Kris Kobach is competing in a Senate primary in Kansas that has Republicans nervous, and Rashida Tlaib is hoping to hang on against a Democratic challenger in a Michigan House race.
Five states hold primary elections Tuesday, with voters in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington State choosing nominees for Congress and local offices. The day’s most significant contest is the Republican Senate primary race in Kansas, where Kris Kobach, a firebrand supporter of President Trump who lost the 2018 governor’s race in the reliably Republican state, faces a crowded field of opponents. Democrats in Detroit and St. Louis will decide House primaries that effectively function as general elections in heavily liberal and predominantly Black districts. Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, a member of the so-called Squad of women of color who rose to Congress in 2018, faces a rematch with her 2018 primary opponent. And in Missouri, Representative William Lacy Clay, who has combined with his father to represent St. Louis in Congress for 50 years, is trying to again fend off a challenge from Cori Bush, an activist whom Mr. Clay defeated in the 2018 primary. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time in Kansas; from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time in Michigan; from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time in Missouri; and from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Arizona. Washington State conducts elections entirely by mail — primary ballots there must be postmarked by Tuesday or be delivered to a designated drop box by 8 p.m. local time. Kansas has not sent a Democrat to the U. S. Senate since the 1930s. But for months, Republicans in Washington and in the state have feared that if Mr. Kobach wins the party’s Senate primary, a traditionally safe seat will be endangered — and so will the Senate majority. Mr. Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state, is an incendiary figure in state politics, known for his hard-line views on immigration and voting rights, and his 2018 loss in the governor’s race to Laura Kelly, a Democrat. Top Senate Republicans, long wary of Mr. Kobach and his 2018 performance, have pleaded with Mr. Trump to endorse Representative Roger Marshall, whom they see as the strongest general election candidate in a crowded field. But the president has remained on the sidelines, stoking tensions between Senate Republicans and the White House. The winner of Tuesday’s primary is expected to face Barbara Bollier, a state senator who was until recently a Republican herself. A statewide race remains a challenge in Kansas for any Democrat, regardless of the Republican nominee. But as Mr. Trump’s faltering approval ratings have endangered Republican candidates in down-ballot races across the country, there is a growing sense that the outcome even in deep-red Kansas is no sure bet. The results on Tuesday may help determine just how competitive the state is come November. Representative Rashida Tlaib distinguished her first day in Congress 19 months ago with an expletive-fueled call to impeach Mr. Trump. It made her an instant Democratic star as she, along with the even more famous Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, formed half of the four-member “Squad,” the diverse group of progressive Democratic women who were elected to the House in 2018 and have come to embody the vanguard of the party’s liberal grass-roots energy.
