Democratic Party primaries, 2018

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Ballotpedia covered every Democratic Party state and federal primary in 2018 to highlight the intraparty conflicts that shaped the party and the general election. This page is an overview of those primaries, with links to Ballotpedia's coverage of all Democratic U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and state-level primaries.

We also identified specific Democratic battleground primaries, which were covered in greater depth on our site and which are highlighted by state and month in the charts below. Click here for a list of these Democratic battleground primaries.

Click here to read about Republican Party primaries in 2018.

Primary season roundup from the Heart of the Primaries

See also: Heart of the Primaries, Democrats-Issue 33 (September 14, 2018)

Our final edition of Heart of the Primaries newsletter summarized the key stories and developments from 2018's primary elections:

Top 10 Democratic Primaries

These 10 Democratic Party primaries were the most compelling intra-party contests of this cycle, either because they reflect an ideological battle between two factions within the party or a close primary contest in a battleground election. Our final list contains primaries for three governor’s races, six U.S. House seats, and one set of state legislative contests.

The DCCC in 2018 primaries

In the 2018 House primaries, candidates backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) faced resistance from party activists who viewed party-backed candidates as insufficiently progressive or independent.

DCCC-backed candidates won 31 of the 33 primaries where the DCCC endorsed a candidate before the primary.

Notable results include:

  • Lizzie Pannill Fletcher’s defeat of Laura Moser in TX-7. The DCCC released negative comments Moser made about her hometown before the March 6 primary but stayed out of the race before the May 22 runoff.
  • Kara Eastman’s win over DCCC-backed former incumbent Brad Ashford in NE-2. The only other DCCC loss was Dana Balter’s defeat of Juanita Perez Williams in NY-24.
  • DCCC-backed Harley Rouda beat out Hans Keirstead for the Democratic slot in CA-48’s top-two primary. The pair nearly split the Democratic vote which would have advanced two Republicans to the general election.

2018 primaries: more candidates, contested primaries, and open seats

In the 2018 primary season, 16,889 candidates ran for 6,754 seats in state and federal races across the country.

  • In 2018, an average of 2.5 candidates filed for each seat up for election. This is up from 2.2 candidates per seat in 2016 and 2.15 candidates per seat in 2014.
  • Twenty percent of seats were open in 2018. This was also up from 17.4 percent in 2016 and 16.4 percent in 2014.
  • More primaries—24.1 percent—were contested in 2018 than the past two election cycles. In 2016, 19.4 percent of primaries were contested. In 2014, 18.2 percent of primaries were contested.
  • Incumbents also faced a greater number of contested primaries: 25.6 percent in 2018 compared to 23.3 percent in 2016 and 22 percent in 2014.

State legislative incumbents facing primary challenges

In 2018, 487 Democratic state legislators seeking re-election—21.1 percent—faced a primary challenger.

  • Of the 487 Democrats to face a primary challenge, 68 were defeated—the highest number for an even-numbered year since 2012. Put another way, 86.0 percent of Democratic legislators facing primary challengers won their primaries.
  • In 2016, 39 Democratic legislators were defeated by primary challengers, meaning that 90.4 percent facing primary challengers won their primaries.
  • In 2014, 46 Democratic legislators were defeated by primary challengers.

Forty-three states have both detailed 2016 presidential results available and are holding legislative elections for partisan legislatures this year. In those states, 409 Democratic legislators opted to not seek re-election.

  • Legislators in districts which backed Donald Trump (R) in 2016 accounted for 13.7 percent of Democratic seats up in these states but represent 18.1 percent of Democratic retirements.
  • Legislators in districts that overlap with pivot counties—which backed Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and Donald Trump (R) in 2016—make up 9.6 percent of Democratic seats up in these states but account for 10.8 percent of Democratic retirements.

2018's closest primary elections

The 10 closest primaries held between January and June 2018 all had seven or fewer votes separating the winning and losing candidates. The closest primary was for a state legislative seat in Pennsylvania, which was won by one vote. Three races were determined by a margin of two votes, and one race was determined by a margin of three votes. Three of the primaries involved incumbents, and all three incumbents won.

Closest Democratic primaries (2018)
Race Winning votes Losing votes Vote difference
PA State House Dist. 193 1,784 1,783 1
AR State House Dist. 90 1,068 1,066 2
OR State House Dist. 53 3,771 3,769 2
MT State House Dist. 92 414 412 2
San Diego City Council Dist. 8 4,087 4,084 3
WV State House Dist. 16 848 844 4
Clark County (NV) Public Administrator 29,514 29,518 4
OK State House Dist. 12 2,338 2,333 5
TX State House Dist. 107 2,064 2,058 6
ME State House Dist. 110 210 203 7


Democratic federal primaries

See also: United States Congress elections, 2018

All 435 U.S. House seats and 33 U.S. Senate seats are up for election on November 6, 2018. Republicans held a 237-193 majority in the House and a 51-47 majority in the Senate. Ballotpedia's coverage of Democratic federal election primaries in 2018 is linked below.

Ballotpedia identified 54 Democratic federal battleground primaries in 2018.

Scroll over the map below for more information about federal battleground primaries in each state.

Democratic federal battleground primaries

U.S. Senate

U.S. House

Factional conflict

See more here: Democratic Party factional conflict in U.S. House primaries, 2018

Disputes between candidates endorsed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and candidates outside the official organs of the Democratic Party occurred in U.S. House primaries in 2018.

The DCCC supported House candidates they believed would be competitive in general elections. The group said its "Red to Blue" program, which gave candidates organizational and fundraising support, backed candidates who "will take the fight to Paul Ryan’s House Republicans -- and fight to flip these seats from red to blue."[1]

Other candidates, activists, and influencers criticized the DCCC's choices and claimed that the group did not always support candidates who were sufficiently progressive. In January 2018, Ryan Grim and Lee Fang with The Intercept wrote "In district after district, the national party is throwing its weight behind candidates who are out of step with the national mood."[2]

An example of the conflict between Democratic officials and progressives occurred in Colorado's 6th District when Levi Tillemann, who was endorsed by the Progressive Democrats of America, released a tape-recorded conversation with House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer. Tilleman told Hoyer the DCCC should stay out of the race. Hoyer urged Tillemann to drop out, saying the Democratic Party's decision to back his opponent, Jason Crow, had been made a long time ago.[3]

An example outside the House primaries was U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) reaction to DNC Chairman Tom Perez's endorsement of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in his primary against Cynthia Nixon, who cast herself as a progressive alternative to Cuomo. Sanders said Perez's endorsement might alienate working people and younger voters from joining the party.[4]

This page identifies competitive Democratic primaries where the DCCC backed a candidate prior to the primary and tracks DCCC-backed and non-DCCC backed candidate performance. The chart below shows a summary of results in the primaries we tracked.

U.S. House Democratic factions
Faction Primary victories in 2018
Endorsed by DCCC 31
Not endorsed by DCCC 2

Democratic state primaries

See also: State executive official elections, 2018 and State legislative elections, 2018

There were 31 state legislative chambers, 16 governorships, 21 attorney general offices, and 17 secretary of state offices held by Democrats entering the 2018 election. Ballotpedia's coverage of Democratic state legislative and executive primaries in 2018 is linked below.

Ballotpedia identified 25 Democratic state executive battleground primaries in 2018.

Scroll over the map below for more information about state battleground primaries across the country.

Democratic state battleground primaries

Gubernatorial races

Lieutenant governor races

Attorney general races

Secretary of state races

Primaries by state

All 50 states held primaries for state or federal offices in 2018. Arizona had two 2018 primaries—a special primary election for its 8th Congressional District seat on February 27 and a regular state and federal primary on August 28. New York held primaries for federal offices on June 26, while primaries for state and local offices there took place on September 13. In Louisiana, all candidates appeared on the November 6 primary ballot regardless of partisan affiliation. If one candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote, they won the election outright. Otherwise, the top two candidates advanced to a general election on December 8.

Ballotpedia identified 79 Democratic federal and state battleground primaries in 2018.


Scroll over the bars on the chart below to see the number of battleground primaries by date for each party.

Ballotpedia's coverage of Democratic Party primaries in each state is linked on the map below.

http://ballotpedia.org/Democratic_Party_primaries_in_STATE,_2018

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ DCCC, "Red to Blue Candidates," accessed May 15, 2018
  2. ↑ The Intercept, "THE DEAD ENDERS: Candidates Who Signed Up to Battle Donald Trump Must Get Past the Democratic Party First," January 23, 2018
  3. ↑ The Intercept, "Secretly Taped Audio Reveals Democratic Leadership Pressuring Progressive to Leave Race," April 26, 2018
  4. ↑ YouTube, "Bernie Sanders: "Absolutely" A Mistake For Perez To Endorse Cuomo, Bad Sign For 2020," June 6, 2018
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