Nebraska Democrats on Tuesday night maneuvered toward a favorable matchup in a high-profile Senate race, and were locked in a close primary contest for a battleground House seat that could be important to the party’s hopes of regaining control of Congress this fall.
In West Virginia, meanwhile, Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s effort to mete out Trump-like retribution against political opponents in Republican primary races met some success.
Here are four takeaways from the night.
Democrats can play hardball, too.
Democratic voters have been urging the party to pull out all the stops in opposing President Trump and the Republican Party, which has pursued aggressive and unorthodox strategies — like mid-decade redistricting — to hold onto power.
Democrats have responded with their own gerrymanders. And in Nebraska, rather than back a doomed Democratic bid for Senate, party leaders played smart, endorsing Dan Osborn, an independent candidate who stands a better chance of defeating Senator Pete Ricketts, the Republican incumbent, in November. Mr. Osborn also ran for Senate as an independent in 2024, when he put up a competitive showing but fell short.
When William Forbes — a Democrat accused of being a Republican “plant” who could split the general-election vote and hinder Mr. Osborn — entered the primary, the state Democratic Party quickly threw its support behind an alternative option. It backed Cindy Burbank, who promised to drop out of the general election and consolidate support for Mr. Osborn.
She easily won the primary on Tuesday night, and soon afterward recommitted to her pledge.
“I don’t wanna split the ballot,” Ms. Burbank wrote in a text message. “I have no expectations of being able to win in November.”
‘Blue dot’ politics may have swayed some voters.
Democrats saw a major opportunity for a House pickup when Representative Don Bacon, a moderate Republican, announced his retirement from Nebraska’s competitive Second Congressional District around Omaha.
But much of the sparring in the Democratic primary focused on the argument that electing one candidate, John Cavanaugh, could make it easier for Republicans to win the presidency in 2028.
The argument stemmed from Nebraska’s unusual allocation of electoral votes in presidential elections, which awards the winner of each of its three congressional districts one electoral vote each. The Omaha-area district has gone to Democrats in recent presidential contests, even as the rest of the state typically went to the Republican presidential candidate.
State Republicans have tried to repeal the so-called blue dot system — named because Omaha is a blue dot in a sea of Republican red — but Democrats in the State Legislature have blocked them. Opponents of Mr. Cavanaugh, a state senator, argued that if he won the House primary and left the State Senate, it would mean one fewer vote to keep the blue dot.
Those arguments may have had some traction. Late Tuesday, Mr. Cavanaugh was narrowly trailing Denise Powell, a political organizer, in a race that was too close to call. The winner will face Brinker Harding, a Republican city councilman.
The Senate map continues to line up for Democrats.
Democrats began the 2026 election cycle with control of the Senate looking like a long shot. But the political environment has shifted their way, and they have repeatedly recruited strong candidates since then.
Tuesday’s results were more good news for them: Mr. Osborn will have a clear shot at Mr. Ricketts, and limited polling this spring has indicated a tight race between them. Assuming Mr. Osborn submits enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, he will start as an underdog in a deep-red state.
But he drastically outperformed the Democratic presidential ticket in Nebraska two years ago, in an unsuccessful campaign against the state’s other Republican senator, Deb Fischer. Mr. Osborn and his allies see promise this year, with Mr. Trump growing increasingly unpopular and Nebraska’s farming economy taking a hit from the president’s agricultural tariffs.
Running as an independent could allow Mr. Osborn to avoid, to some degree, being painted as a left-wing partisan — even though Republicans will try to do just that.
He has already inverted some traditional trappings of left versus right: On Tuesday, he generated buzz by posting a chart on X depicting himself with a red backdrop — the typical color for a Republican — and Mr. Ricketts with a blue background, typically associated with Democrats.
Incumbents (mostly) got their way.
In West Virginia, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican, fended off five primary challengers. The state’s Republican governor, Mr. Morrisey, also had some success as he waded into state legislative primaries to back allies and oust adversaries. Many — but not all — of the candidates he endorsed in contested state legislative primaries had won or were leading on Tuesday night.
And in Nebraska, Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican who is expected to win re-election, will look ahead to his matchup with Lynne Walz, a former state legislator who won the Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Kellen Browning is a Times political reporter based in San Francisco.
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