Primary elections live updates Georgia rebuffs Trump candidates for governor, attorney general, secretary of state

The Democratic primary election in Texas between longtime congressman Henry Cuellar and challenger Jessica Cisneros in the state’s 28th Congressional District remains too early to call, the Associated Press said Wednesday evening.

Cuellar leads Cisneros by 175 votes, or 0.4 percentage points, out of 45,209 ballots from Tuesday’s contest counted as of 6 p.m. Eastern time.

Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, confronted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — the Republican incumbent he’ll challenge in November — on Wednesday afternoon during a news conference in Uvalde, Tex., the site of the mass shooting that left 21 dead.

Abbott was giving updates on the school shooting when O’Rourke approached the stage the governor was sharing with other state officials, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R). O’Rourke told them it was long past time to act to prevent mass shootings like the one at Robb Elementary School.

Former state representative Brad Finstad has won the Republican primary in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, according to the Associated Press.

Finstad, who previously worked in the Agriculture Department, will face former Hormel CEO Jeff Ettinger (D) in the race for the seat of the late Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R). Hagedorn died in February at 59 after a battle with kidney cancer.

President Biden signed an executive order on policing Wednesday, marking the second anniversary of George Floyd’s death.

The order, as our colleagues reported this month, calls for the creation of national standards for the accreditation of police departments and a national database of federal officers with substantiated complaints and disciplinary records, including those fired for misconduct. It also will instruct federal law enforcement agencies to update their use-of-force policies to emphasize de-escalation. It drew support from leaders of major policing organizations.

After news of the school shooting in Uvalde, Tex., that left 21 dead, Republican lawmakers were criticized online for accepting funds from the National Rifle Association.

As The Washington Post’s Tim Bella writes, 19 current or recent Republican senators have taken at least $1 million each in campaign contributions from the NRA over their careers, according to data compiled by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in 2019.

The Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary race between celebrity TV host Mehmet Oz and businessman David McCormick is heading to a recount, the Pennsylvania acting secretary of state said Wednesday.

Oz and McCormick, acting secretary of state Leigh M. Chapman said in a statement, have vote totals within a difference of 0.5 percent, the standard that triggers a mandatory recount under Pennsylvania law.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.) is still holding a razor-thin lead over immigration lawyer Jessica Cisneros in one of the most closely watched primary runoffs in the country.

As of Wednesday morning, Cuellar was leading Cisneros by 175 votes in the Democratic primary runoff, with about 98 percent of precincts reporting.

Just a few months ago, many analysts thought Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) had no shot at winning a Republican primary after having stood firm against former president Donald Trump’s efforts to reverse the 2020 presidential election results in the state.

What accounted for Raffensperger’s comfortable win over Trump’s handpicked candidate, Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.)?