The August 14^th primaries featured several key nomination races.

In Minnesota, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who was a late entry in the GOP gubernatorial primary, went down in a losing effort to Hennepin County Commissioner and 2014 gubernatorial nominee Jeff Johnson. On the Democratic side, US Rep. Tim Walz won a competitive battle against state Rep. Erin Murphy (D-St. Paul) and Attorney General Lori Swanson. As expected, Sen. Tina Smith (D) and two-term state Senator Karin Housley (R) will do battle in the fall.

In the Minnesota House races, former 1^st District Republican nominee Jim Hagedorn again won the party nomination and will be in a competitive battle against Dan Feehan, a former Defense Department official. In the northeastern open seat, St. Louis County Commissioner Pete Stauber becomes the Republican standard bearer and he will face the new Democratic nominee Joe Radinovich, a former state Representative, in what is already rated as a toss-up contest.

Turning to Wisconsin, as expected, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers won the Democratic nomination for Governor against nine opponents. He now advances into the general election to face two-term incumbent Gov. Scott Walker (R). In the Senate race, state Sen. Leah Vukmir (R-Brookfield) overcame major outside money all designed to disparage her reputation and support her opponent, military veteran Kevin Nicholson, now will face first-term Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D).

For retiring Speaker Paul Ryan's (R) House seat, his long-time associate, University Regent and attorney Bryan Steil (R) will face union organizer Randy Bryce (D) in the fall election.

The Connecticut Governor's race is now set. Democratic businessman Ned Lamont, who denied Sen. Joe Lieberman re-nomination back in 2006 but only to lose the general election when the Senator was able to secure ballot position as an Independent, now faces Republican financial executive Bob Stefanowski in the open November election.

Indiana: The Trafalgar Group has proven themselves to be one of the most accurate pollsters on today's political scene, but their latest Indiana Senate release is causing some serious head scratching. According to their new survey (7/31-8/7; 1,420 IN registered voters), Sen. Joe Donnelly (D) leads former state Representative and businessman Mike Braun (R), 51-39%. While this seems like an abnormally large lead for a Democratic candidate in a Republican state, Sen. Donnelly leading the race should not be considered particularly surprising.

Minnesota: Just before the Minnesota primary, the Emerson College polling organization went into the field to test the general election contest between appointed Sen. Tina Smith (D) and state Sen. Karin Housley (R). The survey (8/8-11; 500 MN likely general election voters conducted electronically) finds Sen. Smith leading Ms. Housley, 32-28%, which supports the underpinnings of those who believe this will be a tight race come November. The high 41% undecided factor is because both women are largely unknown statewide. Each easily won their respective primaries this past Tuesday.

Missouri: A new TJP Strategies survey for the Missouri Scout political blog (8/8-9; 1,785 MO likely voters) finds Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) and Attorney General Josh Hawley (R) in a flat tie at 47%, apiece. The result is in line with other recent publicly released surveys. No poll has showed anything but a race where the two contestants are in a virtual dead heat.

New Mexico: Despite being faced with long shot odds even though he says he's "in to win," former New Mexico Governor and Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson agreed to become the latter party's US Senate nominee. He replaces state Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn who withdrew from the race. Mr. Johnson's entry clearly makes this race more interesting, though Sen. Martin Heinrich (D) remains the favorite to secure a convincing re-election victory. State Labor Commission member Mick Rich is the Republican nominee. According to a new GBA Strategies survey (8/1-5; 800 NM likely voters), Sen. Heinrich would register 47% support if Republican Rich and Mr. Johnson were both on the ballot opposing him. In this configuration, Rich would score 29%, and Johnson 22%

Tennessee: A new Gravis Marketing poll (8/9-11; 620 TN likely voters) finds Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Brentwood) now assuming a 48-44% edge over former Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) in one of the early post-primary Tennessee political surveys.

CA-39: A Tulchin Research study for the Gil Cisneros Campaign (8/1-6; 600 CA-39 likely voters via live telephone interview and email communication) finds their client leading Republican Young Kim by a substantial 53-42% margin. The ballot tests also project the gubernatorial campaign and generic congressional vote breaking toward the Democrats in similar percentages. Retiring Rep. Ed Royce (R-Yorba Linda) currently represents the Orange and Los Angeles Counties seat. Republicans are indicating they have closer polling numbers, but have yet to release any countering data.

CA-45: The Katie Porter for Congress campaign just released their internal Global Strategy Group survey (7/26-31; 500 CA-45 likely midterm election voters) that finds their candidate trailing Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Irvine), 45-44%, on the initial ballot test. It is clear the Porter campaign will attempt to tie the Congresswoman to an unpopular President Trump (39:58% favorable to unfavorable), while Ms. Walters counters that Hill is too far left of the district's voter base.

FL-5: The Democratic primary between freshman Rep. Al Lawson (D-Tallahassee) and former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown is drawing to a close on August 28^th. Despite neither man raising particularly large sums of campaign cash - Lawson obtained over $456,000 as compared to Brown's $332,000 - a new St. Pete Polls survey (8/11-12; 445 FL-5 likely Democratic primary voters) finds Rep. Lawson holding a comfortable lead, 50-27.5%. Mr. Lawson won the seat in 2016 after defeating then-Rep. Corinne Brown (D-Jacksonville) in the Democratic primary.

FL-26: With the Florida primary fast approaching on August 28^th, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) released a mid-July GBA Strategies survey (7/16-22; 500 FL-26 likely general election voters) of South Florida's 26^th Congressional District race featuring two-term incumbent Carlos Curbelo (R-Miami) and challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. According to the GBA data, the Congressman holds a 48-41% advantage.

NY-27: Rep. Chris Collins (R-Clarence/Batavia), who last week a federal grand jury indicted for insider trading, has had a change of heart. Originally saying he would continue to seek re-election while he fought the charges, last weekend the Congressman decided to announce that he is suspending his campaign activities. He further said he will not actively seek re-election, and come off the ballot if he can do so under New York election law. If they can successfully pull him from the general election ballot, local Republican Party leaders will field a replacement candidate.

OH-12: The absentee and provisional counting process for the special House election to replace resigned-Rep. Pat Tiberi (R) is underway, and despite Democratic Franklin County Recorder Danny O'Connor getting an approximate net 200 vote boost when the first Franklin County late absentees were tabulated, the remaining picture looks to favor state Senator Troy Balderson (R-Zanesville), the overall race leader and likely winner. Though over 5,000 absentee ballots were potentially outstanding, it appears that, according to the latest report from the Columbus Dispatch newspaper, only 1,070 of them were returned to the appropriate county election office. Over 3,500 provisional ballots are still not tabulated, but many of them will be disqualified. In any event, the certification process must be completed by August 24^th, at which time an official winner will be declared.

WA-8: The second finalist in the District 8 open seat campaign finds Democratic physician Kim Shrier holding onto a razor-thin 18.7 - 18.1% spread, a margin of approximately 1,200 votes, over Democrat Jason Rittereiser in the final tabulations for the August 7^th jungle primary. The first place finisher, Republican Dino Rossi, tallied 43% of the original primary vote. Dr. Shrier   will need to coalesce Democrats around her candidacy. The party candidates attracted an aggregate vote of just over 50% of the jungle primary voters now that all of the mail votes have finally been received and recorded.

Illinois: Regular Illinois pollster Victory Research went into the field again (8/12-14; 1,208 IL likely general election voters via live phone interview) and found Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker still leading Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) by a double-digit margin, but the incumbent is making some gains. The new data finds Mr. Pritzker holding a 41-30% advantage, an 11-point margin. This is somewhat improved from the 15 point margin Victory detected in late June.

Kansas: As the first provisional votes began to trend in favor of Secretary of State Kris Kobach in the dead heat finish between he and Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, the latter man has already conceded the race. Gov. Colyer stopped short of endorsing Mr. Kobach by name, but says he hopes 'a Republican wins in November.' Though Kobach's lead had only increased to just over 300 votes, it was clear Mr. Colyer saw that the trend would continue to cut against him. The original count saw Colyer trailing by just 121 votes statewide. The Governor also says he will not ask for a recount. Mr. Kobach will now face state Sen. Laura Kelly (D-Topeka) and credible Independent candidate Greg Orman in what will be a competitive general election.

Maryland: Gaining endorsements from Democratic leaders and former officeholders and now key labor unions, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) is building a strong re-election effort despite his party being in a severe minority in this most Democratic of states. According to a new Gonzales Research & Media Services poll (8/1-8; 801 MD registered voters), Gov. Hogan now holds a 52-36% advantage over Democratic nominee Ben Jealous, the former NAACP president. Earlier, Mr. Jealous released his mid-July Garin Hart Yang Research internal polling data (7/10-14; 601 MD likely general election voters) that finds him trailing Gov. Larry Hogan (R), 49-40%.At this point, Gov. Hogan is forging a clear path to secure a second term.

Minnesota: The aforementioned Emerson College poll (see Minnesota Senate above) also tested the general election match-ups for Governor right before the primary election. Though the primary polling featured an incorrect projection for both the Democratic and Republican primaries, the inaccuracy is likely due to such a small sample used in the nomination contests. In the new general election between US Rep. Tim Walz (D-Mankato) and Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson (R), the former posts a 40-33% advantage as the general election campaign officially begins.

Tennessee: The new open general election Tennessee Governor's race sees its first published poll, and Republican businessman Bill Lee is opening with a 51-40% lead over former Nashville Mayor Karl Deen (D). Gravis Marketing (8/9-11; 620 TN likely voters) finds the eleven-point ballot spread in their latest Tennessee statewide survey. Gov. Bill Haslam (R) is ineligible to seek a third term.

Wyoming: Equality State voters go to the polls on Tuesday to choose nominees for the open Governor's position, and it appears the Republican candidates have almost evenly divided support. According to the Trafalgar Group (8/11-14; 1,775 WY likely Republican primary voters), retired mutual fund founder Foster Friess has a slight 21-20-16% lead over state Treasurer Mark Gordon and attorney Harriet Hageman. Three other candidates trail with less than 10% support. The eventual Republican nominee will become a heavy favorite in the general election.