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In the Indiana primary election Tuesday night, Republican voters picked Mike Braun, the outsider candidate to go head to head with vulnerable Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly this November.
An entrepreneur and former state lawmaker Mike Braun is projected to win the three-way race with established political names Reps. Todd Rokita and Luke Messer. It was a bruising face-off, void of much actual policy, but chock-full of kissing up to Trump. Donnelly is running unopposed.
There are also a couple interesting House races in Indiana, where Democrats eye an opportunity to turn districts blue in the general election.
Live results below. Polls close at 6 pm local time (some counties in Indiana are in the Central time zone; others are Eastern time).
Indiana Republican Senate primary
Update: Mike Braun is the projected winner.
This is a heated, and nasty, three-way race among three similar conservative white men: Rokita, Messer, and Braun. It’s been a mudslinging race to out-Trump one another, but Trump has stayed away from endorsing anyone.
Regardless of which Republican wins, he won’t come out unscathed. The primary has moved the Republicans far to the right and has been pretty much void of policy. Instead, negative ads and talking points started early, with biting attacks from all three candidates. It’s giving Donnelly some hope, but Indiana is still a strong Trump state (and Vice President Mike Pence’s home state) and one of the biggest opportunities for Republicans this year.
Indiana’s Second Congressional District: a crowded Democratic primary in Sen. Donnelly’s former district
Update: Mel Hall is the projected winner.
A competitive Democratic primary has unfolded in Donnelly’s former House district. It’s a race to unseat Rep. Jackie Walorski, a three-term Republican Congress member in a district covering South Bend, the central-north region of the state. It’s an area that has turned increasingly red (Trump won the district by 23 points, and it was rated R+10 after a bout of Republican-led redistricting efforts in 2011) but has some Democratic roots.
Of the six Democrats vying for the chance to turn the district blue in November, three have stood out: Mel Hall, a pastor turned CEO of a health care survey company with a more moderate policy platform, who has the support of some national Democrats and is the establishment pick; Pat Hackett, an attorney with a specialty in health care, estate, and probate law, who is openly gay and running on a progressive message; and Yatish Joshi, a manufacturing entrepreneur
and Indian-born immigrant who is also running on a progressive message. Hall has raised the most money of the three, followed by Joshi, then Hackett.
The question before voters is which vision can better secure a win in a solidly red district.
Indiana’s Ninth Congressional District: a target of the DCCC
Update: Liz Watson is the projected winner.
Three Democrats are in this race: Liz Watson, a labor attorney and former adviser to congressional Democrats, who has raised the most in this race; Dan Canon, a prominent civil rights lawyer in Louisville (he helped win the Kentucky same-sex marriage case) based in New Albany, Indiana; and Rob Chatlos, an independent-running-as-a-Democrat truck driver, who is not raising money and has reported no contributions.
One of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s targets in 2018, this south-central district between Louisville and Indianapolis has flipped between Democratic and Republican control in recent history. It’s currently held by Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth III, a one-term representative and native Tennessean who moved to Indiana in September 2015 — a month before declaring his candidacy in the district.
Depending on who wins in this race, Democrats hope Hollingsworth’s short history in the region and the energy in their voter base this year could turn the district blue once more.
