It Was a Big Primary Night, and a Good One for the GOP

FiveThirtyEight dubbed it "Super Tuesday III." Yesterday marked the last major primary day of the election year, with voters in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington casting a ballot. And the results have Republicans largely breathing a sigh of relief. Major takeaways.

• How Steven Shepard at Politico puts the overall outcome for the GOP: They started Tuesday "with problems lurking all over the ballot, but they ended the night thanking their voters for cleaning up a potential mess." And their victories weren't just "symbolic" ones, continues Shepard, but wins that upped their chances of retaining control of the Senate.
• One of the biggest potential pitfalls was in Kansas, where Democrats looked to have a shot at winning their fist Senate race since 1932, reports CNN—so long as former Kansas secretary of state/"polarizing candidate" Kris Kobach won the Republican primary for the seat left by the retiring Sen. Pat Roberts, reports NBC News. Kobach, who lost the 2018 gubernatorial race to a Democrat despite President Trump easily winning the state 2 years prior, didn't. Rep. Roger Marshall, who had the support of establishment Republicans, emerged the night's much more electable victor.

• CNN reports Marshall will go up against Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier, whose $7.8 million fundraising tally is a state record.
• As far as Democratic primaries go, Missouri was home to a huge upset Tuesday night, with activist Cori Bush besting Rep. William Lacy Clay, who has for 20 years held the seat that his father occupied for three decades before him in Missouri's 1st Congressional District..
• The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's take: The win puts Bush "on a path to become the first Black woman to represent Missouri in the nation's capital." It reports Bush has been frank about her life and struggles as a single mom of two, which has included eviction. Her words on Tuesday night: "It is historic that this year, of all the years, we're sending a Black, working-class, single mother, who's been fighting for Black lives since Ferguson, all the way to the halls of congress."
• Another potential upset is brewing in Michigan, where results aren't expected until some time Wednesday. In the 13th District, "squad" member Rashida Tlaib is up against Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones, who lost to Tlaib by 1 percentage point two years ago—amidst a larger set of candidates, reports the AP.
• One more noteworthy result out of Missouri: Politico reports voters opted to expand Medicaid to nearly a quarter of a million low-income residents, "making their conservative state the second to join the Obamacare program through the ballot during the pandemic." (This was the first.)