Tonight we're liveblogging primary and runoff results Oklahoma (polls close at 8pm ET) and Arizona (10pm). There are also primaries in Vermont (where polls closed at 7pm) and Alaska (12am). Our writeup of all the key federal races in OK and AZ can be found
here.
Results: Alaska | Arizona | Oklahoma | Vermont
7:30 PM PT (David Jarman): While we wait for numbers in Arizona, you might take a moment to familiarize yourself with some of the night's legislative races; CF of Aus's diary contains a lot of detail about state House races. The highest profile legislative primary of the night, though, is probably SD-25's Republican primary where Russell Pearce, recalled last year, is now attempting a comeback in a slightly different district. Also keep an eye on HD-01, where Republican state House speaker Andy Tobin is piled into a district with two other incumbents. (Remember that Arizona has an unusual system where there are two House members per legislative district, and the top two finishers in each primary advance to the general.)
7:36 PM PT (Steve Singiser): For those thinking that Arizona is starting their evening with a ganja break, it is worth noting that website for the Arizona Secretary of State says that no results will be posted till after 8 PM local time.
8:14 PM PT (David Jarman): It looks like the Arizona SoS site is well ahead of the AP, at least in terms of reporting early votes. Statewide, we've got nearly 214K votes in; in the GOP Senate primary, Jeff Flake is smooshing Wil Cardon, 71-20. Not a terribly good investment for self-funder Cardon.
8:17 PM PT (David Jarman): In the 9th, we've got 23K early votes. For the Dems, Kyrsten Sinema is in an early lead, with David Schapira in 2nd and Andrei Cherny lagging. It's Sinema 43, Schapira 30, Cherny 26. Over on the GOP side, as predicted, it's anyone's ballgame. Vernon Parker is at 23, Wendy Rogers and Martin Sepulveda are at 21, with Travis Grantham at 16.
8:19 PM PT (David Jarman): In AZ-05's Republican primary... the member-on-member primary between two freshmen... it looks like David Schweikert is up 56-44 over Ben Quayle. (Schweikert is a veteran of local politics, so that probably gave him an edge over Quayle, who really has nothing but a last name to run on.)
8:21 PM PT (David Jarman): The under-the-radar Republican primary in open AZ-05 (to succeed Jeff Flake) looks like a return engagement for Matt Salmon, who's been out of the House for a decade. He leads former state House speaker Kirk Adams 57-42.
8:21 PM PT: Pretty epic ganja break in Vermont, by the way. (Shocker, right?) The AG's race has been stuck on 245 of 258 precincts reporting for ages. Incumbent Bill Sorrell leads TJ Donovan 51-49.
8:23 PM PT (David Jarman): There are relatively uninteresting primaries on both sides in AZ-01. For the Dems, ex-Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick is well ahead of Wenona Baldenegro, who got some netroots backing but very little money to back that up with. Kirkpatrick leads 64-36. On the GOP side, Jonathan Paton (whom you might remember from '10's primary in old AZ-08) is at 60% against a gaggle of no-names.
8:26 PM PT (David Jarman): The Dem primary in AZ-02 isn't looking competitive at all. State Rep. Matt Heinz trails Rep. Ron Barber 83-17. Barber will face Martha McSally, who's posting similar numbers against a GOP no-name.
8:28 PM PT (David Jarman): In fact, Barber's having an easier time of it than Raul Grijalva, in AZ-03, which hadn't been on anybody's radar. He's facing off against Amanda Aguirre, who's a former state legislator, and winning 70-23.
8:29 PM PT (David Jarman): That leaves one last major race: the GOP primary in AZ-04, where Rep. Paul Gosar leads state Sen. Ron Gould 51-32. Some Dude named Rick Murphy is inexplicably vacuuming up 17% of the vote there.
8:34 PM PT (David Jarman): We've already got a call in AZ-Sen from the AP. Naturally, it's for Jeff Flake, who'll face off against Dem Richard Carmona (who was unopposed tonight).
8:38 PM PT (Steve Singiser): With more than a third of the vote in, AZ-05 (R) remains pretty tight: Matt Salmon leads Kirk Adams 54-46.
8:53 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Here's a quick update on the closer battles in Arizona:
- With just over half of the precincts in, Matt Salmon leads Kirk Adams by a 55-45 margin in AZ-05 (R).
- Over in AZ-06 (R), with exactly one-third of precincts in, it is Schwiekert 54, Quayle 46 in the battle of the Incumbents.
- Two-thirds of the precincts are in for Paul Gosar in AZ-04 (R), and he still holds a 50-32 lead over Ron Gould.
- Meanwhile, in AZ-09, it must be break time--few votes have been added since that first wave. Therefore, it is still Parker (R) and Sinema (D) out in front.
8:53 PM PT (Steve Singiser): One race has been called, though the result has been baked in for some time: AP calls AZ-01 (R) for Jonathan Paton.
8:56 PM PT (Steve Singiser): AP follows with another self-evident call: newly-minted incumbent Rep. Ron Barber easily wins AZ-02 (D), blasting Matt Heinz by a five-to-one margin.
8:57 PM PT (Steve Singiser): And the battle is joined in AZ-02: the GOP primary, as expected, has been called for Martha McSally.
9:00 PM PT: The liveblog continues here.