Vince Fong, a California congressman and former aide to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, won a special election Tuesday to fill his seat. He represents the most conservative district in a heavily Democratic state. Mr. Fung will replace Mr. McCarthy, who was removed from the Speaker's position and resigned from Congress.
Fong will serve until his term expires in January, when he will face off against his Republican opponent, longtime Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreau, again in the fall.
Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky and Oregon also held primaries on Tuesday, with Kentucky and Oregon's presidential primaries drawing significant protest votes against President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump.
Here are some points.
Biden faced significant resistance in the Kentucky primary, and protest voting against him in Oregon was sluggish.
In Kentucky's Democratic primary, about 30% of voters supported a choice other than Biden. This shows the president's performance was significantly lower among Democrats in the state. The number of protest votes against Mr. Biden in the state was almost double the number against Mr. Trump, who won about 85% of the vote in the Republican primary. Voter turnout in the Democratic primary also plummeted, with the number of votes counted dropping from more than 537,000 in 2020 to about 184,000.
In Oregon, a write-in campaign protesting Biden's handling of the Gaza war underperformed, with less than 5% of the total votes in the Democratic primary going to write-ins. In neighboring Washington state, a non-committal ballot option won nearly 10% of the vote in the Democratic primary in late March. Trump was unopposed in Oregon's Republican primary.
Trump's top Georgia criminal prosecutor, Fani T. Willis, won the primary by a landslide.
The Democratic primary for District Attorney in Fulton County, Georgia ended in a stunning disaster. Fani Willis, who is prosecuting Trump and others seeking to overturn the results of Georgia's 2020 presidential election, defeated her opponent Christian Wise Smith by a landslide, winning with 87% of the vote.
Scott McAfee, the judge overseeing Trump's case in Georgia, also won reelection with a landslide margin of 83% of the vote. He and Ms. Willis were considered favorites to win their respective races.
Willis' results signal confidence in her performance within the Democratic Party following revelations in January of her romantic relationship with the lawyer she hired to manage her prosecution. Trump's lawyers said the relationship was a serious conflict of interest and asked Judge McAfee to remove Willis from the case. The Georgia Court of Appeals will review Judge McAfee's decision to allow the case to proceed.
A progressive candidate in Oregon has lost a high-profile Democratic primary.
Jamie McLeod Skinner, a progressive candidate in Oregon's 5th Congressional District, lost the Democratic primary to Janelle Bynum two years ago when she narrowly lost to the Republican challenger for the swing seat in 2022. Bynum, who is endorsed by Gov. Tina Kotek, will face Rep. Lori Chavez DeRemer, who was unopposed in the Republican primary, in what is set to be one of the most closely watched House races this year.
Mike Schmidt, the progressive district attorney for Multnomah County, which includes Portland, was pursuing a challenger from his own office, prosecutor Nathan Vasquez.
Vasquez, a former registered Republican, blamed Schmidt for Portland's recent drug and crime problems, and vowed to prosecute even minor crimes as homicides, homelessness and drug overdose deaths increased during Schmidt's tenure.
Schmidt previously campaigned in 2020 to deprioritize low-level crimes, but in response to voters' concerns, he recently toughened his stance on drugs and increased staff to prosecute more violent crimes. changed.