South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mays won a tight race Tuesday, defeating an opponent backed by former Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Mace defeated Charleston-based District 1 attorney Kathryn Templeton, surpassing the majority needed to avoid a runoff, according to Associated Press projections. He led Mace Templeton with 41% of the vote, 57% to 29%, and Marine veteran Bill Young with 14%.
Mace’s role loomed large in the race as one of eight House Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy as House speaker in October. Templeton, who has faced millions of dollars in ad spending from outside groups aligned with the former California congressman and received financial support from McCarthy’s leadership PAC, said Mace’s vote is what drove him to enter the race.
But Donald Trump’s endorsement gave Mays a boost, despite his troubled past with the presumptive Republican nominee. Mace He warmly supported Trump In the 2024 presidential election, after the January 6, 2021 riot in the Capitol and after defeating a primary challenger backed by the former president in 2022, he urged the GOP to walk away from him.
Mace also favored Templeton and received on-air support from the conservative Progressive Action Club.
Mace was looking for a decisive victory, told NBC News over the weekend“I want to win bigger than ever on Tuesday night because I want to send a message to Washington that voters don’t care about DC” His campaign office is decorated with “60-40” signs, a sign of his desire for a large margin. this blocked the last flow.
Templeton, who previously served in then-Gov. Nikki Haley’s labor secretary denied McCarthy’s influence on the race.
“No one in South Carolina’s Lowcountry pays attention to Kevin McCarthy,” Templeton recently told NBC News.
McCarthy’s revenge tour against Republicans who voted to remove him as speaker will continue this summer. His affiliates have also spent money against GOP Reps. Bob Goode of Virginia and Eli Crane of Arizona ahead of the coming weeks’ primaries. McCarthy’s chief campaigner, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, also faces a primary challenger.
South Carolina’s 4th District also includes GOP Rep. William Timmons faces a hotly contested primary v. State Rep. Adam Morgan, who chairs the Legislative Freedom Caucus. Morgan is getting support from some of Timmons’ hardline House colleagues, turning the race into a proxy fight over internal divisions in the Republican conference. Trump endorsed Timmons in the primary.
Elsewhere in South Carolina, pastor Mark Burns and nurse Sheri Biggs are headed to a GOP primary runoff in two weeks to replace retiring Jeff Duncan.
Burns, who financed his campaign himself, won Trump’s support in the race. Trump too appeared in a television commercial It is reported that it was filmed at the Trump Tower in New York on the evening of April 19. Trump was in court that day for his silence trial.
Biggs, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, also partially financed his campaign.
The winner of the second round, which will be held on June 25, is expected to carry the crimson 3rd circle in November.
A marquee Senate race has begun in Nevada
Outside South Carolina, Nevada, North Dakota and Maine also held primaries on Tuesday. And Trump interfered in many key races.
Army veteran Sam Brown He won the Republican Senate primary in NevadaNBC News predicted that he has set up one of the biggest races of the year against Democratic Sen. Jackie Rosen.
Brown, who suffered catastrophic burns in an explosion while serving in Afghanistan, was the favorite to face Jeff Gunter, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Iceland.
Brown’s candidacy is a bit of a role reversal in 2022, when he ran unsuccessfully to the right of former Attorney General Adam Laxalt, the establishment’s pick in the Senate race. This time, Brown was backed by Trump, who endorsed him days before the election in a state that typically votes heavily by mail.
Trump also put his thumb on the scales in Nevada’s 4th District, endorsing former North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee in a race against Democrat Stephen Horsford.
In North Dakota, GOP Rep. Kelly Armstrong won the gubernatorial elections of his party, making him the clear favorite to succeed outgoing Republican Gov. Doug Burgum. Armstrong’s win is another win for Trump, who backed his bid against Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller. Burgum, a potential Trump running mate, endorsed Miller.
Armstrong will face Democratic state Sen. Merrill Piepkorn in the fall in a state that hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since the 1988 election.
Armstrong’s nomination for governor meant he could not run for re-election, creating an open primary for his seat. North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, backed by both Trump and Burgum, won the GOP nomination in the state’s at-large House district, the AP predicted.
Trump-backed state representative Austin Theriault has won the Republican primary in Maine’s 2nd District, according to AP projections. Theriault, a former NASCAR driver, will face top Republican target Rep. Jared Golden as one of five Democrats running for re-election in a district carried by Trump in 2020.
In addition to Tuesday’s primary races, voters in Ohio’s 6th District elected a new member of Congress to replace former GOP Rep. Bill Johnson, who resigned in January.
Republican state Sen. Michael Rulli won a special election in the district over Democrat Michael Kripczak and will serve out the remainder of Johnson’s term, according to NBC News. Once he’s sworn in, Republicans will have 219 members in the House, giving them a little more cushion in the narrowly divided chamber.
In the low-turnout special election, Rulli underperformed Republican incumbents, winning 55% of the vote to Kripchak’s 45%. According to estimates, Trump carried the district 64% to 35% in 2020 Daily Kos Elections. And Johnson won re-election in 2022, 68% to 32%.
Polls will close in South Carolina at 7:00 p.m., in Ohio at 7:30 p.m., in Maine at 8:00 p.m., in North Dakota at 9:00 p.m., and in Nevada at 10:00 p.m.