Campaigns

Welcome to At the Races! Each week we bring you news and analysis from the CQ Roll Call campaign team. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here. By Mary Ellen McIntire and Daniela Altimari Call it a sports week. New Yorkers are ecstatic after the Knicks went up 3-1 over the San […]

President Donald Trump got his mojo back with Republican primary voters Tuesday following a setback in Iowa last week when his preferred candidate lost the GOP contest for governor. Trump-backed House candidates notched wins in South Carolina and Nevada. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham overcame a primary challenge from a conservative insurgent. And South Carolina […]

ANALYSIS — Four more states held primaries this week, marking the halfway point of the 2026 primary season. A total of 26 states have conducted regular congressional primaries so far this year, the latest being Maine, Nevada, North Dakota and South Carolina, where voters cast their ballots Tuesday.  A handful of those states still have […]

After Graham Platner sailed to the Democratic Senate nomination in Maine on Tuesday, Democrats on Capitol Hill appeared to settle around his campaign as his progressive allies urged the rest of the party to keep their eye on winning the Senate.  Platner’s victory hadn’t been in doubt, but there were questions about what his margin […]

Graham Platner is officially the Democratic nominee in Maine to face Republican Sen. Susan Collins this fall, easily winning Tuesday’s primary to set up what’s expected to be among the most competitive Senate races of the year. Platner was leading the primary field with 75 percent of the vote when The Associated Press called the […]

For both parties, the bare-knuckle battle for control of the House winds through California.  Recent primaries in the Golden State provided an early look at how major themes shaping the midterm elections are playing out: ideological debates roiling the Democratic Party, a redrawn map that threw together two GOP incumbents and pressure on aging Democratic […]

Spurned by President Donald Trump, Republican Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman both fell short Tuesday in their bids to become South Carolina’s next governor.  With no candidate taking a majority of the vote, the GOP primary to succeed term-limited Gov. Henry McMaster is heading for a June 23 runoff between Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, […]

by Lori Robertson ANALYSIS —Ohio voters are witnessing a battle of campaign television ads as each Senate candidate tries to tie the other to Jeffrey Epstein — by way of donations from those with some link to the late convicted sex offender. Democrat Sherrod Brown’s campaign charges that Republican Sen. Jon Husted “took more money […]

Welcome to a special edition of At the Races! Throughout the 2026 primary season, watch for these updates from the CQ Roll Call campaign team on what you need to know for Election Day. Know someone who’d like to get this newsletter? They can subscribe here. By Mary Ellen McIntire and Daniela Altimari Maine is central […]

President Donald Trump has yet to embark on a robust midterm campaign schedule, and his handful of initial rallies have been far from targeted messages talking up GOP candidates. In the most recent two trips to districts that could help determine whether Republicans retain control of the House, the president opted for the meandering signature […]