RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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x whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info By Al Jazeera Staff and The Associated Press Published On 4 Aug 2026 4 Aug 2026 Voters in five US states – Kansas, Missouri, Virginia, Michigan , and Washington – are headed to the polls for another key round of midterm primaries, where they will choose the Republican and Democratic candidates to compete in November’s elections.
Several of the contests on Tuesday will help shape the battle for control of the US Congress, where Democrats need to flip four Senate seats and three House of Representatives seats to regain the majority. Others will test President Donald Trump’s influence over the Republican Party, and highlight growing divisions within the Democratic Party over issues including Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and a progressive flank that has been gaining ground.
You can read about the Michigan primary here . But there are also crucial races happening across four other states, from competitive House battlegrounds to high-profile intraparty fights that could offer an early glimpse of the political landscape heading into November.
The biggest contest in Kansas is not for Congress but for governor, where both parties are choosing nominees to replace Democrat Laura Kelly, who has already served two terms and cannot run again.
The open race gives Republicans a major opportunity to reclaim the governor’s office in a state that Trump won comfortably in 2024. But Kansas has a long history of electing governors from the opposite party, making the race more competitive than its Republican tilt might suggest. Trump has already weighed in, endorsing Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson.
Masterson is one of seven Republicans running for the nomination, including Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, and several others.
Schwab has emerged as one of Masterson’s highest-profile rivals after gaining national attention for defending the integrity of Kansas’s elections against Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen and breaking with Republicans on voting rights issues, even while maintaining a broadly conservative record.
On the Democratic side, state Senators Ethan Corson and Cindy Holscher are competing against Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog.
Another closely watched race in Kansas will be in the 3rd Congressional District, one of the state’s few politically competitive seats, and a target for Republicans.
Representative Sharice Davids, the only Democrat in Kansas’s congressional delegation, is seeking another term after winning the district four consecutive times, despite a redistricting effort to make it more favourable to Republicans.
Davids faces a primary challenge from progressive Democrat Sarah Preu, who argues Davis has not gone far enough on issues like immigration. Preu is campaigning on abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, ending US military aid to Israel and refusing donations from corporate political action committees, positioning herself as the more progressive alternative to Davids.
Missouri’s heavily Democratic 1st Congressional District will see Representative Wesley Bell face former Representative Cori Bush, who was part of a group of progressive House members known as The Squad , in a bitter rematch.
The primary will also be the first held under Missouri’s newly redrawn congressional map, approved by Republicans after Trump urged Republican-led states to redraw congressional boundaries in hopes of expanding the party’s House majority.
Bell narrowly unseated Bush in 2024 , ending the progressive former Black Lives Matter organiser’s two terms in Congress. The two are now squaring off again in a race that has become an early test of whether Democratic voters are shifting back towards more progressive candidates, particularly as criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza has grown within the party.
Bush, an early advocate of a Gaza ceasefire and a fierce critic of US military support for Israel, has cast the race as a fight against the Democratic establishment and the influence of pro-Israel money. Bell has taken a more traditional Democratic approach, backing Israel while arguing the US should also press its ally to improve humanitarian conditions and protect civilians.
The race has once again attracted millions of dollars in outside spending from the political arm of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC , which spent about $3.1m in July backing Bell and opposing Bush ahead of the primary, according to the Associated Press. Bell has also picked up endorsements from Democratic leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But Gaza is only part of the story. Both candidates emerged from the political movement that followed the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and voters are also weighing their records on healthcare, disaster relief and local issues. Because the district is safely Democratic, whoever wins the primary will be favoured in November.
While Virginia is unlikely to decide control of the Senate, several of its congressional races could play an outsized role in the fight for the House.
In the coastal 2nd District, Republican Representative Jen Kiggans, a US Navy veteran and former state senator, is defending one of the country’s most competitive swing seats against former Democratic Representative Elaine Luria, also a Navy veteran who served on the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Home to one of the US’s largest military communities, the district has become a top Democratic target, with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee adding Luria to its “Red to Blue” programme, which provides extra support to some of the party’s most competitive challengers.
Democrats will also be defending Representative Eugene Vindman in the 7th District, where he won by under three percentage points in 2024, making the seat another top Republican target. Three Repu...
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