Trump-backed Indiana Senate candidate wins primary
President Donald Trump continued to exert influence in Indiana’s Republican primary. At least five of the seven Republican senators he opposed lost the nomination.
Voters in Nebraska and West Virginia will choose candidates for Congressional and state-level offices on Tuesday, May 12th.
The election campaign will be held over a month-long period, when primary elections will be held in each state prior to the midterm elections in November. Republicans and Democrats are preparing for a tough battle for seats in Congress, with President Donald Trump hoping to maintain a narrow majority.
Here’s what you need to know about this week’s elections in Nebraska and West Virginia.
nebraska
Nebraskans will consider candidates for governor, U.S. Senate and House races on May 12th.
One of Nebraska’s seats is vacant in the U.S. Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. In the Senate Republican primary, incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts will seek the party’s nomination, while two Democrats, Cindy Burbank and William Forbes, will be vying to be candidates on the fall ballot.
On the House side, voters will choose from dozens of candidates in each of the state’s three congressional districts. Incumbent Republican Reps. Mike Flood and Adrian Smith are seeking to defend their seats in the 1st and 3rd Districts, respectively.
All eyes will be on the race for the seat of the retiring Congressman Don Bacon in the 2nd District. Six Democrats are in a tight race to flip chairs and win seats in Washington this fall. Republican Brinker Harding and Libertarian Eric Michael Foreman have uncontested races and will head to the November ballot.
Voters will also decide the final candidate to lead the state’s policy and administration. Nebraska’s incumbent governor, Jim Pillen, is defending his position against five other candidates for the Republican nomination. Two Democratic Party members will face off over the nomination of the opposition party.
Nebraska also holds elections for local school boards and local governments, in addition to many other state government roles, such as secretary of state and attorney general.
The state is preparing to put a number of state ballot measures on the November ballot. One of the items to be introduced in the fall is to amend the state constitution to extend term limits for state legislators from two years to four years.
west virginia
Officials involved in voting this month in West Virginia include local elections and voting initiatives, as well as the U.S. House and Senate, state legislators and the state Supreme Court.
West Virginia will elect one U.S. senator this year. Incumbent Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is facing five competitors for the nomination to retain her seat. Five Democratic senators are vying to take Capito’s seat in the fall.
The state has two congressional districts, each of which elects its own representatives. Incumbent Rep. Carol Miller of the 1st District and Rep. Riley Moore of the 2nd District will seek to defend their seats.
One of the ballot measures will go up against West Virginia this fall. Voters will have to decide on the West Virginia Citizenship Voting Requirements Amendment, which would change the state constitution’s current language from “all citizens shall have the right to vote” to “only citizens who are citizens of the United States shall have the right to vote.”
According to Ballotpedia, this is not the first measure of its kind. Since 2018, voters across the United States have passed 15 ballot measures that enable citizenship voting requirements, according to Ballotpedia. The effort comes against the backdrop of President Trump’s recent efforts to crack down not only on immigration but also on voting practices.
