WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Voters in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware picked candidates for the U.S. Congress and other offices on Tuesday in primaries partly defined by former President Donald Trump’s lasting influence.
Following are three key races:
NEW HAMPSHIRE U.S. SENATE, REPUBLICAN PRIMARY
Don Bolduc, a retired U.S. Army general, was locked in a close race with Chuck Morse, president of the state Senate, for the Republican nomination to take on Democratic U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan in a Nov. 8 election that could decide which party controls the Senate. Bolduc has attracted attention for calling New Hampshire’s Republican Governor Chris Sununu a “Chinese Communist sympathizer” and for falsely claiming that Trump was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election, echoing Trump’s false claim that Democrat Joe Biden won because of fraud.
NEW HAMPSHIRE 1ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, REPUBLICAN PRIMARY
Two former Trump administration officials faced off to take on Democratic U.S. Representative Chris Pappas in New Hampshire. Karoline Leavitt, a former Trump White House aide who has backed the former president’s false election claims, won the nomination, beating Matt Mowers, a former State Department official under Trump endorsed by U.S. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy. Leavitt is seen by analysts as an easier target for Pappas, who only narrowly won over Mowers in 2020.
RHODE ISLAND 2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
The Rhode Island contest is seen by analysts as competitive in November as incumbent Democrat James Langevin is retiring. Allan Fung, a moderate former mayor of Cranston, ran unopposed in the Republican primary. He has disavowed Trump’s false election fraud claims and says he would have backed a major gun reform passed by Congress in June. On the Democratic side, state Treasurer Seth Magaziner, who has led the field in fundraising, won the party nomination over Sarah Morgenthau, who served in the Commerce Department in the Biden administration.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)
