Trump-backed candidates win in several state primaries, with key Arizona contest still undecided

Voters in five states went to the polls Tuesday night to cast ballots in primary races, with Trump-backed candidates winning several key GOP contests including ones in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan and Missouri.

Though voters watched for final results in races across the country, the Missouri GOP Senate primary arguably attracted the most attention, with former Gov. Eric Greitens unofficially finishing third to declared winner Attorney General Eric Schmitt, in a race that Greitens led until about mid-June. 

Schmitt will in November face Trudy Busch Valentine, the heiress to the Anheuser-Busch fortune, who won the Missouri Democrat Senate primary. 

They will compete for the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Roy Blunt.

Former President Trump on Monday night endorsed Greitens and Schmitt as viable, general election MAGA nominees. 

In Michigan, Trump-backed GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon won decisively with 40% of the vote over the closest competitor, Kevin Rinke.

"I'm going home and I'm pulling out my fishing gear." Rinke, a businessman, said in conceding the race. 

In a Michigan GOP House primary, Rep. Peter Meijer lost to Trump-endorsed challenger John Gibbs. The Associated Press declared Gibbs the winner with 51.9% of the vote to Meijer's 48.1%.

Meijer is one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Capitol riot.

In the biggest ballot measure on Tuesday night, Kansas voters said no to ending abortion rights being enshrined in the state constitution, a decision being considered a victory for abortion rights activists.

In Arizona, the GOP gubernatorial race between Trump-backed Kari Lake, a former TV news journalist, and Karrin Taylor Robson was at midnight still too close to call. 

Trump-backed Abe Hamadeh was leading in early results in the state’s GOP attorney general primary.

And in the state’s GOP Senate primary, the wire service declared Trump-backed Blake Masters the winner with 39% of the vote, ahead of next-closest candidate Jim Lamon, who had roughly 29%.

Masters is expected to face incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly, among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats this election cycle. 

Kelly’s race and Missouri’s general election Senate contest will be key in determining whether Democrats or Republicans control the upper chamber next year.

Also in Kansas, state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who also was endorsed by Trump, won the Republican nomination for governor.