President Donald Trump's endorsements reshaped Republican primaries across five states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday, elevating candidates who supported his 2020 election challenges and threatening local democratic autonomy in the nation's capital, while voters in Georgia chose between billionaire self-funding and establishment politics in contests that will determine Senate control and the future of voting rights.
Georgia Senate Race: MAGA Warrior vs. National Embarrassment
In Georgia, Trump-backed Rep. Mike Collins won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate and will face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November. Collins, a second-term congressman, defeated Derek Dooley. Collins has identified closely with Trump since he first won his House seat in 2022. A trucking company owner and son of a congressman, Collins campaigned as a self-described "MAGA warrior." Trump endorsed Collins on Sunday. Collins will face Ossoff for a seat that will help determine control of the Senate for the final years of Trump's second presidency. Ossoff was first elected in 2020 and has called Trump a "national embarrassment."
Collins sponsored the 2025 Laken Riley Act, named for a Georgia nursing student killed by a man in the U.S. illegally. The law requires immigrants charged with certain crimes to be held without bond. Ossoff voted against an initial version but backed it after Trump returned to power. Retired software engineer James Haddad, who emigrated from Jordan and became a U.S. citizen in 1983, backed Collins because of Collins' hardline approach on immigration. Haddad said, "I'm an immigrant, but I'm a legal immigrant. Just follow the law." He said, "The congressman is a good American who puts America first." Haddad said, "It's unfortunate that some immigrants have ruined it for others."
Governor Runoff: Wealth vs. Loyalty
In Georgia's governor runoff, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who had Trump's backing, faced billionaire businessman Rick Jackson. Trump endorsed Jones and repeatedly praised Jones' loyalty. Jones was part of Trump's attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden. Trump wrote on Truth Social on the eve of the runoff, "Burt was strongly committed to my Campaign in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and worked tirelessly to help us WIN. He has been with us from the very beginning."
Jackson, a 71-year-old businessman, has spent more than $93 million of his own money on the race and said he had spent nearly $100 million of his own money because his wealth was "God's money" that he directs "the best I can." He said, "I want our kids, our foster kids and everybody else, to have hope, you know," and, "I have lived in poverty. When you, when you have not eaten, you never forget that you don't forget the people that are struggling." Jackson also said in ads that migrants who are in Georgia illegally and commit crimes will be "deported or departed." Jones finished first with 38% and Jackson second with 33% in the May 19 primary.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was playing an insider-outsider game. Kemp passed on a Senate bid and recruited his former football coach Derek Dooley. Kemp spent months saying it would take an "outsider" to defeat Ossoff in November. Until Sunday, Kemp sat out the Republican tussle to be his successor. That runoff pitted the sitting lieutenant governor against a first-time candidate. Rick Jackson labeled himself an "outsider" in his ads and plastered the word on his campaign tour bus. Yet Kemp opted for Burt Jones, the Capitol insider. Campaigning with Jones on Monday, Kemp said there was no contradiction in his message, arguing that Georgia state government has been run by Republicans for a generation and things are great, while in Washington, where Dooley would go, Congress is often deadlocked and has atrocious approval ratings.
Two original tea party organizers, Jenny Beth Martin and Debbie Dooley, took different sides in the Senate runoff. Martin backed Collins, while Dooley supported Derek Dooley. Martin said energizing the conservative base was necessary to protect Republican majorities that aren't populated with Republican "anti-Trumpers" or "liberals like Jon Ossoff." Dooley said Collins had too much baggage and hard-right ties to win and predicted, "He will drag down the whole Republican ticket in Georgia." She added, "This is about actually winning. It's not about just following Donald Trump." In 2016, Dooley backed Trump from the start and Martin backed Ted Cruz for the GOP nomination.
Alabama and Oklahoma: Trump Endorsements Prevail
Trump's endorsement power was also tested in Alabama, where U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, a three-term congressman, faced former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson in the GOP runoff for the state's open Senate seat. Trump endorsed Moore early in the campaign and held a telephone rally for him last week. Hudson, a political newcomer, tried to depict Moore as a political insider and urged voters to send an outsider to Washington. The winner will face the Democratic nominee in November. In the Democratic runoff, business owner Dakarai Larriett and lawyer Everett Wess sought the nomination for the open Senate seat.
Julian Metheny, 70, said of Hudson, "I like the fact that he was willing to put his life on the line for our country," and, "He's not playing the game of politics. He's an outsider." Bob Marshall, 91, said of Moore, "He's the best qualified, I can tell you that — no question." Jim Cowen said, "I like the way Moore presents himself. I don't know Jared," referring to Hudson.
In Oklahoma, Trump-backed Rep. Kevin Hern won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Hern, a four-term congressman, received more than 50% of the vote in a five-person field to avoid an August runoff after Trump's support kept his most serious potential rivals out of the race. Hern is seeking the Senate seat once held by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Democrats have not won a U.S. Senate race in Oklahoma since 1990.
Trump last month endorsed former state Sen. Mike Mazzei in the crowded governor's race, where Attorney General Gentner Drummond, former Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall and Chip Keating, the state's former public safety director, were also running. Nearly 72% of the cash raised by the four leading Republican candidates for governor through last month came from their own pockets, according to finance reports filed with the state Ethics Commission. Their contributions were $22.5 million of the $31.4 million they raised in cash. Mazzei put in $10.9 million, nearly 95% of the $11.5 million he raised. The figures were 76% for McCall, $5.6 million of $7.4 million; 66% for Keating, $3.5 million of $5.3 million; and 35% for Drummond, or $2.5 million of $7.2 million.
Washington D.C.: Democracy Under Federal Threat
In Washington, D.C., voters were selecting party candidates for mayor and the district's delegate to Congress in a city where Trump has exercised broad power. The primary marked the first time in a generation that D.C. residents voted for a new mayor and delegate in the same election. Muriel Bowser, first elected in 2014, decided not to seek a fourth term. Democratic front-runners Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie sought to replace her. The district's long-serving congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, was stepping down after finishing her 18th term. Top candidates for the delegate race were council member Brooke Pinto and at-large council member Robert White Jr. Republican Denise Rosado, an immigration lawyer, was running unopposed.
The primary used ranked choice voting for the first time, and election officials warned it could delay results for days. Trump last week threatened a new federal takeover of Washington when asked about a potential victory by Lewis George, saying, "Maybe we'd take back Washington, run it on the federal basis." McDuffie said it was "the most consequential election of our lifetime," because there is a president who "wants to infringe on our local autonomy. So we have to get this right."
Lewis George said her top priority was addressing "the affordability crisis here in DC, which the Trump administration has only made worse by unjustly firing federal employees en masse and militarizing our streets." McDuffie said his top priority was public safety and that he would add 1,000 police officers over four years and take a public health approach to violence reduction that would include focusing on mental health.
Fran Tatu, 69, said, "What's at stake — many young lives with the surge of federal officers by Trump and all of the troops that are here," and said she was voting for Lewis George and White. White said, "I got to go to the place where that fight is." Pinto said, "Home Rule is not just a D.C. issue: it's a democratic principle." Tatu said, "Many years she's been in the streets with us activating, getting out there, with us in the movements standing up for the rights for all." Tatu said she also supported White in his contest to replace Norton.
Other candidates for mayor included former council member Vincent Orange and Hope Solomon, a former federal contractor who lost her job because of cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency. Other candidates seeking the Democratic spot on the ticket included Trent Holbrook, a former Norton staffer; Kinney Zalesne, the former Deputy National Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee; and Gregory Jaczko, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Election Integrity Debates in Georgia
In Georgia's secretary of state race, the first open election for the seat since Brad Raffensperger resisted Trump's request to "find 11,780 votes" to overtake Joe Biden, Republicans chose between Vernon Jones and state Rep. Tim Fleming. Jones, who was previously elected to the statehouse as a Democrat but switched parties and aligned himself with Trump, said he believed there were "irregularities" and "violations" and that he stood "with those who believe there was election fraud." Of four key points on Jones' campaign platform, three had to do with election management, including stronger voter identification rules and requiring voting in person with limited exceptions.
Fleming said there were "irregularities" in 2020 but added he was "not running on conspiracy theories." Of the seven platform points on his campaign website, four were focused on election management and one said the state should "make it impossible for the Left to cheat in our elections." Democrats chose between Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner, and Penny Brown Reynolds, a former state judge in Fulton County who also served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights for the Department of Agriculture.
California Special Election After Resignation
In California, the special election to fill former Rep. Eric Swalwell's term after his resignation drew candidates for a seat that will be filled until January. Swalwell stepped down in April after a woman alleged he had sexually assaulted her twice, saying she was too intoxicated to consent to sex in both cases. Swalwell denied the accusations, dropped out of the race for California governor and resigned from Congress.
The special primary would decide the top two candidates for the special general election on Aug. 18, unless one candidate received more than 50% of the vote. Democratic candidates included state Sen. Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez, a Bay Area Rapid Transit director. Wahab focused on housing costs and consumer protections such as banning junk fees and was endorsed by the state Democratic Party. Hernandez, a former mayor of the East Bay city of Dublin, said she would tackle high costs by supporting small businesses and helping create jobs and emphasized expanding access to healthcare and childcare. Both candidates also ran in the regular primary election for Swalwell's seat and would face off in the general election in November.
Republican candidates Wendy Huang and Dena Maldonado were also running in the special election. Huang is a real estate investor with past experience working in Silicon Valley and said artificial intelligence would be a defining part of the economy. She focused on reducing the cost of housing and prescription drugs. Maldonado, who runs a floral business, said she wanted to stop insider trading in Congress, protect the Second Amendment, install term limits and stop "endless wars." She framed her decision to run around bringing transparency to what happens in the nation's capital and how taxpayer dollars are spent. The top-two primary is nonpartisan, and any Republican making it through to the special general election would have a tough time winning in a seat that has been safely Democratic.
Polls closed in Alabama, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C., at 8 p.m. ET, and in Georgia at 7 p.m. ET. In Alabama's GOP U.S. Senate primary on May 19, the AP first reported results at 8:28 p.m. ET, or 28 minutes after polls closed, and the last vote update of the night was at 12:54 a.m. ET, with more than 99.9% of total votes counted. In the 2022 Oklahoma state primary, the AP first reported results at 8:10 p.m. ET, or 10 minutes after polls closed, and by 10:30 p.m. ET more than 90% of the votes had been counted. The last vote update of the night was at 12:33 a.m. ET, with about 99.9% of total votes counted. In the 2022 primary election in Washington, D.C., the AP first reported results at 8:30 p.m. ET, or 30 minutes after polls closed, and the last vote update of the night was at 11:59 p.m. ET, with about 69% of total votes counted. The District's new ranked choice voting system was expected to extend the timeline for any races that advanced to ranked choice tabulation.
Why This Matters:
Tuesday's primaries revealed the continuing influence of personal wealth and presidential endorsements in shaping American democracy, with implications for Senate control, voting rights protections, and local autonomy. In Georgia, candidates who participated in efforts to overturn the 2020 election advanced to positions where they could oversee future elections and represent the state in the Senate during critical votes on democratic institutions. The secretary of state race, the first open contest since Brad Raffensperger resisted Trump's request to "find 11,780 votes," will determine who administers Georgia elections going forward, with both Republican candidates emphasizing restrictions that could affect voter access. In Washington, D.C., Trump's threat of federal takeover last week underscored the stakes for residents seeking to preserve Home Rule against executive overreach, while candidates emphasized the affordability crisis worsened by mass federal layoffs and the militarization of city streets. The dominance of self-funding candidates in Oklahoma's governor race, where nearly three-quarters of campaign cash came from candidates' own wealth, raises questions about whose voices are heard in democratic contests. These races will shape not only Senate control but also the protection of voting rights, local democratic governance, and the ability of working families to participate meaningfully in the political process.