OMAHA, Neb. —

Jim Pillen, a hog farm owner and veterinarian, won Nebraska’s crowded Republican primary for governor on Tuesday over a candidate endorsed by Donald Trump, dealing the former president his first loss of the midterm election season.

Pillen defeated eight challengers, including Charles Herbster, a Trump-backed businessman accused late in the campaign of groping young women, and Brett Lindstrom, a state senator and Omaha financial adviser who was generally viewed as a more moderate choice.

The results were a setback for Trump after a decisive win in last week’s Ohio Republican Senate primary for his candidate, JD Vance. The former president has released hundreds of endorsements in races across the country, all in an effort to reshape the GOP and lift his loyalists into office. Herbster’s loss raises the stakes on other high-profile races this month in Pennsylvania and Georgia, where Trump has also intervened in campaigns.

Pillen will be a strong favorite in November’s general election against his Democratic opponent, state Sen. Carol Blood, in the Republican-majority state. Nebraska hasn’t elected a Democrat as governor since 1994.

Pillen was endorsed by many top GOP leaders in the state, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, former Gov. Kay Orr, and renowned former University of Nebraska football coach and congressman Tom Osborne. Ricketts, the incumbent, was prevented by term limit laws from running again.

In Nebraska, the allegations against Herbster, a longtime supporter of Trump’s, didn’t stop the former president from holding a rally with him earlier this month.

“I really think he’s going to do just a fantastic job, and if I didn’t feel that, I wouldn’t be here,” Trump said at the rally at a racetrack outside Omaha.

In a story last month, the Nebraska Examiner interviewed six women who claimed Herbster had groped their buttocks, outside of their clothes, during political events or beauty pageants. A seventh woman said Herbster once cornered her privately and kissed her forcibly.

One of the accusers, Republican state Sen. Julie Slama, said Herbster reached up her skirt and touched her inappropriately at the Douglas County Republican Party’s annual Elephant Remembers dinner in 2019. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Slama has done.

Herbster filed a defamation lawsuit against Slama, saying she falsely accused him in an effort to derail his campaign. Slama responded with a countersuit against Herbster, alleging sexual battery.

Herbster has suggested in television ads that Pillen and Ricketts conspired with Slama to falsely accuse him of sexual assault — allegations the three deny.

Some voters said the allegations didn’t dissuade them from backing Herbster.

As she voted at an elementary school in northwest Omaha on Tuesday, Joann Kotan said she was “upset by the stories, but I don’t know if I believe them.” Ultimately, the 74-year-old said she voted for Herbster “because President Trump recommended him.”

Lindstrom has faced a barrage of attacks as well, with third-party television ads funded by Ricketts that portray him as too liberal for the conservative state. One digitally altered ad shows Lindstrom standing in front of a rainbow flag with a coronavirus mask superimposed over his face. A mail ad notes that Lindstrom was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford, a moderate Republican-turned-Democrat who died last month of brain cancer.

But Devon Leesley said he backed the 41-year-old Lindstrom because “it’s time to hand over the politics to the next generation.” Pillen and Herbster are both in their 60s.

The 45-year-old Leesley, who lives in Omaha, said he didn’t pay much attention to the various endorsements in the race.

“I don’t trust any politician talking about any other politician. It’s all dirt,” he said. “We would never vote for anybody if we listened to their opponent.”

Carol Bruning, 59, of Omaha, said she went into Election Day debating between Pillen and Lindstrom, but went with Pillen because of his age and experience. She said she liked that Ricketts and former football coach and congressman Tom Osborne endorsed Pillen. The fact that Trump endorsed Herbster may have even been a little bit of a turn off at this point even though Bruning said she voted for Trump.

The allegations against Herbster weren’t much of a factor.

“You don’t know what to believe. That’s the hard part,” Bruning said.

Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, a Republican, predicted that 35% of registered voters will cast ballots in the primary, the highest percentage since 2006, based on what he’s seen so far.

Nebraska Republicans and Democrats also picked their candidates for the seat previously held by Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, who resigned from office and ended his reelection bid in March after he was convicted of federal corruption charges.

State Sen. Mike Flood, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, won the Republican nomination, while state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks won the Democratic nod. Flood will enter the race as a strong favorite in the Republican-heavy 1st Congressional District, which includes Lincoln, small towns and a large swath of eastern Nebraska farmland.

Despite Trump’s loss in the Nebraska governor’s race, his influence proved decisive in West Virginia, which also held primary elections Tuesday. In a race pitting two Republican incumbents against each other, Trump’s candidate, Rep. Alex Mooney, defeated Rep. David McKinley, who had angered Trump by voting for President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure package and the creation of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Small changes in new voting rules for something as simple as an envelope. Sealing it can keep legitimate votes from counting. That's the takeaway from Newsy's investigation into what happened with a surge of rejected ballots in Texas. 

We found a redesigned ballot envelope, which Republicans in Texas said would prevent voter fraud, actually blocked legal votes, including one from Rev. Aroyal Ruth Princess-Love.

"I was shocked," she said. 

Princess-Love hadn't missed an election in decades. She even volunteers at the polls. 

"I mean, it's just it's part of my breathing, voting is," she said. "It's just part of my nature."

Princess-Love is among Texans who failed to comply with a new rule for voters to print their driver's license number, or last four digits of their social security number, on their ballot return envelope. 

Princess-Love told Newsy she just never saw the new instructions. 

The rate of rejected mail-in ballots in Texas jumped from less than 1% in 2020, to more than 12% during a March primary.

The state doesn't track how often the new ID rule on the envelope was the problem, but data we analyzed from Harris County — home to Houston — gives us a good idea. 

Harris County rejected about 7,000 ballots because of the new ID requirement. 

It may surprise you to hear the envelope tripped up Republicans at a higher rate than Democrats. 

Interviews with denied voters reveal the problem was with the design of the new ballot envelope. 

The ID requirement was buried in a heap of fine print. 

"I had not read that, and probably most of Houston hadn't read that," Republican voter Susan Gaertner said.

It appears the key instructions were printed in about 7-point font, even though national election standards recommend nothing smaller than 10-point font.

Also, the boxes for voters to fill out ID numbers had to be hidden for privacy, according to the secretary of state's office, which designed the envelope. 

They were in an unusual place beneath the envelope's flap. 

Whitney Quesenbery helps election offices build simple, clear ballots. 

"I think design had a huge impact here," she said.

She says the trouble in Texas is a warning to 18 other states that also passed restrictive voting rules after the 2020 election.

Hasty design changes, even to just an envelope, can disenfranchise voters of all political stripes. 

"This is not just an envelope," Quesenbery continued. "This is like — this is the pony express of Democracy."

Ohio has a similar requirement for mail-in voters to include an ID number. Yet that state's rejection rates are normal, low. The difference? Ohio's voter instructions have been the same for years.

They're big, written in plain language and important things are highlighted. 

"They've numbered the steps," Quesenbery said. "You must complete all five sections, so they've done things to create a pathway through it."

Ohio also has more space to work with, spreading out instructions on a second secrecy envelope. 

Quesenbery says Texas just didn't have enough time to thoughtfully re-tool its ballot. 

The new law took effect in December, with an election on March 1. 

"When we ask elections to move fast, it's easy to make mistakes," she said. "And it's easy to make mistakes, not because someone's trying to make mistakes, but because it's a complicated, human system." 

Poor design may have been especially significant in Texas, where mail-in voting is reserved for people with disabilities and seniors. 

"Lots of people have old age infirmities, which include your vision going," Quesenbery said.

Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria said officials had no choice but to cram the new instructions on a mailer with limited space. 

"This is very clearly an envelope, right? What makes it so difficult is you see all this text," she said. "It is mandated by law we include it on here, no matter how small the font is, to maintain uniformity of ballots across the state. Even the smallest tweaks need approval."

To make one word purple, Longoria said she had to get approval from the secretary of state and that took about a month.  

The Secretary of State's Office acknowledges the ballot envelope was difficult to navigate.  An updated envelope now includes red boxes around the ID requirement to draw voters' attention.  

But Harris County said it's impractical to switch envelopes now. 

They have stacks of the old envelope. Election offices had to buy supplies for 2022 months ago to handle another problem — paper shortage. 

"You have to actually plan six months to eight months in advance to even get these things," Longoria said.

They plan to re-evaluate design of the mail ballot envelopes ahead of the November election. Election offices in Texas call up voters who send an incomplete ballot if they have a phone number on file, giving them a chance to fix the problem so their vote can be accepted. 

Longoria is concerned rejection rates appear to be high again during May voting, especially among African American voters. 

"Texas is no longer a leader when it comes to voting innovation," Longoria said. "In fact, I think we're a warning sign to the rest of the country."

Longoria agreed to resign her post effective July, amid backlash over an unrelated issue involving the unofficial tally of ballots. 

Neither Princess-Love nor Gaertner fixed their ballots from March, both deciding to wait until the next election to try again with voting by mail.  

"We shouldn't give up on it," Princess-Love said.

Gaertner carefully filled out that tricky ballot envelope for the May election, a little less sure her vote would count.

Newsy is the nation’s only free 24/7 national news network. You can find Newsy using your TV’s digital antenna or stream for free. See all the ways you can watch Newsy here. 

WASHINGTON —

Donald Trump on Tuesday notched a significant victory in South Carolina, where his preferred candidate easily ousted five-term Rep. Tom Rice, the first Republican to be booted from office after voting to impeach the former president last year. But another high-profile GOP target of Trump in the state, Rep. Nancy Mace, managed to hold back a challenger.

Meanwhile, in Nevada, Trump's pick, Adam Laxalt, won his U.S. Senate primary, defeating a populist candidate who is arguably more representative of the Trump base.

Takeaways from the latest round of primary elections:

SPLIT DECISION IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Rice and Mace have been objects of Trump's anger ever since a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of President Joe Biden's win.

Their transgressions? Mace stated on national TV that Trump's "entire legacy was wiped out" by the attack, while Rice became an apostate for joining a small group of Republicans who voted with Democrats in favor of Trump's second impeachment.

"He threw a temper tantrum that culminated with the sacking of the United States Capitol," Rice told NBC News on Monday. "It's a direct attack on the Constitution, and he should be held accountable."

Voters ultimately rendered different judgments on the duo, reflecting a split within the GOP about how to move forward from the Trump era. Rice's largely rural district is representative of Trump's America, where crossing the former president carries a steep cost. Even as Trump railed against both lawmakers, he chose to hold a rally in Rice's district earlier this year.

That's because Mace's district, which centers on Charleston, is full of the type of moderate suburban voters who fled the GOP under Trump. It is one of the few districts in an overall red state where Democrats have been even moderately competitive in congressional races.

The results demonstrate that the Trump factor can't be underestimated in solidly Republican territory, a potential warning sign for other Republicans, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who also voted to impeach Trump and has helped lead the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack. She's facing a competitive primary in August from a Trump-backed challenger.

Another notable factor in the Mace contest: It amounted to a proxy battle between Trump, who is contemplating a 2024 White House campaign, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is also considering a run.

Trump backed former state Rep. Katie Arrington in the race, while Haley, a former South Carolina governor, effectively challenged Trump by campaigning with Mace.

Video below: Katie Arrington concedes in South Carolina congressional race

TRUMP, MCCONNELL ALIGN ON LAXALT IN NEVADA

Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell don't agree on much. One rare exception is Laxalt, who won Nevada's Republican Senate primary.

The two Republican leaders haven't been on speaking terms since December 2020, when McConnell acknowledged that Biden defeated Trump. But they both endorsed Laxalt, who defeated retired Army Capt. Sam Brown, a West Point graduate and Purple Heart recipient who ran an unexpectedly strong campaign as a conservative outsider.

The mutual support, which brought together the Trump and establishment wings of the party, demonstrates the intense focus Republican have placed on flipping the seat held by first-term Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who is considered among the most vulnerable senators.

TEXAS HOUSE SEAT FLIPS

A once solidly Democratic district in South Texas will now be represented by a Republican after Mayra Flores won a special primary election to finish the term of former Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela, who resigned this year to become a lobbyist.

Flores, a GOP organizer who is the daughter of migrant workers, will only hold the seat for several months before the district is redrawn to be more favorable to Democrats. But her victory in the heavily Hispanic Rio Grande Valley is an ominous sign for Democrats.

They are not only losing ground in a region they long dominated, but Flores' success as a candidate also demonstrates that Republicans are making inroads with Hispanic voters.

Her win also has implications for Democrats' ambitions in Congress, denying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi an opportunity to add to her slim two-vote margin to pass legislation.

FROM SOUTH CAROLINA TO THE WHITE HOUSE?

Also in South Carolina, Republican Tim Scott coasted to an easy and unopposed primary win Tuesday for what he says will be his last term in the Senate. But another state is also on his mind — the presidential proving ground of Iowa.

It's become an article of faith that there are no "accidental" trips to Iowa by ambitious politicians. And Scott, the Senate's sole Black Republican, has made several visits, including one last week.

He certainly has the money to contend. As he campaigned for reelection to the Senate, Scott amassed a jaw-dropping $42 million. That's more than double the $15.7 million average cost of a winning Senate campaign in the 2018 midterms. It's also more than enough to launch a Republican presidential campaign in 2024.

Even before his recent appearance at an Iowa Republican Party event, Scott has been raising his profile. He spoke at the 2020 Republican National Convention and delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden's first joint congressional address. He's also visited New Hampshire, another early-voting presidential state, and delivered a speech at the Reagan Presidential Library, another frequent stop for Republicans eyeing the White House.

A LEPAGE COMEBACK?

Governor's races are often overlooked. But the general election contest in Maine is among a handful of governor's races that are likely to be competitive this year, along with Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona.

Tuesday's gubernatorial primaries were a mere formality, since the races were uncontested. But they locked in what promises to be a doozy of a general election between two longtime foes.

Democratic incumbent Janet Mills is seeking a second term. She's a former district attorney, state lawmaker and Maine attorney general who frequently clashed with Republican Paul LePage when he was governor. Now LePage, who has described himself as "Trump before there was Trump," is challenging her.

The contest will test the appeal of Trumpian candidates in New England. The Democratic Governors Association has already booked $5 million in TV ad time.

That Mills and LePage are even competing against each other is somewhat of a surprise.

LePage moved to Florida and swore off politics when he left office in 2019 following two raucous terms that often drew national attention for his indecorous remarks.

But the draw of elected office was apparently too great. By 2020, he was back in Maine pledging to challenge his old nemesis.

ATLANTA —

Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker acknowledged on Wednesday that he has a son whom he has not previously mentioned publicly, a disclosure that draws renewed attention to his previous outspoken calls for Black men to play an active role in the lives of their children.

Walker's campaign confirmed the existence of his 10-year-old son after The Daily Beast reported Tuesday that the boy's mother had taken Walker to court in 2014 to establish paternity and to get child support payments.

"Herschel had a child years ago when he wasn't married. He's supported the child and continues to do so," Walker campaign manager Scott Paradise said in a statement Wednesday. "He's proud of his children. To suggest that Herschel is 'hiding' the child because he hasn't used him in his political campaign is offensive and absurd."

Walker sends Christmas and birthday presents to the boy but has not played an active role in raising him, the Daily Beast reported, citing an unnamed person close to the son's family with direct knowledge of the events.

The Walker campaign did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press about his involvement in the boy's life.

Walker has repeatedly criticized absentee fathers over the years, holding up his relationship with his older son, Christian Walker, whose mother is Walker's former wife, Cindy Grossman. Walker has said he worked with his ex-wife and current wife to raise Christian.

"I want all African Americans to know, even though you may leave the mom, don't leave the child," Walker told WABE-TV's "Love and Respect with Killer Mike" on May 27. "Continue to be a dad, continue to be a strong figure in that child's life, because that happens, that happens. I said, 'I'm going to continue to raise him, and be right there with him.'"

Walker faces Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in November in a critical battleground state that could be key to determining party control of the chamber. Warnock helped flip the Senate to Democrats after he and fellow Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff won a pair of runoff elections in early 2021.

Walker, who has been endorsed by both former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, has faced criticism throughout the campaign about whether he's been truthful about his past.

Walker drew attention for his past mental health struggles, as well as allegations that he threatened his ex-wife's life. He's dramatically inflated his record as a businessman and overstated his role in a for-profit program that is alleged to have preyed on veterans while defrauding the government. And his claim that he graduated at the top of his class from the University of Georgia, where he led the Bulldogs to a 1980 championship, was also untrue. He didn't graduate, as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported.

In the statement that acknowledged paternity, Walker's campaign accused Warnock of engaging in "both a nasty mudslinging campaign and a nasty custody dispute with his ex-wife."

"This is a complete double standard," Paradise said.

Warnock's ex-wife, whom he divorced in 2020, said in court filings in February that Warnock wasn't upholding his end of the shared custody agreement of their two children and asked the court to order Warnock to pay more in child support, arguing that his income had risen.

Warnock's campaign said the senator is a "devoted father."

"Rev. Warnock is a devoted father who is proud to continue to co-parent his two children as he works for the people of Georgia," said campaign spokesperson Meredith Brasher.

NEW YORK —

A rare Republican who supports abortion rights found success in Colorado in the first primary elections held since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, while New York's first female governor positioned herself to become a major voice in the post-Roe landscape.

In Illinois, Democrats helped boost a Republican gubernatorial candidate loyal to former President Donald Trump in the hopes that he would be the easier candidate to beat in November. And in at least two states, election deniers were defeated, even as pro-Trump lightning rods elsewhere won.

Takeaways from the latest round of primary elections:

Abortion is on the ballot

The abortion debate consumed the nation this week, but there was no race where it mattered more than Colorado's Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, where businessman Joe O'Dea became one of the only abortion-rights-supporting Republicans in the nation to win a statewide primary this year.

O'Dea beat back a stiff challenge from state Rep. Ron Hanks, a Trump loyalist who opposed abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother.

O'Dea will face Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in November, and if he wins, he would become just the third Senate Republican — and the only male — to support abortion rights.

He said he backs a ban on late-term abortions and government funding of abortions but that the decision to terminate a pregnancy in the initial months is "between a person and their God."

Democrats had spent at least $2.5 million on ads designed to boost O'Dea's opponent by promoting, among other things, that he was "too conservative" for backing a complete abortion ban.

Democrats hoped that the Roe decision would give them an advantage in several swing states, including Colorado. But, at least for now, O'Dea's victory would seem to complicate the Democrats' plans.

A win for Trump or the Democrats?

In the final weeks of a campaign, Trump once again attached himself to a Republican who was leading the race. This time, it was farmer Darren Bailey in Illinois, who easily cruised to the GOP nomination in the governor's race.

But while Trump can add Bailey to his endorsement record, Democrats are betting that his victory may be short-lived.

Bailey now goes on to face Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in the November general election, which is just what Pritzker and his allies wanted. Pritzker, the billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, and the Democratic Governors Association spent heavily on advertising to help Bailey win the GOP nomination. Among other things, the ads reminded the state's Democratic-leaning electorate that he is "100% pro-life."

It's a risky gamble. While Bailey may look like an easier opponent in the general election, it's feasible that he could ride a red wave — if it materializes — to the Illinois governor's mansion. Pritzker's predecessor in office was a Republican.

Bailey showed off political acumen by besting the early Republican front-runner Richard Irvin, the mayor of Illinois' second-largest city, Aurora. Irvin lost despite being the beneficiary of a staggering $50 million investment from billionaire Ken Griffin. Irvin, who is Black, refused to say whether he voted for Trump and largely avoided talking about abortion, delivering the kind of moderate message that could have cut across ideological lines in a general election.

Instead, Republicans nominated Bailey, a Trump loyalist who reads from Bible verses in campaign videos and proudly touts his anti-abortion policies in a state Trump lost by 17 percentage points in 2020.

Hochul's opportunity

The scandals of the men around her did not derail New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who overcame primary challengers on the right and left to win her first election test as the state's chief executive.

Now, Hochul, New York's first female governor, is positioned to emerge as a leading voice in the Democratic Party as it navigates the post-Roe landscape.

The low-profile Hochul stepped into one of the nation's most prominent governorships last fall after Andrew Cuomo resigned in the midst of a sexual harassment scandal. She had promised to restore New Yorkers' faith in their government, only for her handpicked lieutenant governor to be arrested this spring in a federal corruption probe.

Hochul was either "consistently shamefully out of the loop, or shamefully enabling through her inaction," charged one of her primary challengers, New York City's elected public advocate, Jumaane Williams.

Video below: Gov. Hochul reacts to SCOTUS ruling on New York gun law

The attack ultimately didn't land in the primary. But don't expect such criticism to disappear as the race for New York governor enters its next phase.

Rep. Lee Zeldin emerged from a crowded Republican field to earn the GOP nomination for governor. He defeated Andrew Giuliani, the son of New York City's former mayor Rudy Giuliani, among others.

And while Hochul has a serious reelection test ahead, look for her to step into the national spotlight as the abortion debate rages.

The Democratic governor said in recent days that New York would be a "safe harbor" for those seeking abortions.

Election deniers go down

They celebrated their allegiance to Trump's baseless conspiracy theories on the campaign trail. But on Tuesday night, a handful of these so-called election deniers had nothing to cheer about.

In Colorado, Republican voters did not reward secretary of state candidate Tina Peters for championing Trump's lies about election fraud. She was bested by Pam Anderson, a former county clerk who previously led the state clerks' association and defends the state's mail-in elections system.

Some officials in both parties worried that Peters would win the primary. That's even after Peters, the Mesa County clerk, was indicted for a security breach spurred by conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election. The state GOP had called on her to suspend her campaign.

Now, Anderson, not Peters, will take on incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who's led the national fight against 2020 election deniers.

Elsewhere in Colorado, Senate candidate Hanks had also promoted lies about the last presidential election. In addition to being an outspoken opponent of abortion rights, he had attended the "Stop the Steal" rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

And in Mississippi, Trump loyalist Michael Cassidy lost a runoff election to incumbent Rep. Michael Guest, who had voted to create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack. Cassidy said in campaign speeches that Guest had done nothing to stop "the persecution of Jan. 6 political prisoners."

Lightning rods win

Two Republicans familiar with controversy tested for the first time whether Republican voters deemed them too extreme to go back to Congress. They both prevailed.

First-term Rep. Mary Miller, who campaigned alongside Trump over the weekend, defeated five-term Rep. Rodney Davis, who was considered more moderate. The primary victory all but ensures Miller will return to Congress for another term given the heavy Republican advantage in her 15th Congressional District, which is the most Republican district in the state.

Miller won just days after describing the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade as "a victory for white life." A spokesperson later said she had intended to say the decision was a victory for a "right to life."

Miller is no stranger to provocative statements. Soon after joining the House, Miller quoted Adolf Hitler, saying he was right to say that "whoever has the youth has the future."

And in Colorado, Trump loyalist Lauren Boebert defeated a moderate state representative who had run a primary campaign focused on Boebert's extremism. It didn't work.

Boebert's controversial moves are many. She vowed to carry a handgun on the House floor. She faced calls for her censure last year after being caught on video making Islamophobic comments about Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. And she heckled President Joe Biden in his first State of the Union address.

But after winning her primary, she is almost certain to return to Congress for another two years. Her GOP-leaning 3rd Congressional District in western Colorado became even more Republican after redistricting.

WASHINGTON —

In one of the biggest days of this year's primary campaign season, voters rejected a measure that would have made it easier to restrict abortion rights in red-state Kansas and repudiated a scandal-tarred former governor seeking a U.S. Senate seat in Missouri.

Meanwhile, a political newcomer emerged from Michigan's messy Republican gubernatorial primary, setting up a rare woman-vs.-woman general election matchup between conservative commentator Tudor Dixon and incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. And a Democratic congressman was ousted from Congress after redistricting forced him into the same primary as a fellow incumbent.

Takeaways from election results Tuesday night:

RED-STATE KANSAS REJECTS ANTI-ABORTION AMENDMENT

Kansas may seem like an unlikely place for abortion rights supporters to notch a major victory.

But on Tuesday, voters in the conservative state resoundingly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed the Legislature to ban abortion. It was the first major test of voter sentiment since the Supreme Court ruling in June to rescind the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

The amendment would have allowed the Legislature to overturn a 2019 state Supreme Court decision declaring access to abortion a "fundamental" right under the state constitution.

Its failure at the ballot in a state Donald Trump won by nearly 15 points issues a stark warning to Republicans, who have downplayed the political impact of the high court's ruling. It also hands a considerable win to Democrats, who are feeling newly energized heading into what was expected to be a tough midterm election season for them.

Kansas currently allows abortion until the 22nd week of pregnancy. After that, abortion is allowed only to save a patient's life or to prevent "a substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function."

Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who supports abortion rights, has warned that the Republican-led Legislature's efforts to ban abortion would hurt the state. On Tuesday it became clear than many voters agree with her.

___

GREITENS' COMEBACK COLLAPSES

Democratic hopes of picking up a U.S. Senate seat in deep-red Missouri faltered Tuesday after Republican voters selected Attorney General Eric Schmitt as their nominee over former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in disgrace in 2018.

Greitens, they predicted, would be toxic in a general election. Democrats landed a strong recruit in beer heir Trudy Busch Valentine, who won her primary Tuesday. And the state's Republican establishment prepared to put millions of dollars behind an independent candidate in the general election, potentially fracturing the GOP vote.

But Greitens came on short Tuesday, finishing in a distant third behind Schmitt and U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler. His campaign's tailspin can likely be traced back to March, when his ex-wife submitted a bombshell legal filing in the former couple's child custody case.

Sheena Greitens said in a sworn statement that Eric Greitens had abused her and one of their young sons. She also said he displayed such "unstable and coercive behavior" in the lead-up to his 2018 resignation that others took steps to limit his access to firearms.

At the time, Greitens faced potential impeachment after his former hairdresser testified that he blindfolded and restrained her in his basement, assaulted her and appeared to take a compromising photo to pressure her to keep quiet about an affair.

He resigned from office — and avoided testifying under oath about the affair.

He launched his comeback campaign for Senate last year, marketing himself as an unabashedly pro-Trump conservative. And while many in Missouri wrote him off, one important political figure didn't: Donald Trump, who mused publicly about Greitens' attributes.

But in the end, Trump stopped short of issuing an endorsement, instead issuing a vague statement this week throwing his support behind "ERIC."

And on Tuesday, the other "ERIC" in the race — Schmitt — won.

___

MESSY RACE IN MICHIGAN

At its essence, Michigan's raucous Republican gubernatorial primary was a contest of which candidate's personal baggage was the least disqualifying. On Tuesday, conservative media personality Tudor Dixon was the victor, setting up a November general election against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the battleground state.

Dixon's past as an actor in a series of vulgar and low-budget horror movies became a campaign issue. But her career moonlighting in titles such as "Buddy BeBop Vs. the Living Dead" and a vampire TV series called "Transitions" paled in comparison to her rivals' problems.

One of them, Ryan Kelley, faces federal misdemeanor charges after he was recorded on video in Washington during the Jan. 6 insurrection directing a mob of Trump supporters toward a set of stairs leading to the U.S. Capitol. Kelley has pleaded not guilty.

Another, Kevin Rinke, is a former car dealer who settled a series of lawsuits in the 1990s after he was alleged to have made racist and sexist comments, which included calling women "ignorant and stupid" and stating that they "should not be allowed to work in public."

A third, Garrett Soldano, is a chiropractor and self-help guru who has sold supplements he falsely claimed were a therapeutic treatment for the coronavirus.

Many in the state's Republican establishment, including billionaire former Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos, view Dixon as their best shot at defeating Whitmer. Trump endorsed Dixon in the race Friday, just a few days before the primary.

But her primary victory is an outcome few would have predicted months ago. In addition to the shortcomings of her rivals, her path was cleared when the two best-known candidates in the race were kicked off the ballot in May for submitting false petition signatures.

___

PRO-ISRAEL LOBBY STRIKES AGAIN

Redistricting forced two Democratic House incumbents into a bitter primary in eastern Michigan. But massive spending by the pro-Israel lobby is what may have doomed Rep. Andy Levin, a former president of his synagogue, in the race Tuesday against Rep. Haley Stevens for a suburban Detroit congressional seat.

Stevens, who attends a nondenominational megachurch in the city of Troy, was buoyed by more than $4 million in advertising spending by the United Democracy Project, a super PAC launched by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, commonly called AIPAC.

The ads amplified Stevens' campaign message, but some also attacked Levin. But it's hardly a surprise that the group, which is partially funded by two billionaire Republican megadonors, went after Levin despite his Jewish faith.

Levin, a progressive member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has been highly critical of Israel's record on human rights and what he has called the country's "deliberate campaign to dilute the Palestinian population." He's also just the latest congressional Democrat who has been defeated following a spending blitz by the group, which has poured at least $24 million into federal races this year.

NEW YORK CITY — The National Basketball Association announced Tuesday that teams would not play any games on Election Day this year.

The league said that the decision not to play that day was so "the NBA family’s focus on promoting nonpartisan civic engagement and encouraging fans to make a plan to vote during midterm elections."

CNN reported that the league added that teams would share information on the voting processes in their state and registration deadlines leading up to Nov. 8.

According to the Associated Press, 30 teams are scheduled to play on Nov. 7, the night before the midterm elections.

The move for the league to not play on Election Day is a rare one, the news outlet pointed out. Typically the league doesn't play on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, nor do they try to play on the day of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game, the Associated Press reported.

“It’s unusual. We don’t usually change the schedule for an external event,” executive director of the NBA’s social justice coalition James Cadogan told NBC. “But voting and Election Day are obviously unique and incredibly important to our democracy.”

This isn't the first time the NBA has become involved in election-related issues.

The news outlets reported that in 2020, several NBA teams made their arenas available for polling places.

As voters head to the polls, they'll get to vote to see who will fill all 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats that are available, the news outlets reported.

According to CNN, 36 states will be electing governors.

Former President Barack Obama is headed to Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin in the closing days of the 2022 campaign to give a boost to Democrats running for governor, senator and on down the ballot. He goes first to Atlanta, where Stacey Abrams is taking on Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Nov. 8. She lost a close race to him in 2018.As in 2020, Georgia also may once again decide which party controls the Senate. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is facing a challenge from Republican Herschel Walker, a football star making his first bid for public office. After campaigning in Atlanta on Oct. 28, Obama plans stops the following day in Detroit and Milwaukee for events to help get out the vote.In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is running against Tudor Dixon, a onetime commentator for a conservative online program who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Michigan voters also are deciding whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.In Wisconsin, Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Ron Johnson and become the state's first Black senator.Barnes, who is from Milwaukee, the state's largest city and home to the largest group of African American voters, has been trying to energize Black voters in a race that a Marquette University Law School poll this past week showed Johnson with an apparent lead. Obama also hopes to give a boost to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is being challenged by Tim Michels, a construction company co-owner who is endorsed by Trump. Marquette polls for months have shown that race to be about even.

JUNEAU, Alaska —

Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has won reelection, defeating Donald Trump-endorsed GOP rival Kelly Tshibaka.

Murkowski beat Tshibaka in the Nov. 8 ranked choice election. The results were announced Wednesday, when elections officials tabulated the ranked choice results after neither candidate won more than 50% of first-choice votes.

The race also included Democrat Pat Chesbro and Republican Buzz Kelley, who suspended his campaign after the August primary and endorsed Tshibaka.

Murkowski was the only Senate Republican who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial last year who was on the ballot this year. Trump was not convicted. But her vote was a sore point for the former president, who vowed to campaign against her.

In 2020, before that year's election and far before Tshibaka jumped into the Senate race, Trump announced plans to campaign against Murkowski after she criticized him: "Get any candidate ready, good or bad, I don't care, I'm endorsing. If you have a pulse, I'm with you!"

He appeared at a rally in Anchorage in July for Tshibaka and Sarah Palin, whose run for Alaska's lone U.S. House seat he endorsed. He more recently participated in a telerally for Tshibaka in late October. Tshibaka, who worked in federal inspectors general offices before leading the Alaska Department of Administration for two years, credited Trump with helping to raise her name recognition and give her candidacy a boost.

Murkowski, who was censured by state Republican party leaders last year for offenses that included her impeachment vote, paid little attention to Trump during a campaign in which she emphasized a willingness to work across party lines and focused on her record and seniority. Murkowski, a moderate who has been in the Senate since 2002, is the most senior member of Alaska's congressional delegation following the death in March of Republican Rep. Don Young, who held Alaska's House seat for 49 years.

Murkowski is no stranger to tough reelection fights. She won a general election write-in campaign in 2010 after losing her party primary that year to a tea party Republican. Coming into this race, she had never won a general election with more than 50% of the vote.

This year's elections were held under a new system approved by voters in 2020 that replaced party primaries with open primaries and instituted ranked voting in general elections. Under the open primary system, the top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election.

Tshibaka criticized a super PAC aligned with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell for running ads against her when she said those resources could have been used to help Republicans in other states.

She said she "ranked the red," or the Republican candidates, on her ballot — but not in the Senate race. She said she did not consider Murkowski a "red" candidate.

"I didn't vote her either," Murkowski said on Election Day.

PHOENIX —

Kari Lake, the Republican defeated in Arizona governor's race, is formally challenging her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs, asking a court to throw out certified election results from the state's most populous county and either declare her the winner or rerun the governor's election in that county.

The lawsuit filed late Friday by Lake centers on long lines and other difficulties that people experienced while voting on Election Day in Maricopa County. The challenge filed in Maricopa County Superior Court also alleges hundreds of thousands of ballots were illegally cast, but there's no evidence that's true.

Lake has refused to acknowledge that she lost to Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes.

The Donald Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate has bombarded Maricopa County with complaints, largely related to a problem with printers at some vote centers that led to ballots being printed with markings that were too light to be read by the on-site tabulators.

Lines backed up in some polling places, fueling Republican suspicions that some supporters were unable to cast a ballot, though there's no evidence it affected the outcome. County officials say everyone was able to vote and all legal ballots were counted.

Lake sued Maricopa County officials and Hobbs in her current role as Arizona's secretary of state.

Sophia Solis, a spokesperson for the secretary of state's office, said Lake's lawsuit was being reviewed but had no other comment on the filing.

Jason Berry, a Maricopa County spokesperson, declined to comment on Lake's request to throw out the county's election results in the governor's race. But he said the county "respects the election contest process and looks forward to sharing facts about the administration of the 2022 general election and our work to ensure every legal voter had an opportunity to cast their ballot."

Lake's lawsuit says Republicans were disproportionately affected by the problems in Maricopa County because they outvoted Democrats on Election Day 3-1. GOP leaders had urged their voters to wait until Election Day to vote.

In late November, Lake filed a public records lawsuit demanding Maricopa County hand over documents related to the election. She was seeking to identify voters who may have had trouble casting a ballot, such as people who checked in at more than one vote center or those who returned a mail ballot and also checked in at a polling place.

During the summer, a federal judge also rejected a request by Lake and Mark Finchem, the defeated Republican candidate for secretary of state, to require hand counting of all ballots during the November election.

The judge has since sanctioned lawyers representing Lake and Finchem, saying they "made false, misleading, and unsupported factual assertions" in their lawsuit. The lawyers told the court that their claims were "legally sound and supported by strong evidence."

Hobbs in her role as secretary of state has petitioned a court to begin an automatic statewide recount required by law in three races decided by less than half a percentage point.

The race for attorney general was one of the closest contests in state history, with Democrat Kris Mayes leading Republican Abe Hamadeh by just 510 votes out of 2.5 million cast.

The races for superintendent of public instruction and a state legislative seat in the Phoenix suburbs will also be recounted, but the margins are much larger.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire at the end of this session, according to sources.

The 83-year-old has been a consistent liberal vote on the court. Now, President Joe Biden will have a chance to nominate his first Supreme Court Justice pick of his presidency.

McGeorge School of Law Professor Leslie Jacobs joined Sacramento sister station KCRA to discuss one of Biden's top candidates from California – Justice Leondra Kruger.

Biden is eyeing at least three judges for the expected vacancy, and each of them would fulfill his campaign pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the nation’s highest court, according to aides and allies.

Kruger is currently a justice on the California Supreme Court. She is a graduate of Harvard and Yale’s law school and was previously a Supreme Court clerk. Kruger has argued a dozen cases before the justices as a lawyer for the federal government.

"She brings excellent qualifications; she has an excellent law school education; she has private law firm experience, government experience and now she has experience being a judge on the California Supreme Court," Jacobs said on Wednesday. "She has shown herself to be reasoned and deliberate in her opinions. Not wild or ideological."

Jacobs said Kruger is comparable to Breyer because her rulings are practical.

"One thing is the stakes are not as high as they have been because the lineup on the court is set. So, that is not on the table. At the same time, we can expect there will be posturing and opposition, but the question would be 'Will there be such opposition that Republicans, for example, would try to stop this?' But they actually do not have the power to do so unless some Democratic senators were to defect," Jacobs said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom remarked on Breyer stepping down Wednesday.

The San Francisco native "has brought core California values to our nation’s highest court throughout his distinguished tenure, shaping impactful decisions to strengthen our democracy and change lives for the better," Newsom said.

Justice Breyer will retire at the end of the summer, according to two sources who confirmed the news to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Senate can confirm a successor before there is a formal vacancy, so the White House was getting to work and it was expected to take at least a few weeks before a nomination was formalized.

Other successors Biden is considering include U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.