Three states pick nominees today. Minnesota votes for governor, an open US Senate seat, and all eight of its House seats, with polls open until 8 p.m. Central [1]. Wisconsin runs its partisan primary from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., topped by an open race for governor [4]. Alabama holds a special congressional primary in four of its seven districts, closing at 7 p.m. Central [7]. We previewed the Minnesota Senate race and the Wisconsin field on Monday; this is what a voter faces today, and what has changed since. South Carolina also votes today, in a special Republican primary for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's seat, covered separately on this site.
Start with Minnesota, where the most offices are on the ballot. More than 157,000 absentee votes were already cast heading into the final stretch, per the Secretary of State's office [1]. The Republican field for governor is House Speaker Lisa Demuth, former MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who carries President Trump's endorsement, and businessman Kendall Qualls [1]. The DFL Senate primary pits Rep. Angie Craig against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, and Craig's decision to run for Senate also opens a DFL primary for her 2nd District seat [1].
The final KSTP/SurveyUSA poll frames the day without settling it. Lindell leads the GOP governor primary at 35 percent, ahead of Demuth at 26 and Qualls at 11 [2]. Michele Tafoya leads the GOP Senate field at 41 percent, with Royce White at 10, Adam Schwarze at 5, and 28 percent undecided [2]. The DFL Senate race is the closest number of the day: Craig 40, Flanagan 40, undecided 16 [2]. One caution belongs beside every one of those figures. KSTP published neither a margin of error nor a sample size, describing only SurveyUSA's general credibility-interval methodology [2]. A tie in a poll with unpublished uncertainty is a coin standing on its edge, not a measurement.
The substance under that tie is the story we reported Monday: the Craig-Flanagan race has become a referendum on the federal immigration crackdown running through the Twin Cities metro, with Craig defending a vote she says she regrets and Flanagan running on the party endorsement and the cleaner line. Today the primary electorate renders its answer.
Wisconsin's governor's race is open, with Gov. Tony Evers not seeking another term, and four Democrats remain: Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, former Department of Administration Secretary Joel Brennan, state Rep. Francesca Hong, and state Sen. Kelda Roys [4]. US Rep. Tom Tiffany, endorsed by the state Republican Party, faces Andy Manske on the GOP side [4]. The Wisconsin Elections Commission counted the banked vote in its pre-election reminders: "171,689 individuals voted ahead of the August 11 election" [3]. Three withdrawn Democrats, Mandela Barnes, Sara Rodriguez, and Missy Hughes, remain printed on the ballot because they left the race after the ballot deadline [4]. As we reported Monday, those banked votes cannot follow the race: a court has concluded the spoiling statute does not allow a voter to spoil an absentee ballot once it is returned, so a vote marked for a withdrawn name stays where it landed [3].
For election-day voters, the Wisconsin mechanics are simple. Polls run 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., anyone in line by 8 gets to vote, photo ID is required though the address on it need not be current, and same-day registration is available with proof of residence [4]. This is a partisan primary, so votes count only within one party's column [3]. One polling place moved: Fox Crossing voters who normally use the community center will vote at Pentecostals of the Fox Cities, 1445 Midway Rd. in Menasha, because the July 27 tornado left the usual site unsafe [5].
Alabama's special primary covers the 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th districts, there is no runoff, and polls close at 7 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Eastern [7]. The map those voters are using, restored by the Supreme Court in June after years of litigation, is its own story, and we take it up separately today.
One date to correct on our own ledger. Connecticut's 1st District Democratic primary, where Rep. John Larson faces former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, and Hartford school board member Ruth Fortune, is Thursday, August 13, not today [6]. Our Monday wire listed it for August 11. The race is real, the district's first contested Democratic primary against an incumbent in 28 years [6]; the date was wrong, and Connecticut voters have two more days.
Results arrive tonight. The polls above are snapshots with unpublished error bars, the undecided shares run from 16 to 28 percent, and every number in this piece describes the race as it stood before a single election-day ballot was cast. What the count says, we will report when it says it.
