Election deniers, abortion rights and Trump’s influence are on the ballot tonight in several battleground states

Incumbent Democratic Sen. Patty Murray and Republican Tiffany Smiley will advance to the November election in Washington’s Senate race, CNN projects.

The state uses a “top two” primary system where candidates of all parties appear on the same ballot and the top two finishers advance to the general election.

Murray, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate who was first elected in 1992, is seeking a sixth term in office. 

Smiley was seen as the leading Republican candidate throughout the race and has the support of national Republicans. Washington voters, though, have not elected a Republican to the US Senate since 1994.

Incumbent Rep. Paul Gosar will win the GOP nomination for Arizona’s 9th Congressional District, CNN projects.

Gosar currently represents the 4th Congressional District but due to redistricting he is now running to represent the 9th Congressional District.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt accepted victory tonight as the Republican Senate nominee, declaring to cheering supporters that “Missouri needs a senator who wakes up every day to fight for them.”

Schmitt easily defeated Rep. Vicky Hartzler and former Gov. Eric Greitens in a contest that bitterly divided many Missouri Republicans. He implored the party to unify, saying “For those who didn’t vote for me, I welcome you to join my campaign.”

In his victory speech, Schmitt did not mention former President Donald Trump, who called to congratulate him shortly before taking stage. He also did not mention Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who he has said he would not support as the party’s Senate leader.

Missouri voters delivered a resounding rejection of Gretein’s attempt at a political comeback. His defeat came as a relief to many Republicans who believed Greitens would endanger the party’s effort to win control of the Senate.

“Here’s the truth. We’re just one election away from turning this country around,” Schmitt said. “This election can change the course of the country and save the republic.”

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs will win the Democratic nomination for governor, CNN projects, potentially setting the stage for a November general election focused on the integrity of the state’s largely mail-in election system. 

Hobbs is seeking to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. 

She was heavily favored against Marco Lopez, the former mayor of Nogales who worked as the head of former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano’s commerce department and later, as chief of staff for US Customs and Border Protection during Napolitano’s tenure as Homeland Security secretary. 

Hobbs emerged as a national figure as she defended Arizona’s 2020 election results against a raft of unfounded conspiracy theories advanced by former President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters in the state. 

Republicans in the Arizona Senate commissioned a partisan review of the 2020 results in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix. That review did not change the reality that now-President Biden won in 2020. Cyber Ninjas, the inexperienced company hired to conduct the review, and its subcontractors cast doubt on the veracity of tens of thousands of votes, though elections experts immediately pointed out Cyber Ninjas’ errors. Still, election deniers seized on the partisan review to advance their false claim that Trump was the victim of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. 

Hobbs has signaled she will focus on the issue of election integrity in November. Over the weekend, in an op-ed in The Arizona Republic, the state’s largest newspaper, Hobbs said that lies about election fraud have led to threats against local elections workers and placed a burden on law enforcement officers who she said are now on “high alert.” 

“This is not a partisan issue,” Hobbs wrote. “These attacks are happening because radical conspiracy theorists have spotted the gaps in our voting rights and election laws and are using loopholes like the Civil War-era Electoral Count Act to manipulate our democracy to their will.”

Tudor Dixon took the stage to deliver her victory speech as the projected Republican nominee for governor in Michigan, and wasted no time taking aim at her Democratic opponent.                                                                    

“Now we have the opportunity to truly hold Gretchen Whitmer accountable for the pain she has inflicted upon each and every one of us during the past four years,” Dixon said. 

After a prolonged Republican primary, Dixon defeated a crowded field of opponents, including businessman Kevin Rinke, chiropractor Garrett Soldano, real estate broker Ryan Kelley and pastor Ralph Rebrandt. Dixon – who had been panned by opponents as the establishment candidate in the race – picked up an endorsement from former President Donald Trump just days before the primary election and sailed to victory. 

She used her speech Tuesday evening to thank supporters and double down on her core campaign planks. She vowed to improve the state’s education system, make Michigan cities safer and boost job creators in the state. 

“I have watched as our state, our people, have lost their jobs, their life savings and their promised futures. I’ve talked to countless people who feel less safe in their communities and whose kids were locked out of their classrooms,” Dixon said, “It’s unacceptable. And frankly, Michigan, we deserve better.”

She also tied Whitmer to Democratic President Biden, blaming both of them for the signs of economic weakness plaguing the economy. 

As she the first-time politician prepares to take on Whitmer this fall, Dixon aimed to reassure supporters that she’s ready for a tough fight. 

“Our work isn’t finished. My friends, we are just getting started and I hear it’s gonna be a rough ride,” Dixon said.

It’s 11 p.m. ET and polls are closing across Washington state.

The state is holding a Senate primary where Democrat Sen. Patty Murray is seeking another term and is expected to face Republican Tiffany Smiley, but the big races will be in 3rd and 4th Congressional Districts where Republicans who voted to impeach Trump face challengers backed by the former president. 

The state uses a “top two” primary system where candidates of all parties appear on the same ballot and the top two finishers advance to the general election. 

Additionally, all Washington voters are mailed a ballot ahead of Election Day. Ballots are mailed starting July 15. Ballots can be counted if they’re postmarked by Election Day and received by Aug. 15. 

Here are more key things to know about the races we are tracking in the state:

Read more about today’s races here.

Incumbent Rep. Rashida Tlaib will win the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s 12th Congressional District, CNN projects.

Tlaib, a member of the “squad” of House progressives, faced a number of primary challengers, including Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, Lathrup Village Mayor Kelly Garrett and former state Rep. Shanelle Jackson.

Tlaib was first elected in 2018 and is the first Palestinian American woman to serve in Congress. She and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar were also the first two Muslim women elected to Congress.

Kansas voters have decided to maintain the right to an abortion in their state’s constitution by voting “no” on a proposed constitutional amendment, CNN projects.

It was the first popular vote on abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June.

The vote comes after a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling found the state constitution does protect the right to an abortion. A “yes” vote on the amendment would have removed the right to abortion from the state constitution, while a “no” vote maintains it.

The proposed amendment stated: “Because Kansans value both women and children, the Constitution of the state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion.”  

Abortion is currently legal up to 22 weeks in Kansas, making the state as haven for women seeking the procedure in nearby states that have rolled back abortion rights. In response, anti-abortion and Republican groups pushed to change the state’s constitution to specify that the state does not guarantee the right to the procedure and open the door to similar strict laws in Kansas.

Pro-choice organizations responded with a widespread get-out-the-vote effort, viewing the fight as a test for abortion politics in a post-Roe era. And the victory on Tuesday represents a significant moment in the ever-changing fight over abortion rights, offering these groups a victory just weeks after they were dealt a crushing defeat by the Supreme Court.

Polls have consistently shown that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is broadly unpopular. A CNN poll released in late July found nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the Supreme Court decision, with even 55% of self-identified moderate or liberal Republicans saying they disapproved of the decision. But the results on Tuesday, the first electoral test of abortion rights after the Supreme Court decision, put an even finer point on that sentiment.

“This is further proof of what poll after poll has told us: Americans support abortion rights,” said Christina Reynolds, a top operative for Emily’s List, an organization that looks to elect pro-choice women. “They believe we should be able to make our own health care decisions, and they will vote accordingly, even in the face of misleading campaigns.”

The “no” victory leaves the state constitution unchanged. While lawmakers in the state can still try to pass restrictive abortion laws, courts in Kansas have recognized a right to abortion under the state constitution. Lawmakers had passed a restrictive abortion law in 2015, but it was permanently blocked by the courts.

The “yes” vote would have amended the state’s constitution to say Kansas “does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion.” The vote would not have banned abortion outright, but it would have opened the door to the procedure being banned, especially considering Republicans control both chambers of the state’s legislature and almost every top office except for governor, which is held by Democrat Laura Kelly.

Kelly, who planned to vote no on the measure, warned that a “yes” vote would mean “the Legislature would immediately come back with some very severe restrictions on a woman’s ability to control her own fate.”

In addition to the win, Democrats have been enthused by the significant turnout.

The issue was placed on the primary ballot, rather than the general election, which abortion rights advocates believe was intended to limit turnout. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in the state by more than 350,000, according to the latest figures from the Kansas Secretary of State’s office.

But the victory — along with the increased turnout — is yet another signal that abortion can be a motivating factor for voters in a red state, a critical question as Democrats heads into what could be a trying midterm election.

Rep. Haley Stevens will win the Democratic nomination for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District, CNN projects. 

Redistricting led to an incumbent vs. incumbent all-Democratic face-off in the district between Stevens and Rep. Andy Levin. Both lawmakers were first elected in 2018.

Levin was generally considered the more progressive candidate in the race, but the Stevens campaign had tried to downplay the ideological differences between the two.  

Still, the race became one of the key battlegrounds in the Democratic Party’s evolving rift over Israel and overlapping debates about Democrats’ broader ideological direction. 

Stevens, who is not Jewish, benefited from spending by the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the more hawkish American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, while Levin, who is Jewish, had the backing of the campaign arm of J-Street, a moderate “pro-Israel, pro-peace” group.

High-profile Democrats weighed in on the race, with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsing Stevens and Levin securing the support of Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. 

Stevens will be heavily favored in the fall against Republican nominee Mark Ambrose in a district that would have backed Biden by 20 points.