Donald Trump gets Ohio victory figure wrong, and talks about 'space force'
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox
Get our free Inside Washington email
Ohio's 12th district is the scene for the last high stakes special election of the season. The race is a key test for President Donald Trump, who will be a key part of the Republican playbook in the 2018 midterms.
Republicans are scrambling to avoid an embarrassing defeat in a seat that the party has held for decades. Mr Trump has backed Republican Troy Balderson, who is facing Democrat Danny O'Connor. A win for Democrats would signal further danger for Republicans in November.
President Trump has also tweeted his support for Tony Balderson and also held a rally for him late last week.
The day's races, like dozens before them, pitted the strength of Trump's fiery supporters against the Democratic Party's anti-Trump resistance. The results will help determine the political landscape — and Trump's standing within his own party — just three months before the GOP defends its House and Senate majorities across the nation.
As well as voters in Ohio, who will send someone to Congress immediately, today also sees primary races in Kansas, Missouri, Michigan and Washington state.
World news in pictures
Show all 50
As we wait for the results to come in, follow all the latest updates with our liveblog below.
Former Vice President Joe Biden has lent his support to M O'Connor's campaign by recording a robocall in which he told voters they need a leader "like Danny who will stand up for working families."
"Danny's the only candidate on the ballot who will fight to lower the cost of health care, create good jobs and refuse to raise the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare. Electing Danny to Congress puts us one step closer to taking back the House and making sure we have leaders in Washington who will fight for our values -- Ohio values," Mr Biden is heard saying in the recording.
Voters in Kansas will determine just how powerful an endorsement from Donald Trump can be: They're choosing between current Governor Jeff Colyer and current Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach – the Trump-backed option – in the Republican gubernatorial primary.
Mr Kobach led the president's ill-fated voter fraud commission last year, and secured an endorsement from Mr Trump just 24 hours before polls opened. The two men appear to be neck-in-neck in the primary race right now – but some Republicans are reportedly worried that Mr Kobach won't be able to hold off a Democratic challenger in November. Stay tuned!
Michigan has another exciting gubernatorial race, this time on the Democrats' side. State Senate Democratic leader Gretchen Whitmer – the establishment favourite – is facing off against up-and-comer Abdul El-Sayed, who's scored the coveted endorsement of progressives like Senator Bernie Sanders and House candidate Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
Entrepreneur Shri Thanedar is also running, at the same time a stage play based on his life debuts in Detroit.
You can read up here on Fayrouz Saad, whose primary is today in Michigan's 11th. She's a millennial who's worked for the Obama administration – and if elected, she'll be the first Muslim woman in US Congress.
A fun fact about Michigan's gubernatorial primary is that Donald Trump endorsed Attorney General Bill Schuette in the Republican race – in a tweet misspelling his name. The president forgot the "c" in Mr Schuette's last name in his first endorsement attempt, but quickly corrected it.
It doesn't seem to have hurt the attorney general too much, because he's still leading the pack of Republican contenders. Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley is also running, along with state Senator Patrick Colbeck.
Michigan could see its highest primary voter turnout in four decades today, according to the Detroit News. Fifty per cent more Michiganders had requested a ballot last week, and 39 per cent more had returned them, than at the same time in the 2014 primary cycle. Political consultant Mark Grebner told the paper as many as 1.8m people could vote today.
Austin Petersen, a Republican Senate candidate in Missouri whose primary is today, once got kicked off of Facebook for running an AR-15 giveaway as a campaign fundraiser. Read about it here.
A reminder as exit polls start coming in that results in most races won't be finalised tonight. A number of states allow voters to mail in their ballots all the way up until election day, so final results could take days to tabulate. Still, we'll start getting a pretty good picture as polls close around 8pm local time.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies