Three primaries this week test how much outside money and which voting rules shape a Democratic ballot, and none had returns at the time of writing. [1][2][3]
In Michigan's open Senate primary, progressive Abdul El-Sayed faces four-term Rep. Haley Stevens. The pro-Israel lobby has turned the race into a monument to itself: AIPAC and its affiliates have spent close to $30 million backing Stevens and attacking El-Sayed, which PBS reported the group calls its largest investment ever in a single race. [1] PolitiFact, whose checks PBS published, rated El-Sayed's claim that an unfavorable poll was "funded by AIPAC" False, and rated a United Democracy Project claim that El-Sayed told Democrats to vote uncommitted in 2024 Half True. [1]
In Missouri's 1st District, Rep. Wesley Bell defends the seat he took from former Rep. Cori Bush in 2024, in a rematch that St. Louis Public Radio calls a referendum on the party's direction. [2] The United Democracy Project is again spending several million dollars to boost Bell and attack Bush, though less than it deployed in 2024. [2] Bell casts the contest as local: "This race is not about national issues and it's not about international issues. It's about working families." [2] Bush frames her return around representation, saying she is "running for Congress to deliver for all of the people of St. Louis." [2]
Kansas holds its first statewide primary under a voting rule that was nearly erased. Senate Bill 4 would have scrapped the three-day grace period for mail ballots that the state has used since 2017 and imposed a hard 7 p.m. Election Day deadline. [3] On July 16, Douglas County District Judge Carl Folsom III blocked the law; the Court of Appeals refused to stay that ruling on July 27; and on July 31 the Kansas Supreme Court turned down two emergency motions from Secretary of State Scott Schwab. [3] The court's majority wrote that Schwab had "failed to credibly convince a majority of this court" that the case should skip the normal appellate process. [3] Ballots postmarked by Tuesday will count if they reach county offices within three days. [3]
The common thread is who sets the terms of an election. In Michigan and Missouri, roughly $30 million and several million more in outside pro-Israel spending define the airwaves around El-Sayed and Bush. In Kansas, the terms were nearly rewritten in court, and the voters affected are the ones whose late-arriving mail ballots will now be counted rather than discarded. Results will settle who won; they will not settle who paid to be heard.
