WASHINGTON—While the midterm general election is still nearly a year off, the primary season has already gotten well underway across the United States.
In races from California to Texas to Maine, high-profile candidates are vying for the nomination in a series of key races for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and governorships.
The outcomes of these races will shape the 2026 midterm season, as Republicans seek to hold the gains they made in 2024 and Democrats seek to go on the offensive.
Here are the key primary races to watch as midterm season ramps up.
Texas Senate
Both parties are investing resources—and attention—into the race to be the Lone Star State’s next senator.
The incumbent in the race, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), is facing one of the toughest primary challenges of his career from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) is also seeking the Republican nomination.
Paxton, who has dealt with controversies and an impeachment trial that resulted in his acquittal, entered the contest earlier this year when he announced he would challenge Cornyn.
The RealClearPolitics average shows a close race with Cornyn holding a narrow lead over Paxton.
Hunt, the third-place contender, has argued that he offers an alternative to both candidates.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the main campaigning and fundraising arm of the Senate GOP, is backing Cornyn.
President Donald Trump has not made an endorsement in the race.
If no candidate wins at least 50 percent of the vote, the race will go to a runoff.
While Republicans are the favorites to win the race in a state Trump won by more than 14 points in 2024, Democrats have sometimes seen close calls in the state’s Senate elections. This year, the party hopes for an upset.
The leading contender, Texas state Rep. James Talarico, came to prominence during the redistricting battle this summer as Texas Republicans added five Republican districts to the state’s congressional map.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) entered the race on Oct. 8 after former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) dropped out.
Georgia Senate
Reps. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) and Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and former football coach Derek Dooley are running to take on incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) in one of the most-watched races of the 2026 cycle.
The Republican candidates are vying to prove their loyalty to President Donald Trump as they seek his endorsement.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has endorsed Dooley.
“I’m a firm believer that we need a political outsider to do that, someone that can stay focused on his record, but also someone who has a vision for our state in the future,” Kemp said in August. “That is not a politician.”
The RealClearPolitics average shows Collins with a lead of almost 10 percentage points among the challengers, but Ossoff is leading all three Republicans in head-to-head polling.
While Georgia voted for Trump by around a 2.5-point margin in 2024, the state has increasingly become a swing state in recent years—favoring Democrats on the Senate level.
Currently, both of Georgia’s senators are Democrats. In 2022, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) fought off a challenge from Republican Herschel Walker.
The primary is scheduled for May 19.
Michigan Senate
In Michigan, another key swing state, Republicans are hoping to capitalize on the retirement of incumbent Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) to win a key pickup in a state that has become synonymous with battleground politics in recent years.
Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) is the presumptive GOP nominee this year. Rogers was the Republicans’ nominee in the state’s 2024 Senate election, which he lost to Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) by just 0.3 percentage points.
Trump has endorsed Rogers for the nomination.
However, the state still favors Democrats in its Senate elections—causing the Democratic field to be more competitive. So far, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and physician Abdul El-Sayed have thrown their hats in the ring for the nomination.
McMorrow has said she would not support Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as Senate Democratic leader if she were elected.
Establishment Democrats are supporting Stevens.
The RealClearPolitics average shows Stevens with a narrow lead in the primary and indicates that Rogers would defeat any of those three candidates in a matchup.
Michigan’s primary election is scheduled for Aug. 4.
Kentucky Senate
While Kentucky is one of the reddest states in the United States, and is expected to send a Republican back to the Senate, this seat has drawn attention because of who’s retiring it—former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
McConnell has served in the seat since 1985, making him the longest serving senator in Kentucky’s history.
Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is the frontrunner for the seat. Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) is also vying for the nomination, having raised over $5 million for the race.
On the Democratic side of the aisle, former state Rep. Charles Booker—the Democrats’ 2022 Senate nominee—and former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath are the leading contenders for the nomination.
Kentucky’s primary will be held on May 19.
Maine Senate
In Maine, Democrats are hoping to unseat incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)—the last Republican from New England still in Congress.
Gov. Janet Mills and farmer and military veteran Graham Platner are running for the Democratic nomination to face Collins, who is expected to announce a run for reelection.
Platner, a populist and progressive who has been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has been the subject of controversy.
Multiple media outlets have reported on Platner’s history of comments that include calling himself a “communist” and denigrating all police officers as bad.
Platner has defended these comments.
“I don’t think any of that is indicative of who I am today,” he told CNN.
Platner had himself tattooed with the Totenkopf, a Nazi-affiliated symbol. He told Pod Save America that when he got it in 2007 he did not know its meaning. However, subsequent reports show that he knew its symbolism and called it “my Totenkopf.”
Mills, who has Schumer’s support, has condemned Platner but stopped short of saying whether he should exit the race.
Platner has a wide lead over Mills in the RealClearPolitics average, which also shows that he would defeat Collins, who has been critical of Trump at times, in a matchup. Additionally, polling aggregator has Collins, who voted against Trump’s signature tax-and-spend megabill, beating Mills.
The primary in the state will be held on June 9.
Texas’s 28th Congressional District
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) is poised to ride to an easy primary victory in Texas’s 28th Congressional District after he received a pardon from Trump in 2025.
Cuellar has long been among the members of the House Democratic conference most open to working across the aisle with Republicans. He’s expressed his intention to seek reelection.
Despite Democratic frustration with what is seen as deal-making between Cuellar and the administration, the moderate candidate is still seen as the Democrats’ best shot in the red-trending district.
He’ll be facing off against a Republican nominee hoping to expand on the gains that Republicans saw in the area in the 2024 elections.
Maine’s 2nd Congressional District
In Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, members in both parties are vying to replace outgoing Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine).
The moderate has long outperformed in the red-leaning district, which Trump won by around 9.5 points in 2024. Golden won by a much narrower 0.7 percent point margin, his closest electoral margin since entering Congress in 2018.
The seat will be a top target for Republicans in 2026.
The frontrunner for the nomination is former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who served two terms in office. Trump, Collins, and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) have endorsed him.
U.S. Army veteran James Clark, a former Democrat who switched to the Republican Party, is also seeking the nomination.
On the Democratic side, Maine State Auditor Matthew Dunlap, the former secretary of state, had already launched a campaign from the left of Golden. Jordan Wood, former chief of staff to Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) and founder of democracyFIRST, is also running.
Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District
In Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is gearing up for the most difficult primary battle of his political career after a year of direct confrontations with the Trump administration.
In Massie’s ruby-red district, the Republican candidate is all but guaranteed to win the general election, making the primary race the key political battle in the district.
Massie, who has served in Congress since he won a special election in Nov. 2012, is facing a challenge from the right from Ed Gallrein.
Trump has endorsed Gallrein, describing Massie as “weak” and a RINO, an acronym for Republican In Name Only. Massie has regularly defected from Trump’s policies.
The rivals have cited their own polling in support of their candidacies, with both Trump, touting Gallrein, and Massie claiming a double-digit lead.
Georgia’s 14th Congressional District
In Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, candidates are gearing up for a much-earlier primary and general election process after incumbent Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced her decision to leave Congress.
That comes after Greene’s public break with Trump—an erstwhile ally—over the files related to billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Greene had encouraged the release of the documents, signing onto a petition to that end, against Trump’s wishes.
Greene later announced that she would leave Congress at the beginning of January 2026. To fill the vacancy, the district will hold a special election on March 10.
As in Massie’s district, Republicans are heavily favored in Georgia’s 14th district, and the nominee is expected to easily slide to a general election victory.
Current contenders for the GOP nomination include District Attorney Clayton Fuller, an Air Force veteran, state Sen. Colton Moore, former Greene staffer Jim Tully, former Paulding County Commissioner Brian Stover, and Dalton City Councilmember Nicky Lama.
On the Democratic side, retired Army Brigadier General Shawn Harris and Clarence Blalock, a previous candidate for state Labor Commissioner, are seeking the nomination.
Governors
Aside from the legislative races, a series of high-profile gubernatorial primaries are also moving forward.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom is term-limited, and the race to replace him has heated up.
The Democrat primary so far includes Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), former Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, billionaire and former presidential candidate Tom Steyer, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris passed on a run after much consideration.
Likewise, in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp is term-limited.
As Georgia has become a pivotal swing state in recent election cycles, a crowded field is vying for both major parties’ nominations.
The GOP primary field is led by Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
The Democrat side includes former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former state Sen. Jason Esteves, state Reps. Derrick Jackson and Ruwa Romman, and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
In Arizona, the Republican primary includes Karrin Taylor Robson, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2022, and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.). Both have been endorsed by Trump.
An Emerson College poll shows Biggs overwhelmingly leading the GOP field, but incumbent Gov. Katie Hobbs narrowly beating him and Taylor Robson in the general election.
In Minnesota, the primary race has heated up in the wake of Gov. Tim Walz’s decision to drop his bid for a historic third-term as governor after revelations of massive welfare fraud in the state came to light.
The GOP primary includes MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, former state Senator and family physician Scott Jensen, Minnesota House Fraud Prevention Committee Chairwoman Kristin Robbins, and others.
On the Democratic side, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)—a longtime electoral overperformer in the state—is “seriously considering” a gubernatorial run. Other potential contenders include Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
