Voters in California could fill a vacant House seat Tuesday, while elections in Illinois and Ohio will pick nominees for another empty seat, decide the fates of challenged incumbents and set matchups for fall battleground races.
Some contests have drawn heavy spending, including one where three candidates have each already loaned their campaigns more than $2 million. Another has been fueled by lingering bitterness between two House Republicans from last year’s battles over making former California Rep. Kevin McCarthy the speaker of the House.
There are also many districts in which one party is heavily favored and there’s no real contest. In a year that has seen more resignations and retirements than average, each of the 17 incumbents in Illinois is running for reelection, and 11 of them, including 10 of the 14 Democrats, are unopposed in their party primaries. In Ohio, all of the five Democratic incumbents are unopposed in the primary, as are five of the eight Republican incumbents running.
