Tuesday primaries: Embattled Rep. Cory Mills projected to lose reelection bid
The two-term congressman had been endorsed by Trump.
Embattled Republican Rep. Cory Mills will lose to challenger Ryan Elijah in Florida's 7th Congressional District, The Associated Press projected Tuesday.
President Donald Trump endorsed Mills in February but didn't mention him when he posted Florida endorsements over the last week.
The two-term congressman has been plagued with scandals and faces a House Ethics Committee investigation and one by the Department of Justice, in part about his finances. Mills has denied the allegations.
Elijah is a former news anchor and NFL sideline reporter and was host of Fox 35’s "Orlando Matters" weekly show. He also worked as a sideline reporter for the Jacksonville Jaguars radio network and Fox Sports.
Florida, Alaska and Wyoming are holding primaries Tuesday. Here is a look at more races:
Alaska
More than a dozen candidates are challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, including another Republican named Dan Sullivan, in Alaska's nonpartisan primary on Tuesday, in which the top four finishers advance to the general election in November.
Former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola is also in the crowded field. The other Dan Sullivan entered the race in June and successfully sued to stay on the ballot after the state's Division of Elections ruled that his candidacy was meant "to confuse or mislead and to thereby compromise the ballot's fairness or neutrality."
Challenger Dan Sullivan has denied those allegations and told his hometown newspaper, "I have every right to stand up and do this. It's my name, my grandfather's name: Dan Sullivan. My dad's name: Dan Sullivan."
GOP Rep. Nick Begich III, who defeated Peltola in 2024, is running for reelection in the state's sole House seat and another member of the prominent Alaska political family, his uncle, former state Senate Minority Leader Tom Begich, is running for governor as a Democrat.
Florida
Republican Rep. Byron Donalds will win the Republican nomination for governor, the AP projects. Endorsed by Trump, Donalds had been the frontrunner throughout the race. Donalds is expected to face former Republican Rep. David Jolly, who the AP projects will win the Democratic primary.
If Donalds wins in November, he would be the state's first Black governor.
Floridians also voted in the first election since the state's congressional districts were redrawn by the Republican-controlled legislature.
In two of those districts, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is projected by the AP to win the Democratic primary in the 20th District and Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz is projected to fend off a progressive challenger in the 25th District.
Republicans hope to pick up four more House districts in November after the state redrew its congressional map earlier this year and made those districts more GOP-friendly.
Among the five candidates running for Donald's seat are former Reps. Madison Cawthon, who lost his western North Carolina House seat in 2022 after a series of scandals, and Chris Collins, who resigned from his New York seat shortly ahead of pleading guilty to securities in 2019 before Trump pardoned him the following year. Trump has endorsed Catalina Lauf, who ran two unsuccessful House campaigns in Illinois.
Wyoming
Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman is also giving up her House seat to run for retiring Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis' seat in Wyoming. Trump has endorsed Hageman in the race.
In 2022, Trump promoted Hageman in a primary challenge to then-GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who co-chaired the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2001.
Nine Republicans and two Democrats are running in their party's primaries to replace Hagemen.
In the governor's race, four Republicans are running to replace Gov. Mark Gordon, who is term-limited. The winner will face Kenneth Casner, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, in November.