Posted June 8, 2022 | by KimS | in 2022 Election Calendar, DemDaily, Elections, Gubernatorial, House, Senate

DemDaily: Primary Results: CA, IA, MS, MT, NJ, NM, SD

June 8, 2022

Seven states held primaries yesterday, including California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota.

CALIFORNIA
Under California's universal mail-in voting system, where ballots postmarked on election day will be accepted for seven days after the election, only 50% of the vote in a majority of the races has been counted. DemList will provide a rundown on preliminary results for The Golden State tomorrow. In the interim, we know:

Governor Gavin Newsom (56.3%) and Republican Brian Dahl (16.8%), as the clear top-two all-party primary vote-getters, will face each other in November.

In both the US Senate Special Primary Election and the regular June 7 Primary Election, US Senator Alex Padilla (D) and Republican Mark Meuser will advance to the general election.

In the Los Angeles Mayoral contest, billionaire Republican-turned-Democrat Rick Caruso and Congresswoman Karen Bass (D), as the clear top-two voters, will face each other in the general election runoff. With 50% reporting, Caruso received 42.1%, Bass 37%, and LA City Councilmember Kevin DeLeon received 7.5%.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin has lost his seat, with so-far 60% of voters casting ballots in favor of his recall.

IOWA
Senate: Seven-term Republican Senator Charles Grassley, 88, will face off with Democratic nominee and retired Navy admiral Michael Franken, who defeated former Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer in the primary 55.2% to 50%.

Third Congressional District: incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne, one of the top GOP targets in the country, will face Republican State Senator Zach Nunn.

MISSISSIPPI
Third Congressional District: Two-term Republican incumbent Michael Guest and challenger and former Navy pilot Michael Cassidy appear headed to a runoff. At 46.8% to 47.6% respectively, Cassidy leads Guest by just 344 votes (92% reporting). The winner of the June 28 runoff will face Democrat Shuwaski Young in November.

Fourth Congressional District: Six-term Republican Congressman Steven Palazzo is also going to a runoff June 28, against Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell. Palazzo received 31.6% to Ezell's 25.1%, followed by retired banker Clay Wagner with 22.1%.

MONTANA
Montana picked up a second congressional district due to redistricting. In the new western First Congressional District, former Trump Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke, who represented Montana in Congress from 2015 to 2017, won the close GOP primary with 41.4% to former State Senator Al Olszewski's 40%, followed by Mary Todd at 10.4%.

Zinke, who left the Trump administration under the cloud of several ethics scandals, will go head-to-head in the general election with attorney Monica Tranel, who won the Democratic primary with 65%.

NEW JERSEY
Second CD: Tim Alexander, a former prosecutor and former Atlantic County detective, won the Democratic nod over Lockheed Martin engineer Nancy Bush, 62% to 38%, to challenge two-term Republican Jeff Van Drew.

Third CD: Two-term incumbent Democrat Andy Kim will be challenged by former punk rocker-turned wealthy yacht manufacturer Bob Healy, who won a contentious GOP primary fight over Ian Smith, 52.8% to 38.3%.

Fifth CD: Republican Frank Palotti defeated Nick De Gregorio 50.3% to 45.6% in the GOP primary to win a rematch against incumbent Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer.

Seventh CD: Congressman Tom Malinowski, one of the Democrats' most vulnerable House incumbents, will face Thomas Keen, Jr., who won the GOP primary with 45.8% over next closest rival Philip Rizzo, with 23.7%. Keen, the son of former NJ Governor Tom Kean, Sr., lost to Malinowski by a percentage point in 2020. He gave up his seat as State Senate Minority Leader to focus on defeating the incumbent this year.

Eighth CD: Robert Menendez Jr., son of New Jersey's senior US Senator, easily won the Democratic primary to run for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Congressman Albio Sires. Menendez, who had Sires' endorsement, won 84% of the vote to take on Republican Marcos Arroyo, who was uncontested in the GOP primary.

NEW MEXICO
First-term Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham will face Republican former television meteorologist Mark Ronchetti, who prevailed over four GOP contenders to win the nomination with 58.4%. The leaning Democratic seat is a target for flipping by Republicans.

Attorney General: In the seat being vacated by incumbent Hector Balderas (D), who is term-limited, Democrats have chosen Albuquerque District Attorney Raúl Torrez as his (likely) successor. In the close primary contest, Torrez defeated State Auditor Brian Colón, 53.5% to 46.5%. Torrez will face GOP nominee attorney and veteran Jeremy Michael Gay.

The Second Congressional District, which changed significantly under redistricting, now places two-term Republican incumbent Yvette Herrell in a toss-up seat. Herrell will be challenged by Democratic nominee Gabriel Vasquez, who defeated physician Darshan Patel 76.1% to 23.9% in the primary. Vasquez is a former Las Cruces Councilman and served as an aide to New Mexico US Senator Martin Heinrich.

SOUTH DAKOTA
Republican Governor Kristi Noem handily fending off a primary opponent with 76.4% of the vote, to face Democratic challenger Jamie Smith in the general election.

Noem resisted calls from Trump to take on Republican Senator John Thune, who incurred the former President's ire for not supporting objections to the 2020 presidential election results. Thune is being challenged by Democrat Brian Bengs in November.

In South Dakota's At-Large Congressional District, two-term Republican Dusty Johnson defeated challenger and State Representative Taffy Howard, 59.3% to 40.7%. Howard had criticized Johnson’s vote to certify the 2020 presidential election results. There is no Democratic nominee.