Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, Idaho and Oregon primaries

Josh Shapiro will win the Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial primary, CNN projects.

Shapiro was running unopposed.

Polls are closing in Pennsylvania, one of five states having primary elections today.

The GOP Senate race has received the most attention — and remains close. Strategists admit any one of three candidates — TV doctor Mehmet Oz (who Trump endorsed), conservative activist Kathy Barnette or businessman David McCormick — could wind up the winner. Democrats seem likely to nominate Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke recently.

While the Senate race is the marquee contest of the night, it's also worth watching the Republican primary for governor. State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who was in Washington on January 6, 2021, and has been a leading voice pushing false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, looks like the favorite — and has the endorsement of (you guessed it!) Trump.

Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn said he spoke with former President Donald Trump a day before Tuesday's primary election; the freshman congressman believes “his brand of conservatism” will prevail across the state as a rebuke to the “establishment” that is trying to oust him. 

Cawthorn tells CNN that he actually missed a call from Trump the day before Trump posted about Cawthorn’s race on Truth Social and said Trump left a voicemail letting him know.

Cawthorn wouldn’t share what Trump said in the conversation or allow CNN to hear the voicemail. 

Instead the congressman did praise Trump’s political instincts, saying he believes “his brand of conservatism” will prevail across the state, offering something of a rebuke to the “establishment” that is trying to oust Cawthorn.  

He has repeatedly acknowledged the awkward situation that could be ahead if he wins the primary, considering the majority of powerful Republicans in his state have pushed his challengers. 

Cawthorn also called Trump a “father-like” figure and said he felt like the Trump post was “of course, helpful” but forcefully noted that he was the first of the Carolina candidates to get an endorsement from Trump back in March 2021.

He called this more like appreciated get out the vote encouragement. Cawthorn pushed back when asked if he was concerned Trump hadn’t been involved in the race previously or sent out an official email endorsement like other NC candidates. 

Instead, Cawthorn again praised Trump and his influence on the Republican Party, pointing to the JD Vance victory in Ohio. 

Rep. Ted Budd, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, will win the North Carolina GOP Senate primary, CNN projects.

GOP Sen. Richard Burr’s retirement opened the door to a raucous GOP primary in North Carolina. While Budd won the prized endorsement Trump, that wasn’t enough to clear the field. The former President reportedly told former Rep. Mark Walker that he would endorse him in a House race if Walker would leave the Senate race, an offer Walker declined.

Budd also faced off against Gov. Pat McCrory, who was attacked by Trump for two failed gubernatorial campaigns, and army veteran Marjorie K. Eastm

Democrats nominated former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, CNN projected. If Beasley wins, she would make history by becoming the state’s first Black senator. 

Budd was the first non-incumbent who Trump endorsed in the 2022 cycle, and he was also backed by the conservative Club for Growth’s political arm, which spent more than $11 million bolstering Budd and casting McCrory as too liberal. The Club for Growth and Trump have been at odds in other races, including Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

With Trump’s backing, Budd consolidated support from conservatives -- despite Walker’s presence in the race and attempts to challenge him for that same pool of voters.

Burr's retirement has made North Carolina's Senate race one of the most closely watched contests of the 2022 midterm elections, with Republicans' hopes of winning a Senate majority depending in part on their ability to hold the seat.

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Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley will win the Democratic Senate primary in North Carolina, CNN projects.

If she were to win the general election, she would be North Carolina's first Black senator.

Many Republican candidates in this year’s midterm primaries have courted the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, but recent polling suggests his backing isn’t entirely a guarantee of success. 

An NBC News poll conducted in early May found that a majority (55%) of self-described Republican primary voters feel Trump should continue to lead the GOP. But a sizable minority either says Trump was a good president, but it’s time for new leadership (33%) or that they think Trump was a bad president and it’s time to move on (10%). 

Asked specifically whether a Trump endorsement made them hypothetically more likely to support a candidate for office, 45% of Republicans said that it did, according to a national Quinnipiac University poll in late April. The poll suggests that support may be less of a boost in a general election contest, however, as only 18% of all adults said Trump’s backing would make them more likely to support a candidate.

In Pennsylvania, where multiple candidates for governor and Senate courted Trump’s stamp of approval, a Fox News poll found that about half of Republican primary voters called candidates’ strong support for Trump extremely (27%) or very important (23%), while about half considered it less critical (28% somewhat important and 22% not at all important). 

A Monmouth University poll conducted in Pennsylvania late last month after Dr. Mehmet Oz had received Trump’s backing in the Senate primary found that 54% of Republican primary voters there saw Oz as a strong supporter of Trump, dropping to 30% for Dave McCormick and just 17% for Kathy Barnette.

Election results for Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, won’t be known for a few days following a printing error on thousands of mail-in ballots. 

About 22,000 mail-in ballots were printed with the incorrect code and could not be read by scanners, according to ​​the Pennsylvania Department of State. 

Officials said the process for fixing the issue will include county election officials remarking the ballots by hand and then scanning them. The process is in line with state law but would likely “take county officials a few days,” a State Department spokesperson said.  

Diane Topakian, chair of the Lancaster Democratic Committee, told CNN that the error was first noticed at 7 a.m. ET Tuesday as officials were beginning to open and prepare ballots for scanning through voting machines. Under Pennsylvania law, mail-in ballots can’t be opened and scanned until Election Day. 

Topakian said that a group of three people will handle correcting the issue: One to read the mail-in ballot marked with a voter’s choices, a second person to complete the new ballot with the correct code and a third to serve as an observer over the process. 

“We won't know the results for about another three or four days,” Topakian told CNN. The Democrat added that this is the second time a vendor has misprinted ballots in a primary for the county. The same issue happened in the county’s 2021 primary, which resulted in a similar correction process. 

Polls are closing in North Carolina, one of five states having primary elections today.

Rep. Ted Budd, who is backed by former President Donald Trump, looks to be the favorite in the GOP primary. If Budd does come through, it will be a major win for Trump, who plucked the three-term congressman from relative obscurity with his endorsement last year.  

The other race to watch is in North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, where controversial Rep. Madison Cawthorn is seeking another term. Cawthorn got a vote of confidence from Trump on Monday, but faces a serious Republican primary threat from state Sen. Chuck Edwards.

Americans across political lines are united in their generally negative feelings about the US and its politics, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS, with Democrats particularly unlikely to express political enthusiasm.

Just 14% of Americans say they’re either excited (4%) or optimistic (10%) about the way things are going in the country, with 65% calling themselves concerned and another 21% saying they’re scared. Only about one-quarter, 23%, call themselves fired up about politics, with 53% describing themselves as burned out.

Democrats are modestly more positive than Republicans on the state of the country: 19% of Democrats describe themselves as optimistic or excited, compared with only 9% of Republicans who say the same. But compared to Republicans, Democrats are less likely to feel fired up (25% vs. 33%).

The economy continues to be at the forefront of most Americans’ minds. A 59% majority say economic issues are the most important issue to the country, compared with 30% who are more concerned with domestic and social issues, and just 3% who are most focused on foreign policy, with 7% saying another issue is their top concern.

The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS on May 12-13 among a random national sample of 1,000 adults surveyed by text message after being recruited using probability-based methods. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. It is larger for subgroups.

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