{"id":73381,"date":"2026-05-12T04:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/from-nebraska-to-west-virginia-to-new-jersey-primary-clashes-set-stage-for-fierce-midterm-fight\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T04:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T09:59:15","slug":"from-nebraska-to-west-virginia-to-new-jersey-primary-clashes-set-stage-for-fierce-midterm-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/from-nebraska-to-west-virginia-to-new-jersey-primary-clashes-set-stage-for-fierce-midterm-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"From Nebraska to West Virginia to New Jersey: Primary clashes set stage for fierce midterm fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday is primary day in red-leaning Nebraska, where party showdowns for the House and Senate will tee up general election matchups in the battle for Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in GOP-dominated West Virginia, establishment Sen. Shelley Moore Capito faces five Republican primary challenges, but enjoys the backing of President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And in New Jersey, Democratic Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, who grabbed national attention last year as he was arrested during an anti-ICE protest outside a federal immigration detention center, is facing seven challengers as he seeks a fourth term steering the Garden State’s largest city.<\/p>\n

DEMOCRACY \u201926: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday’s contests come with less than six months to go until the 2026 midterm elections<\/a>, when Republicans aim to hold their razor-thin House and slim Senate majorities, and Democrats hope to ride a blue wave to escape the political wilderness.<\/p>\n

Here’s a closer look at Tuesday’s ballot box showdowns.<\/p>\n

Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, who was appointed in 2023 to replace Ben Sasse, and who won a 2024 special election to fill out the final two years of Sasse’s term, is running for a full six-year term. Ricketts faces four primary challengers on Tuesday, but is expected to capture his party’s nomination.<\/p>\n

Ricketts is already eyeing the general election, when he’ll face off against independent candidate Dan Osborn, the industrial mechanic and military veteran who gave Republican Sen. Deb Fischer a scare in her 2024 re-election.<\/p>\n

SIX MONTHS TILL MIDTERMS: THE TEN RACES THAT WILL DETERMINE THE SENATE’S MAJORITY<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Even though the Nebraska<\/a> Democratic Party supports Osborn in the general election, community college instructor Cindy Burbank and pastor Bill Forbes are running for the Democrats’ nomination in the primary.<\/p>\n

Both candidates were last-minute filers, and some Nebraska Democratic leaders alleged that Forbes jumped into the race so that a Democrat would be on the fall ballot and siphon votes away from Osborn to help Ricketts.<\/p>\n

Forbes has denied the claims.<\/p>\n

Burbank says she jumped into the race to keep Forbes off the ballot in November.<\/p>\n

In the gubernatorial primary, GOP Gov. Jim Pillen faces five nomination challengers. Former state Sen. Lynne Walz and perennial candidate Larry Marvin face off for the Democratic nomination.<\/p>\n

The primary in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, an Omaha-based competitive seat, is grabbing national attention, in the race to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Don Bacon. The seat is a top target for Democrats as they try to retake the House.<\/p>\n

Omaha City Councilmember Brinker Harding is unopposed for the Republican nomination.<\/p>\n

Two major Democrats, state Sen. John Cavanaugh and Denise Powell, are vying for their party’s congressional nomination.<\/p>\n

Nebraska is the only state in the nation, along with Maine, to split their electoral votes<\/span> in presidential elections. And the electoral vote up for grabs in Nebraska’s 2nd District, known as the ‘blue dot,’ was<\/span> carried by then-Vice President Kamala Harris<\/a> in the 2024 election.<\/p>\n

Powell argues that if Cavanaugh wins the primary and then the general election, and steps down from his state Senate seat, GOP Gov. Pillen would replace him with a Republican, which could potentially lead to the GOP-dominated legislature scrapping the ‘blue dot’ and<\/span> making Nebraska’s electoral votes winner-take-all.<\/p>\n

Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey is not on the ballot in Tuesday’s primary, but the first-term governor’s clout in state politics is on the line, as the governor is targeting several GOP state lawmakers running for re-election.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in the U.S. Senate race, five Democrats are seeking their party’s nomination.<\/p>\n

In Charleston, West Virginia<\/a>‘s capital city, Democratic Mayor Amy Goodwin faces a primary challenge as she seeks a third term. Republican Brian Hunt is unopposed for the Republican nomination.<\/p>\n

While Baraka is a Democrat, mayoral elections in Newark are technically nonpartisan.<\/p>\n

If no candidate tops 50% of the vote, a runoff between Tuesday’s top two finishers will be held in early June.<\/p>\n

The charges against Baraka were dropped, and he later ran for governor, coming in second to then-Rep. Mikie Sherrill in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Sherrill ended up winning election as New Jersey<\/a> governor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday is primary day in red-leaning Nebraska, where party showdowns for the House and Senate will tee up general election matchups in the battle for Congress. Meanwhile, in GOP-dominated West Virginia, establishment Sen. Shelley Moore Capito faces five Republican primary challenges, but enjoys the backing of President Donald Trump. And in New Jersey, Democratic Mayor … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}