(WASHINGTON) — The first multistate contest of the 2022 midterm season kicks off Tuesday with primary races in Ohio and Indiana.
Ohio’s Senate race marks the first major test of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement power at the polls.
Here’s how the races are developing today. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.
May 03, 7:33 pm
Polls close in Ohio
Polls closed at 7:30 p.m. across Ohio, where voters cast ballots in primaries for the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as for governor, attorney general, secretary of state and auditor.
Key races in the state are expected to shed light on the endorsement power of both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
The Ohio secretary of state’s office released final early voting totals — showing that 301,837 absentee ballots were requested by-mail or in person, and that 263,542 votes had already been cast statewide.
Those numbers surpass the 2018 total of 300,765 absentee ballots requested through the end of the early voting period and 260,443 total early votes cast.
Click here to follow the results live.
May 03, 7:26 pm
Polls close in Indiana
With the clock hitting 7 p.m., all polls are closed in Indiana.
The state’s primary races are for the House of Representatives and state legislature, as well as other statewide offices.
Click here to follow the results live.
May 03, 6:22 pm
Abortion rights take center stage on primary day
In the final hours of Ohio’s Senate primary, Republican candidates were quick to praise the prospect of overturning Roe v. Wade as the stunning leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion rocked the race overnight.
“I do think Roe was a big mistake. And I think if the Supreme Court overturns it, it will be a big success for the pro-life movement,” J.D. Vance, who got former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott.
“If it gets overturned, we’re gonna have a fight here in the state of Ohio. And I think I’m going to be on the front lines of that fight trying to get us here in Ohio to protect it,” he added.
Rep. Tim Ryan — the Democrats’ likely candidate in the hotly contested race, who once opposed abortion rights but changed positions in 2015 — called it a “freedom issue” that he predicted would motivate a lot of women “to vote for a senator who would be on their side.”
“I think in many ways to abortion is, in some sense, an economic issue as well. Should a woman be able to plan the size of her family? Should a woman be able to plan when she has a pregnancy? This is a freedom issue, really, for me, and I think it’s a freedom issue for a lot of these women,” Ryan told ABC News Senior Washington Reporter Devin Dwyer.
Ohio and Indiana are among the 26 states which are likely or certain to ban abortion if Roe falls or is gutted, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights research organization.
May 03, 6:05 pm
Ohio race framed as national barometer for Democrats
Tuesday’s rematch between Rep. Shontel Brown and former state senator Nina Turner for Ohio’s 11th Congressional District offers a real-time reflection of the divisions between the Democratic Party’s progressive and establishment wings — and a barometer for Democrats running across the country at the top of the midterm season.
Brown was first elected to Congress in a special election last year following former Rep. Marcia Fudge’s appointment to serve as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. While President Joe Biden endorsed Brown last Friday, calling her “an ardent advocate for the people of Ohio and a true partner in Congress,” leading progressive voices like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are backing Turner.
Turner and Brown approached the campaign trail from different ends of the Democratic political spectrum. Turner, a former co-chairwoman of Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, has previously criticized the Democratic Party and Biden.
May 03, 5:30 pm
What to watch for in Ohio
Tuesday’s Ohio Senate primary is among the first litmus tests of many this midterm season to gauge how much influence former President Donald Trump holds over the Republican Party. Almost all of the candidates — except for Matt Dolan — align with the former president, so even if “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance doesn’t win, the GOP nominee could well be a Trump-aligned Republican who endorses falsehoods about the 2020 election.
Another race seen as a test of Trump’s kingmaking power is in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, where the former president endorsed challenger and former aide Max Miller.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, chose to hand out only his second primary endorsement of the cycle in Ohio to Rep. Shontel Brown in her rematch against progressive powerhouse Nina Turner, a close ally of Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a race that has pit establishment Democrats against progressives.
Gov. Mike DeWine, who is seeking a second term, is expected to survive a Trump-inspired, though not endorsed, challenge to his COVID governance and establishment leanings.
-ABC News’ Political Director Rick Klein
May 03, 5:18 pm
What to watch for in Indiana
Some races in Indiana — such as the state’s 1st Congressional District where a slew of Republican challengers are vying to win the seat held by incumbent Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan — are seen as possible bellwethers for whether Republicans manage can flip districts in Democratic strongholds.
Indiana’s 9th Congressional District — the only vacant congressional seat in the state — is also in play when it comes to which party will control the House of Representatives after the midterms.
Along with Ohio, the state is an early indicator of the power of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, as Trump carried the state in 2020. Trump has backed six incumbent members of the House of Representatives in the state, including Rep. Greg Pence, former Vice President Mike Pence’s brother.
Polls close in Indiana at 7 p.m. ET, though there is some variation because the state falls within two time zones.
May 03, 4:28 pm
Supreme Court bombshell lands as Ohio tests Trump and Biden
Voters head to the polls in Ohio on Tuesday on the heels of a shocking leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion suggesting the court’s conservative majority may overturn nearly 50 years of abortion rights in America.
The endorsement power of former President Donald Trump — who promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe — faces a major test in the race of retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman in Ohio. While almost all the GOP candidates have centered their campaigns around being a Trump conservative, “never-Trumper” turned Trump ally J.D. Vance scored his coveted endorsement, upending the race.
On the Democratic side, the contest in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District between Rep. Shontel Brown and Nina Turner has pitted establishment Democrats against progressives. Biden endorsed Brown over Turner last week in his second primary endorsement of the election cycle, but progressives including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders have backed Turner.
A new ABC News/Washington Post polling out Tuesday shows that 60% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents want the GOP to follow Trump’s leadership — about where that’s been since he left office. By contrast, only about 53% of Democrats and independents who lean that way want to follow Biden’s leadership, with younger Democrats most solidly favoring a new direction.
-ABC News’ Political Director Rick Klein
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