Results from Tuesday night's primary elections across the country are starting to trickle in, from an upset in Iowa to some hotly contested clashes in California.
Here's the latest:
CALIFORNIA'S NEXT GOVERNOR?
California's gubernatorial race remains too early to call with many ballots still left to be counted.
Three candidates have emerged at the top of the California governor's race: Republican and former Fox News host Steve Hilton, as well as Democratic candidates Xavier Becerra and Tom Steyer. Trump-endorsed Hilton is leading the field, with Becerra — a former Biden administration health official — trailing closely behind. As for Steyer, it doesn't appear the hundreds of millions of dollars he sunk into his campaign is going to pay off, as he sits in a distant third.
THE RACE FOR MAYOR OF LA
In Los Angeles, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass is looking to earn a second term as she faces a tight race against challengers from both sides of the political aisle. Spencer Pratt, a Republican and former MTV reality star, trails closely behind Bass as ballots continue to trickle in. Nithya Raman, a former Bass ally endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, currently sits in third place.
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Scripps News Political Director Andrew Rafferty noted that Pratt's success as a Republican running in a Democratic stronghold may come as a surprise, but pointed to the national support he received in the lead-up to the election.
"[Pratt] really got a lot of national attention outside of just Los Angeles — part of it for some AI ads that were meant to boost his candidacy, though not all of them came directly from his campaign," Rafferty said. "His rhetoric, his sort of style — maybe akin to Donald Trump. The comparisons are there because he does have that background in television, he is running as a Republican and he does have this sort of outspoken, tell it how it is-ness to his campaign."
Rafferty noted that Pratt's success is not all bad news for Bass, who has earned enough of the vote to advance to a November runoff. The question now is who will join her as late-arriving mail and drop-off ballots continue to come in.
TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATE LOSES IN IOWA
Facing a rare primary season setback, President Trump's pick for the Iowa gubernatorial race, Rep. Randy Feenstra, fell short to fellow Republican Zach Lahn. But Lahn isn't exactly an anti-Trump Republican. Rafferty noted that he was endorsed by the late Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA and was also embraced by the Make America Healthy Again movement for his stances on pesticides and the U.S. healthcare system.
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IOWA DEMS RALLY BEHIND PARALYMPIAN
On the Democratic side of Iowa's U.S. Senate race, state Rep. Josh Turek defeated state Sen. Zach Wahls to win the party's nomination. Turek played professional wheelchair basketball in Europe and represented Team USA in four Paralympic Games, including as recently as 2021, before winning his state House seat a year later. He will now attempt to flip a seat currently held by Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, who announced she is retiring from office. Trump-endorsed Rep. Ashley Hinson secured the Republican nomination for that Senate seat, handily defeating former state Sen. Jim Carlin.
