Primary elections: crucial showdowns set in Ohio; Indiana races yield ‘big night for Maga’ as Trump asserts control of party – as it happened

The debate has concluded. It was much feistier than the past debates, with the stakes now higher because ballots are in the mail.

Becerra was a top target, as expected given his steady rise in the polls, but there were also some standout moments, with Porter addressing questions about her temperament head-on and Hilton refusing to allow any daylight between himself and Trump, who is deeply unpopular in the liberal state.

The two-hour debate has covered a lot of ground. As it nears the end, the moderators asked the candidates a very California-themed question. Which actor would you want to play you.

Mahan was up first and asked for the moderators to come back to him, before shouting out Russell Crowe in Gladiator.

Becerra dived in with a quick answer: Antonio Banderas. Bianco said he had no ideas, before the moderator offered a suggestion: the mustachioed Tom Selleck. Clint Eastwood, Bianco finally settled on.

The British-born Hilton said there was “only one choice really” – the English actor Jason Statham.

Steyer named Gregory Peck, star of To Kill a Mockingbird. Porter named Tina Fey while Villaraigosa also named Antonio Banderas, whom Villaraigosa said once told him he would have wanted to play him in a movie.

In Michigan, a special election in a small swing district on Tuesday could determine whether Democrats retain their slim majority in the state Senate for the final months of governor Gretchen Whitmer’s term.

Republican Jason Tunney conceded the 35th state Senate district race to Democrat Chedrick Greene, saying in a statement that he “fell short in the special election.” The Associated Press has not yet called the race.

The candidates were asked to summarize the outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom’s eight-year tenure in a single word.

“Performative,” Villaraigosa said,
“Bold,” Porter replied, a reflection of the governor’s relative popularity among Democrats in the state.
“Progressive,” Steyer offered.
“Failed,” Hilton said.
“Steve – failure, you can’t take my word,” Bianco chimed in.
“Game-changing,” Becerra said.
“Incomplete,” said Mahan, who has cultivated a reputation for challenging Newsom, especially on issues like homelessness and crime.

Xavier Becerra has come under sustained pressure to clarify his support for a single-payer healthcare system.

“We should try to get to a Medicare for All program, and while we are continuing to work in that direction, we should make sure we are expanding coverage,” Becerra said.

“I’d like to use my magic wand and give everybody affordable healthcare,” Katie Porter said. She later said it was “disqualifying that Becerra wouldn’t give a clear answer.

The LAist recently reported that Becerra had softened his support for a government-run healthcare system. “He said very clearly that, at this point, he wasn’t supportive of single payer,” Dr René Bravo, president of the California Medical Association, told the outlet. The influential trade group, which has long opposed a single-payer system, endorsed Becerra.

In a speech Tuesday night, Sherrod Brown thanked supporters at an election night party in Ohio before pivoting to his economic message.

“No one in the Senate is standing up to these corporations who raise your prices and who game the system,” Brown said, per the AP. “Instead, the people who are supposed to be representing you in Washington, they play the stock market, they cycle through the revolving door, they lobby for special interests the moment they leave the United States Congress.”

He denounced major banks, insurance and pharmaceutical companies, as well as “big corporations” that build data centers in Ohio.

“Ohioans don’t have anyone fighting for you, until November,” Brown told the crowd.

Another fiery exchange erupted between Antonio Villaraigosa, the former LA mayor, and Chad Bianco, a conservative county sheriff.

“You’re an oath keeper,” Villaraigosa said, referring to the militia group of which the sheriff was a member of.

“I’m very proud of it,” Bianco replied.

“I don’t think an oath keeper is qualified to be governor,” Villaraigosa said.

The moderator followed up, “You said you’re a proud oath keeper. Are you referring to the group?”

Bianco snapped that he had sworn an oath to defend the constitution and then encouraged the other candidates to “read the mission statement to the oath keeper”.

Villaraigosa snapped back that members of the Oath Keepers have been indicted in connection with the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.

“I saw a politician molest kids. Does that mean you molest kids,” Bianco shot back, stumping the entire stage. “Huh?” someone replied.

Back in Ohio, former state representative Derek Merrin has won the Republican nomination for the House in the Toledo area’s 9th District, according to the AP, setting him up for a rematch with Democratic representative Marcy Kaptur.

Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in Congress, ran unopposed and is considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country.

In an unexpected deviation from the topic – at this moment the debate had moved on to immigration – Katie Porter assailed the other candidates on the stage for their terse back-and-forth.

“I can’t believe that on a stage with 30 minutes of interrupting and bickering and name-calling and shouting and disrespect for everyone up here who’s stepping into public service, that anyone wants to talk about my temperament,” Porter said.

“You were actually interrupting them, too,” Chad Bianco interjected. “Oh cowboy…,” Porter responded to the Riverside sheriff.

The former Orange County congresswoman had been seen as an early leader in the field, but a video of her shouting at a staffer and a contentious interview with a local TV reporter renewed questions about her temperament and management style. Porter’s campaign has tried to recast the viral 2021 video where she tells a staffer to “get out of my fucking shot” during a meeting. A new ad for Porter ends with her asking: “Now, could you guys please get out of my shot?”

Katie Porter and Tom Steyer sparred over their differing views of the proposed billionaire’s tax, which crossed a key threshold to qualify for the ballot last month.

Asked why she didn’t support the wealth tax, Porter replied: “Because I support good ideas not things that help me dodge political potholes due to my own background. This billionaires tax is simply not good tax policy.”

The response was a dig at Steyer, a billionaire who has cast himself as a “class traitor” who wants to tax the wealthy more. “Billionaires like me” and corporations should pay more taxes, Steyer argued, while stating that he would vote for the one-time 5% tax on the accumulated wealth if it makes it onto the ballot. At the same time, he is pushing a proposal that would close loophole allowing multinational corporations to shelter profits in low-tax foreign countries.

The CNN debate in Los Angeles has kicked off – and it’s already shaping up to fiestier right out of the gate, a sign of the stakes as voters start returning their mail ballots.

The moderators, CNN anchors Kaitlan Collins and Elex Michaelson, began with the issue of affordability, asking the seven candidates on stage whether the California dream was still attainable.

Xavier Becerra highlighted his experience leading HHS – and taking on Donald Trump – to argue that he was the most qualified to manage the world’s fourth largest economy.

“I’m the change-agent,” billionaire Tom Steyer said, arguing that he would take on corporate interests to make the state more affordable. “I’m the progressive.”

San Jose mayor Matt Mahan used his time to attack Becerra, trying to position himself in the ideological gap between Steyer and the Republicans on state. “We don’t need Maga values but we don’t need more of the same,” he said.

“We need some fresh thinking after 16 years of one-party rule,” Republican Steve Hilton, the top-polling candidate in the race.

At one point, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa leaped into the conversation, asking Hilton if he could answer the question of who won the 2020 election. Hilton got caught in the fray responding to multiple candidates, but declined to answer Villaraigosa’s question, which would put him at odds with Donald Trump, who has endorsed him in the race.

“Boys. Boys! Enough with the bickering,” interjected former Congresswoman Katie Porter, who is the only remaining female candidate in the race.

Most Republican state senators in Indiana whose opponents were endorsed by Donald Trump lost today, giving the president wins in a deep red state just four months after lawmakers rejected his redistricting plan.

GOP senator Jim Banks called Tuesday a “Big night for MAGA in Indiana”.

Conservative activists also touted the election results.

“It’s clear the Trump Team delivered,” Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for Turning Point USA, wrote on social media. Kolvet was a confidant of the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk and producer for his podcast.

Kolvet also congratulated activists from the conservative youth group, who he said “worked so hard mobilizing on the ground in Indiana.”

Seven of the leading contenders in California’s unexpectedly dramatic race for governor will meet on a debate stage Tuesday night, a high-stakes showdown arriving just as voters begin casting ballots in the state’s nonpartisan primary.

The debate, hosted by CNN and kicking off at 6pm PT, comes as the volatile contest to succeed the outgoing Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, begins to take clearer shape weeks after one of the leading candidates, former Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell, suddenly withdrew amid sexual assault and harassment allegations, which he strongly denies. Millions of voters across the state have already received their mail-in ballots before the 2 June primary, leaving precious little time for lower-polling Democrats to break through.

After Swalwell’s exit, Xavier Becerra, the former secretary of health and human services under Joe Biden, has surged to the top of the crowded Democratic field, a remarkable turnaround after months languishing at the bottom of polls.

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The US military said on Tuesday that it killed three men in a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, claiming the targets were involved in “narco-trafficking operations”.

The announcement did not provide evidence to support its claims that the targets were engaged in narco-trafficking.

The US Southern Command said in a social media post that the vessel it bombed was allegedly operated by “designated terrorist organizations”. The statement did not provide further detail on the identities of the men who were killed.

More results are coming in from Ohio:

David Taylor won the Republican nomination for the House in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, according to the AP, while Vanessa Enoch won the Democratic nomination for the House in Ohio’s 8th Congressional District.

Patrick McAuley won the Republican nomination for the House in Indiana’s 7th Congressional District, while Blake Fiechter won the Republican primary election for state Senate in Indiana’s 19th District, per the AP.

In Ohio, Greg Landsman was declared the winner of the Democratic nomination for the House in the state’s 1st Congressional District,

Republican senator Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown won their party’s nominations in Ohio’s primary elections on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press – teeing them up for what is expected to be a high-profile and expensive Senate race in November’s midterm elections.

Husted ran unopposed, while Brown had a single opponent who he handily outraised.

The veteran politicians are standing in a special election to be decided in the 3 November midterms that will determine who serves the remainder of the six-year term JD Vance won in 2022, before becoming vice-president last year.

Husted was appointed by Mike DeWine, Ohio’s Republican governor, to take over for Vance, while Brown, a former three-term senator, is seeking to make a comeback after losing his re-election bid in 2024.

Ohio’s Senate seat is one of four that Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic minority leader, has prioritized in the party’s bid to retake control of the chamber, which appeared to be a long shot after Donald Trump won election two years ago, but seems increasingly attainable as the president’s approval ratings slump.

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The Associated Press has declared former senator Sherrod Brown as the winner of the Ohio Democratic primary for US Senate.

Brown, who lost re-election in 2024, is vying to unseat the Republican incumbent, Jon Husted.