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What to watch in Tuesday’s primaries in Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma and Washington, DC

2026-06-16T08:00:07.811Z / CNN

• Voters in Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Washington, DC, and California are casting ballots in key primary races on Tuesday.
• Georgia’s GOP Senate runoff between Trump-backed Mike Collins and Kemp-backed Derek Dooley has become a proxy battle between the president and governor.
• Washington voters are choosing a Democratic nominee to replace longtime Mayor Muriel Bowser in a crowded primary.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp survived President Donald Trump’s bid to oust him in a Republican primary four years ago. Kemp’s hand-picked candidate in a Senate primary on Tuesday might not be as lucky.

Peach State voters are casting their ballots Tuesday in two key Republican primary runoffs: choosing who will face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoffin what will be one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races in November, and picking a nominee in the governor’s race, where Trump and term-limited Kemp are aligned.

The state is the focal point on a day in which voters in Washington, DC, will effectively choose their next mayor, those in deep-red Alabama and Oklahoma will pick nominees in major races and one California congressional district could fill a vacancy.

Here’s what to watch in Tuesday’s primaries.

In the Georgia GOP Senate primary runoff to take on Ossoff, who is widely seen as a potential 2028 presidential contender, Trump on Sunday endorsed Rep. Mike Collins, while Kemp has backed former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley.

It’s turned the contest into a proxy battle between Trump and Kemp, whose political rivalrydates to the governor’s refusal to back Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia during the 2020 presidential election. Trump tried, but failed, to defeat Kemp in the2022 primary by recruiting former Sen. David Perdue to challenge the GOP incumbent.

The Senate primary features an ideological split. Collins has aligned himself with Trump’s brand, while Dooley says he did not vote in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Collins is seen as the frontrunner after winning more than 40% of the vote in the May 19 primary to Dooley’s 30%. Key to the outcome will be conservative voters in rural southeastern Georgia, where a third candidate — Rep. Buddy Carter — ran strongest in the primary, though he fell short of making the runoff.

Georgia Republican voters are choosing their nominee to replace Kemp, as well. Both Trump and Kemp have endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. But he faces a stiff challenge from businessman Rick Jackson, who trailed Jones by about six percentage points in the primary. That race featured a geographic split, with Jackson turning in his best performance in urban and suburban areas and Jones proving strongest in rural counties.

The GOP winner in that race will take on Democratic former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in November.

After three terms as mayor of Washington, DC, Muriel Bowser is not seeking reelection — leaving the city’s overwhelmingly Democratic voters to choose Tuesday between seven candidates in aranked-choice primary to replace her.

The best-known contenders are Ward 4 Councilwoman Janeese Lewis George and former At-Large Councilman Kenyan McDuffie. The city will use ranked choice voting for the first time if no candidate tops 50%, potentially delaying the results by several days.

McDuffie is seen as the more moderate contender whose list of supporters includes two former mayors and two former Democratic National Committee chairmen, while Lewis George is a democratic socialist backed by several local labor unions. If she prevails, her run — along with Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman’s bid to unseat Mayor Karen Bass this fall — would raise the prospect that three of the nation’s biggest cities could be governed by democratic socialists, after Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s win in New York City last year.

The race comes as DC grapples with the Trump administration’s threats to intervene more heavily in the district. Trump — with whom Bowser has sought to forge a cooperative relationship — said earlier this month that he “maybe would take back Washington, run it on the federal basis,” if Lewis George wins.

Whoever prevails is all but certain to win in November in a city where former Vice President Kamala Harris got more than 90% of the vote in the 2024 presidential election.

Washington voters will also select a nominee to succeed Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city’s longtime non-voting delegate in Congress. Five Democrats are running for that seat.

The Republican primary runoff between Trump-endorsed Rep. Barry Moore and former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson in Alabama’s Senate race is another test of how willing voters in a deep-red state are to follow the president’s lead.

Moore earned a plurality of the votes in the May 19 primary, with 39% support to Hudson’s 26%. He has also been the beneficiary of millions of dollars in advertising spending from a cryptocurrency-aligned group and one backed by the influential conservative organization Club for Growth.

Democrats are choosing their own nominee in a Tuesday runoff, but the Republican winner is all but certain to win in November.

The seat is being vacated by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn football coach who opted to run for governor.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a conservative Republican who at times has criticized Trump, is term-limited, leading to a wide-open primary race to replace him.

Trump has waded into the race, backing former state Sen. Mike Mazzei. But the field of nine includes several other well-known GOP contenders, including state Attorney General Gentner Drummond; former state Secretary of Public Safety Chip Keating, the son of a former governor; and former state House Speaker Charles McCall.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma Republicans are also deciding a Senate primary, after Trump tapped former Sen. Markwayne Mullin as his homeland security secretary. The Trump-backed frontrunner is Rep. Kevin Hern — whose shift to the Senate race has opened up the 1st District House seat, as well.

All three seats are all but certain to remain in Republican hands this fall.

On Capitol Hill, many eyes will also be on California, where Bay Area voters will cast their first round of votes in the race to finish out former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s term. The Democrat resigned from Congress in April and dropped his gubernatorial bid following allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies.

A Democrat is all but certain to prevail in the special election, but — with Republicans holding a narrow House majority and every vote a significant one — the bigger question is whether any candidate will top 50% to win outright on Tuesday, or whether the race will require a second round featuring the top two finishers in August.

The best-known Democratic contenders include state Sen. Aisha Wahab, former Dublin Mayor Melissa Hernandez and attorney Rakhi Israni Singh. The top Republicans are Wendy Huang, a former tech executive, and Dena Maldonado, a small business owner. Under California’s primary system, the top two finishers, regardless of party, will advance, if no one secures a majority.

It’s actually the second time in two weeks voters will have weighed in on this race. The same five candidates were on the June 2 primary ballot for a full term that starts next year — with Wahab and Hernandez advancing. Wahab earned 38% of the vote.