate, CNN projects.

The former state attorney general is backed by a long list of conservative leaders, including former President Donald Trump (Laxalt joined a lawsuit to challenge the 2020 election results in Nevada).

Laxalt won the nomination over Army veteran Sam Brown, who suffered severe burns while serving in Afghanistan and won the state party’s endorsement.

In a debate last month the two candidates clashed over election integrity, with Laxalt dismissing Brown’s attacks that he hadn’t done enough to combat voter fraud as attorney general or in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Laxalt will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto in the general election.

Democrat Rep. Susie Lee and Republican April Becker will win their respective primaries in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, CNN projects.

The two will face each other in the general election in November.

Incumbent Gov. Steve Sisolak will win the Democratic gubernatorial primary in Nevada, CNN projects.

He’s served as governor since 2019. Sisolak is seen as one of the most endangered incumbents in the country, governing a state where President Biden won by less than 3 points in 2020.

Incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto will win the Nevada Democratic nomination, CNN projects.

Cortez Masto ran unopposed in Tuesday’s primary, but she faces a tough race in November. She is one of the most endangered Senate Democrats running this year, looking to carry a state President Biden won by less than 3 points in 2020.

In the South Carolina Democratic Senate primary, Catherine Fleming Bruce will advance to a June 28 runoff against an opponent to be determined, CNN projects.

Democrat Dan Sanchez has conceded the special election for Texas’ 34th Congressional District to Republican Mayra Flores.

A Flores win would give Republicans an additional seat in the House and allow her to finish the term of former Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela.

Flores would be the first Mexican-born member of Congress. She benefited from significant investment by national Republicans and relative indifference from Democrats, who were outspent by an estimated 20-to-1 margin. 

Republicans zeroed in on the race as part of an effort to project growing strength with moderate and conservative Hispanic voters in South Texas. But Flores’ stay on Capitol Hill might be a short one — she will be up for election for a full term in November against incumbent Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who is shifting from his 15th Congressional District to the newly drawn 34th, which is considerably friendlier to Democrats.

“A Democrat will represent TX-34 in January. If Republicans spend money on a seat that is out of their reach in November, great,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Monica Robinson told CNN before the special election. The DCCC dipped into the race late, spending $100,000 on digital ads earlier this month.

The lack of support for Sanchez frustrated Gonzalez, who told Politico weeks ago that it would “be a tragedy” if the seat turned red for any amount of time. In a statement earlier Tuesday, he welcomed the late interest in the contest, but demanded more.

“I’m pleased to see Democrats mobilizing around this race,” he told CNN, “but South Texas needs sustained investment from the party.” 

Sanchez, in a statement conceding the race hours later, was less diplomatic. He expressed confidence that Gonzalez would win in November and denounced “out of state interests” for financially backing Flores, but also called out his own party.

“Too many factors were against us,” former Cameron County commissioner said, “including too little to no support from the National Democratic Party and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.”

Republicans and allied outside groups made more significant commitments to Flores, using the campaign to give her a headstart in the fall and, beyond the district’s shifting borders, help bolster their broader attacks on national Democrats. 

“This election will show that voters in Texas’ 34th District are tired of Democrats’ incompetence at the border and record-high inflation,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Torunn Sinclair said before Election Day. “Texans and voters across the country know Democrat policies are making their lives worse, and will vote Republican.”

Whether Flores’ victory portends much for the coming general election is difficult to predict. Democrats and other observers, including Sanchez’s team, were confident the race would, at worst, go to a runoff. What’s clear, though, is that Vela’s decision to resign in order to take a job as a lobbyist has created another headache for House Democrats’ already slim majority.  

Moments before Russell Fry came out to declare victory in his Republican primary challenge to Rep. Tom Rice, the crowd at 8th Avenue Tiki Bar and Grill began the chant: “Fry that Rice! Fry that Rice! Fry that Rice!”

Fry, a state representative who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, looked surprised when he approached the podium just before 11 p.m. ET. The crowd, less buttoned-up than those at Rice’s party across town, waved signs and bore MAGA-style red ball caps in celebration.

“Today was supposed to be about a runoff,” Fry began.

“Run him off!” yelled someone in the crowd. “Run him out,” yelled another.

But Fry informed the crowd that Rice — who had voted to impeach Trump and earned the wrath of the former president — had just called to concede the race. 

Fry told reporters he spoke to Trump earlier in the day but not since he had learned he would avoid a runoff against Rice and win the crowded GOP primary, as CNN has now projected. But he gave Trump plenty of credit for his big win.

“We always felt we could outwork everybody. We always felt that with a little bit of groundwork we could be competitive. But President Trump’s endorsement made this a very strong race for our campaign,” Fry said.

South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace will win the GOP nomination in the 1st Congressional District, CNN projects

Mace flipped the district in 2020, defeating Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham. In this primary, she faced a challenge from former conservative state Rep. Katie Arrington, who was making her second run for the seat.

Mace’s victory came as another House Republican who had drawn Trump’s ire, Rep. Tom Rice, was ousted the primary in his Pee Dee district.

Rice was one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump. Mace was sharply critical of the former President, saying the day after the storming of the Capitol on CNN that “his entire legacy was wiped out yesterday,” but she did not vote to impeach him.

Since then, Mace has tacked to the right. The month after the insurrection, she picked a Twitter fight with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, mischaracterizing the New York Democrat’s comments about the threat posed by rioters. 

Trump endorsed Arrington. But Mace had high-profile cover in South Carolina, too, with former Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s US ambassador to the United Nations, endorsing her and appearing in ads.

Mace, in winning Tuesday’s primary, joins a small group of Republicans who have survived Trump’s efforts at revenge. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger both defeated Trump-backed incumbents in last month’s primary.