5 down-ballot races to watch in today's primary battles

Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., talks with reporters at the Capitol. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., talks with reporters at the Capitol. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

Even though the presidential primaries have ended, there are still plenty of congressional, gubernatorial and statewide elections remaining to be contested. As five states — New York, Colorado, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina — head to the polls today, here is a quintet of races to keep an eye on.

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

Bennet’s seat was initially viewed as a chance for Senate Republicans to pad their lead, but those plans have fallen by the wayside after a hotly divided primary season. The Republican establishment has thrown its support to former state politician and military veteran Jon Keyser, but he has had ballot access troubles, with the Colorado secretary of state initially ruling he was 86 signatures short of the total required to run. A judge overturned the initial finding, but fundraising has also hindered Keyser, who has been endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others.

But the five-way primary race only gets more confusing. El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn entered the race as a tea party-esque firebrand, and establishment Republicans brushed off his candidacy as a long-shot bid. But Glenn has earned endorsements from prominent figures, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, as well as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. His upstart candidacy has also led to financial support in the form of backing from the Senate Conservatives Fund, which supports tea party candidates. But McConnell has blasted Glenn’s candidacy and questioned his chance of winning, even with the support of the Senate Conservatives Fund and some of his party’s most conservative members.

“They have an outstanding record of defeat, and you’ve got to wonder whether any candidate who is running a smart campaign would want to sign up with those guys,” McConnell said of the Senate Conservatives Fund. “It’s sort of like a ticket on the Titanic.”

The fund has supported numerous conservatives, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. It has come under fire, however, after many of its members lost elections, including Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Todd Akin in Missouri and Ken Buck in Colorado.

While many are predicting a close victory for Keyser, Glenn’s ascendance has made the primary race competitive for Republicans who could little afford a misstep in their attempt to unseat Bennet, who was appointed to fill Ken Salazar’s seat in 2009 and narrowly won reelection a year later. Colorado has been a battleground for statewide elections, with Republicans managing to flip the state’s other Senate seat in 2010, with upstart Cory Gardner defeating longtime lawmaker Mark Udall.

Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y.

Israel surprised many by announcing last year that he would not seek reelection in New York’s Third District, which includes a large swath of Long Island. His resignation has spawned a five-way Democratic primary to replace him, complete with a documentary on the race. Long Island Councilwoman Anna Kaplan, an Iranian-Jewish immigrant who has received support from the National Organization of Woman and EMILY’s List, is perhaps the most interesting candidate, but the pack is largely chasing Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi. The race is tight, however, and either Kaplan or lawyer Steve Stern, whom Israel has endorsed, has a legitimate chance at victory. The winner will face Republican Jack Martins in the November general election, a race that has been labeled a Democratic-leaning tossup by the Cook Political Report, meaning it could be one to watch in the fall as well.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

The second-longest tenured congressman, Rangel announced that he will retire at 86 after a 45-year stint in the House of Representatives. His district, which spans Harlem and parts of the Bronx, has been reliably Democratic, meaning that Tuesday’s primary will effectively decide who will represent New York’s 13th District going forward. But that primary is a massive, nine-way fight that includes Adam Clayton Powell IV, the son of civil rights leader Adam Clayton Powell, who represented the district prior to Rangel. State Assemblyman Keith Wright, who has been endorsed by Rangel, and State Sen. Adriano Espaillat are the frontrunners, but the race may be decided by demographics. The district’s makeup has shifted in recent years from overwhelmingly African-American to majority Latino.

“With so many candidates in the race, it really becomes a base kind of dynamic where the person that can bring out the demographic they need to get over the victory line is the person who’s going to win,” Eli Valentin, a Democratic consultant, told the Daily Beast. “The coalition-building that would be needed in a two-person race really is not, unfortunately, needed in this kind of dynamic.”

Antiestablishment candidates Clyde Williams and Suzan Johnson Cook are also in the race, which has turned negative in recent weeks. Accusations and exchanges flew between candidates, culminating in the Rev. Al Sharpton labeling Williams as one of the “negroes you ain’t never seen before” and allegations that candidates with Hispanic support are trying to suppress African-American turnout.

Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y.

Democrats have seized on Katko’s seat, which includes Syracuse and parts of upstate New York, as a potential race they could win. Katko defeated Democratic incumbent Dan Maffei in 2014 and has been one of the most prolific of the first-term congressmen, passing more bills (eight) than any other freshman. Despite this, Katko’s district is vulnerable in an election year, with President Obama winning it with 57 percent of the vote in 2012.

The three-way primary includes Colleen Deacon, a former district director for New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Syracuse University law professor Eric Kingson and attorney Steve Williams. Deacon, who has been endorsed by Gillibrand and Sen. Chuck Schumer, is the frontrunner, according to a recent Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee poll, which has her leading Williams 50 percent to 17.

Kingson, who trailed with 8 percent of the vote, has some high-profile endorsements of his own, with his campaign getting the attention and support of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Sanders, who has pledged to parlay his “political revolution” into more success down-ballot, appeared at a rally last week for Kingson in Syracuse.

“We need strong members of the U.S. Congress, members who have the guts to stand up to powerful special interests, members who are prepared not just to spend their lives raising money from wealthy people, but to be working and representing the ordinary people of their communities. And Eric is going to be one of those members,” Sanders said at the event.

While Kingson’s odds may be long, the race against Katko will be competitive in the fall. Cook Political Reports has labeled the race a Republican tossup, meaning the district will again be in play after swinging between parties since the retirement of Sherwood Boehlert in 2007.

Gov. Gary Herbert, R-Utah

While Herbert has been widely popular in his six-year tenure as governor, he will be forced to deal with a pesky primary challenger: Overstock.com executive and self-proclaimed libertarian Jonathan Johnson. The pair squared off at the state convention in April, after Johnson took advantage of a new law that allowed him to earn enough signatures to secure a place on the ballot regardless of the outcome at the convention. Nonetheless, Johnson surprised observers by receiving 55 percent of the delegates to Herbert’s 44 percent after two rounds of balloting.

“I’m elated,” Johnson told a Salt Lake City TV station. “Eight months ago when we started this campaign, no one gave us a chance. We’ve been talking grass roots, going to the delegates. The message clearly resonated.”

Johnson has hit Herbert on his support of Common Core, raising taxes and an ethics investigation currently underway after Herbert allegedly offered to meet with lobbyists in exchange for campaign donations.

Between the recent addition of mail-in balloting and the tight primary race, voter participation in the primary has already surpassed that in 2014.