Scandal, party infighting and more: US primary season comes to a dramatic close

A campaign finance scandal. A former governor switching his endorsement because the campaign was so negative. Democrats bemoaning ugly infighting in important battlegrounds.

These are just some of the storylines capping off the final primary night of 2024, after races in Delaware and New Hampshire devolved into contentious battles.

These messy primaries are taking place in open seats: In Delaware, voters will be picking their nominees for the successor to outgoing Gov. John Carney, who’s term-limited and is running for mayor of Wilmington. Democrats are favored here in the fall, but they have to get through their bitter primary first. In New Hampshire, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s decision not to run for reelection has sparked heated primaries on both sides of the aisle for a state that Democrats are hoping to flip in November. And Democratic Rep. Ann McLane Kuster’s retirement has led to a fierce contest to replace her in the state’s battleground 2nd District, too.

Rhode Island is also hosting primaries on Tuesday, though those are far less competitive.

Here’s what to watch in the last primaries of the year (except for Louisiana’s unusual Election Day contests):

— Delaware: Major players in the Delaware Democratic establishment coalesced early around Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long to be the next governor. But her victory isn’t guaranteed on Tuesday.

Hall-Long has the support of the state Democratic Party, along with Carney. They’ve stuck by her as more details have come to light regarding her campaign finances, including a report conducted for the state elections department that found her disclosures to be “incomplete, inconsistent, and often inaccurate.” (The report did not suggest pursuing criminal charges against Hall-Long, who has pushed back against the findings.) Still, her opponents have seized on those missteps in their attacks.

Hall-Long’s most prominent competition is New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer, who has far outspent Hall-Long on advertising — $1.8 million to around $370,000 through the primary, according to ad tracker AdImpact. Meyer has also been boosted by Citizens for a New Delaware Way — an anti-Hall-Long PAC backed by Phil Shawe, CEO of translation services company TransPerfect — and Change Can’t Wait PAC, both of which have gone after Hall-Long for her campaign finances.

And the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association has taken the unprecedented step of playing in the primary, pouring in around $1 million on advertisements to boost Hall-Long and hit Meyer. DLGA’s executive director Kevin Holst told POLITICO in a statement that it’s the “first time ever that a down-ballot Democratic Party sister committee has spent in a race on behalf of one of their members seeking higher office.”

Public polling has been sparse, though internal polling for both campaigns shows a tight race between Meyer and Hall-Long, with former state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin O’Mara in third and a significant number of undecided voters.

Delaware’s congressional primaries are not as competitive as the gubernatorial race, though they have the potential to put forward history-making candidates. The primaries were canceled in the race for Senate because only one candidate filed on either side, and Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester is the favorite in November to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Carper. She’ll be just one of a handful of Black women to ever serve in the upper chamber, and would be the first Black senator from Delaware.

And in the primary to replace her in the House, state Sen. Sarah McBride, the first openly transgender state senator in U.S. history, is the front-runner. If elected, McBride would be the first out transgender person in Congress.

Polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern.

— New Hampshire: Republican former Sen. Kelly Ayotte is looking to make a comeback in the governor’s race. And she has some notable support: Sununu is backing her, and the Republican Governors Association has dumped more than $2 million into her campaign.

But former state Senate President Chuck Morse, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2022 and has emphasized his loyalty to former President Donald Trump (but lacks his endorsement), is looking to stop her. He’s hit Ayotte for not supporting Trump when they shared the ballot in 2016 — they both lost the state narrowly — though Ayotte has backtracked this year.

And that’s only opened her up to more attacks from the left. As the likely Republican nominee, Democrats have been investing heavily in the primary — a group backed by the Democratic Governors Association has spent around $9 million on ads through the primary, per AdImpact — to attack her for her newfound fealty to Trump, as well as over abortion. Ayotte has insisted that she supports the state’s current law, which allows abortions until the 24th week of pregnancy, and has criticized Democrats for “lying about abortion to scare women.”

Ayotte also has her sights set on the general election. She’s gone after Democrat Joyce Craig — once considered the favorite on that side, though the race has narrowed in polling — for her tenure as mayor of Manchester, pointing to crime and homelessness in the city. Craig must first survive a primary against Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington, with the two Democrats lobbing attacks against each other in the runup to Tuesday.

Just days before the primary, Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan threw her backing behind Craig, in what could be a boost in the tight primary.

Further down the ballot, national Republicans are targeting both House districts, which President Joe Biden won by single-digits and are currently held by Democrats. Most of the drama is happening in the Democratic primary for the 2nd District, as Kuster is playing a prominent role in uplifting her successor of choice.

The retiring incumbent has endorsed former Democratic New Hampshire Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern, who was previously her campaign manager, as he’s locked in a fiery battle against Maggie Goodlander, a former DOJ official in the Biden administration and wife of National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Kuster cut a controversial ad attacking Goodlander on Van Ostern’s behalf, accusing her of donating to “pro-life Republicans.” Goodlander has taken issue with that characterization, noting that she fought against Roe v. Wade being overturned and had her own experience losing her son at 20 weeks.

VoteVets, an outside group that supports Democratic veterans, has jumped into the race as well to go after Van Ostern, who lost to Sununu in 2016, as “perennial candidate,” and for how he’s run his business. Goodlander has outraised and outspent Van Ostern in the leadup to the primary.

The vitriol of the campaign prompted former Democratic Gov. John Lynch to rescind his endorsement of Van Ostern and back Goodlander, calling Van Ostern’s campaign “one of the most dishonest I’ve ever seen.” And he’s far from the only prominent Democrat bemoaning how “nasty” both of the party’s marquee primaries, which have deeply divided the Democratic establishment in the state, have become.

A crowded field of Republicans are also vying for the open seat. Recent polling showed businessperson Vikram Mansharamani in the lead, with his closest contender being Lily Tang Williams, who came in third in the 2022 GOP primary for the seat.

In the 1st District, around a half-dozen Republicans are looking to take on Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, though no one has managed to significantly pull ahead of the pack. Public polling in the race is scarce, but a recent survey showed former state legislator Russell Prescott, who has a fundraising advantage, in the lead, with most voters undecided.

Polls close at 7 p.m. Eastern in most of the state. The last polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern.

— Rhode Island: It’s much quieter over in the Ocean State on Tuesday.

Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is running for a fourth term and faces a nominal challenge from Michael Costa, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in the midterms as a Republican. On the Republican side, state Rep. Patricia Morgan will face off against veteran Raymond McKay — though the winner will have an uphill come the general election.

The Democratic and Republican primaries in the states 1st and 2nd Districts are uncontested.

Polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.