Races to watch in the New Hampshire, Delaware and Rhode Island primaries 

Voters in New Hampshire, Delaware and Rhode Island will head to the polls on Tuesday to cast ballots in the last round of statewide and congressional primaries before November.  

In the Granite State, voters will pick their favorites to go head-to-head in the gubernatorial election to replace outgoing Gov. Chris Sununu (R). Democrats are also closely watching the primary between former Biden official Maggie Goodlander and former New Hampshire Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern to replace retiring Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.). 

Over in Delaware, each party has three members vying for their party’s respective nod in the race to become the state’s next leader, as Gov. John Carney (D) is term-limited.   

(Louisiana technically has the last set of primaries, which take place on Election Day, Nov. 5. They operate as open, rather than closed, primaries this cycle.) 

Here’s a look at five races to watch in the New Hampshire, Delaware and Rhode Island primaries: 

Race to replace Chris Sununu

The race to become New Hampshire’s governor, replacing Sununu after four terms, has largely narrowed to two Democrats and two Republicans. Former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and New Hampshire Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington are the Democratic front-runners while former Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and former New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse are the two main GOP contenders.  

Recent polls have shown Ayotte, who is also a former state attorney general, maintaining a comfortable lead over Morse, who also ran for Senate in 2022 and lost in the GOP primary. Ayotte has Sununu’s endorsement, in addition to other prominent Republicans in the state like former GOP Gov. Craig Benson and former GOP Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.). 

Meanwhile, Morse has received the backing of former Senate President Tom Eaton (R), former House Majority Leader Jack Flanagan (R) and a slew of current and past state lawmakers.  

Looming over the race, however, is whether Donald Trump will make a last-minute endorsement. Morse has sought to align himself more closely to the former president and suggested Ayotte is insufficiently conservative. But Ayotte has also attacked Morse, saying he “sounds like a Democrat” during a recent debate after Morse attacked her background at Blackstone.

Recent polling has also shown Craig beating Warmington. The opioid epidemic has become a flashpoint in the race, with Craig targeting Warmington in advertising over Warmington’s prior lobbying for Purdue Pharma, which made OxyContin and has taken a share of blame for the epidemic.  

Warmington’s campaign, meanwhile, has aired advertising attacking Craig over her handling of Manchester’s opioid crisis and homelessness. 

The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates the seat a “toss up.”  

Democrats duke it out for Kuster’s seat

Two Democrats are running for the party’s nod to replace Kuster after November: Goodlander, a former Biden official who served as counsel during Trump’s first impeachment and is married to national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and Van Ostern, former New Hampshire executive councilor and former campaign manager for Kuster.  

Recent public polling has shown Goodlander leading Van Ostern, though Van Ostern does have Kuster’s endorsement. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has endorsed Goodlander.  

The primary also had at times grown testy, particularly during a debate between the two last week, in which they attacked one another over reproductive access and their previous work experience.  

More than a dozen Republicans are also running for Kuster’s seat. Cook Political Report rates her seat “likely Democrat.” 

Campaign filings scandal rocks Delaware governor’s race

The gubernatorial race in the First State has attracted three Democrats and three Republican, since Carney is term-limited (and is instead running to be the next mayor of Wilmington). 

Delaware Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, former Delaware Secretary of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Collin O’Mara and New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer are running on the Democratic side.  

A flashpoint in the Democratic primary has revolved around an audit of Hall-Long’s campaign filings released this summer. The audit found that the campaign’s “account of expenditures in its public campaign finance reporting incomplete, inconsistent, and often inaccurate, leading to an unreliable picture of its financial affairs” and that close to $300,000, which was paid to her husband and campaign treasurer Dana Long, had not been reported on her filings. 

The report, however, has not led to criminal charges. Mara suggested that “an apolitical independent counsel review the findings” while Meyer has pushed for a federal investigation, according to Delaware Online.  

Hall-Long, who has Carney’s endorsement, said in a statement after the report that her “family has never benefited from my time in public office” and noted nothing was going to be referred to the Delaware state attorney general, according to WHYY.  

Three Republicans are also running for Delaware governor, though Cook Political Report rates the seat “solid Democrat.” 

McBride set to make history in Congress

Delaware state Sen. Sarah McBride (D) is running to replace Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) as the state’s at-large House member — and she’s set to make history, not only in her state but across the country.  

If McBride prevails in her Democratic primary against two other candidates on Tuesday and wins her election in November, she would be the first openly transgender member to serve in the Capitol. 

McBride already has the key advantage of having Blunt Rochester’s endorsement, in addition to the backing of Sens. Tom Carper (D) and Chris Coons (D).

Military veteran and businesswoman Donyale Hall and John Whalen III, who served in the Delaware Department of Public Safety, Division of State Police, are running on the GOP side.  

President Biden won the state by roughly 20 points in 2020, making whoever wins in the Democratic primary on Tuesday the heavy favorite in the fall.