What Happened in the August 11 Primaries Across Six States
Voters in six states cast their primary ballots on August 11, 2026. Primaries are elections where each party picks its candidate for the general election in November. The results showed mixed outcomes for candidates endorsed by President Trump, a loss for a long-serving congressman in Connecticut, and a signal that Democratic voters prefer younger, more progressive nominees who take a harder line against the administration's immigration crackdown. NPR
The November ballot will include all 435 House seats, 33 Senate seats, and numerous governorships. As of August 11, tracking data from MultiState showed 135 of 5,345 incumbents, or current officeholders, defeated in 2026 primaries. That is 2.5%. The data also showed 1,377 of 4,547 general races, or 30.3%, projected to be uncontested, meaning only one candidate is running. MultiState
In South Carolina, Trump-endorsed Sen. Darline Graham advanced to a runoff for the Senate seat she was appointed to in July 2026 after the death of her brother, Lindsey Graham. A runoff is a second round of voting held when no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote. Graham finished first with roughly a third of the vote. The remaining two-thirds went to Rep. Ralph Norman and Rep. Russell Fry. Norman is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative Republicans. Norman was backed by GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida. Neither Norman nor Fry carried Trump's endorsement. NPR
Graham entered the race at Trump's encouragement. Trump held a tele-rally on her behalf, saying she would help achieve "the mission to make America great again." South Carolina's election authority scheduled the special Republican primary for August 11. NPR; SC Votes
In Wisconsin, Trump-endorsed Rep. Tom Tiffany won the Republican nomination for governor by a landslide. Tiffany had voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election results in January 2021. He had united Republican backing. On the Democratic side, Francesca Hong, who identifies as a democratic socialist, and moderate David Crowley were locked in a close race for the gubernatorial nomination. The August 11 ballot also included Republican primaries for lieutenant governor and secretary of state, and a Democratic primary for state treasurer. JoCasta Zamarripa advanced from the Democratic primary for secretary of state. NPR; AP; WisPolitics; Ballotpedia
Minnesota delivered Trump's clearest primary loss of the night. Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and Trump's endorsed candidate for governor, lost the Republican primary to Lisa Demuth. Demuth is the 59-year-old speaker of the Minnesota House. She presided over a chamber that was almost evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats. Lindell had faced questions about residency requirements from the Republican Party of Minnesota. He also faced allegations that he physically abused a former girlfriend. He denied both claims. NPR
The governor primaries in Minnesota and Wisconsin featured candidates positioned at the far ends of their parties' ideological spectrums, meaning the most conservative Republicans and the most liberal Democrats. Reuters
In Connecticut, John Larson, a congressman serving his 14th term, was defeated by a candidate under 50 in the Democratic primary. The result aligned with broader patterns in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Connecticut. In those states, Democratic primary voters signaled a preference for younger, more progressive nominees who take a harder line against Trump's immigration crackdown. NPR
In Alabama, Trump-endorsed state Rep. Rhett Marques won the Republican nomination for a congressional district spanning from Mobile County through the southern Black Belt to the Georgia border. NPR
The results offered a mixed assessment of Trump's endorsement operation. His picks prevailed in South Carolina's Senate primary and Wisconsin's governor race. His Minnesota endorsement fell short. In South Carolina, the combined vote for Norman and Fry, both running without Trump's backing, roughly doubled Graham's tally. That leaves the runoff outcome uncertain ahead of the August 25 contest. NPR
National Journal "Hotline" Editor Kirk Bado discussed the results on the August 12 edition of C-SPAN's Washington Journal. C-SPAN
The broader context here is an incumbent-loss rate that, at 2.5%, remains low in raw terms. But it includes a 14-term congressman losing in a Democratic primary, the kind of result that tends to draw national attention to whether the party's center is shifting. The Democratic base signals across three states — Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Connecticut — point toward candidates who combine generational turnover with policy positions that put more distance between the party and the Trump administration's immigration enforcement. Whether that energy holds through November, and whether the South Carolina runoff produces another Trump-aligned nominee or a Freedom Caucus alternative, are the two immediate flashpoints the August 11 results set up.
