Tuesday primaries show Trump’s grip, Democrats see Texas momentum

Trump-backed Ed Gallrein’s defeat of Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky put a hard number on Donald Trump’s hold over Republican primaries, while Texas Democrats posted a turnout surge that could shape the party’s 2028 calculus.

In Kentucky, Massie lost with 54% of the GOP primary vote going to Gallrein, in what NBC News described as the most expensive House primary in history in ad spending. The result added to a pattern Trump has been building across the party: NBC News reported that he had already helped knock out five Indiana GOP state senators over mid-decade redistricting and blocked Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana after Cassidy voted to convict Trump in the 2021 impeachment trial.

Texas offered the clearest counterpoint. State Rep. James Talarico won the Democratic Senate primary over Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and more than 2.2 million ballots were cast in the contest. NBC News said that was the highest Texas Democratic midterm primary turnout this century and more than 100,000 votes higher than Republican Senate primary turnout. For Democrats, that is a real signal of energy in a state where turnout has often lagged. It is not, by itself, proof that the party can carry Texas in November.

The Republican race there remained volatile. Sen. John Cornyn was forced into a runoff with Attorney General Ken Paxton after no candidate cleared the threshold in a contest that also included Rep. Wesley Hunt. The runoff keeps a bruising intra-party fight alive until May 26, with Cornyn and Paxton now locked into a test of whether establishment Republicanism can survive an attack from the right in a statewide race.

Georgia extended the same theme. Burt Jones and Rick Jackson advanced to a June 16 runoff in the Republican governor’s race after neither won outright, setting up another high-cost clash inside the party. NBC News called it a MAGA clash, a sign that Trump’s imprint is still shaping not just endorsements but the kind of candidate fight Republicans are willing to wage.

The Associated Press’ 2026 election calendar places these contests inside a wider midterm cycle in which voters will choose Senate nominees in 35 states, governor nominees in 36 states and House nominees in every state. For now, Tuesday’s results showed two competing truths: Trump still dominates Republican nominations, and Democrats can still generate surprising energy when turnout and candidate identity align. Whether either party can turn those primary signals into durable coalitions for 2028 remains the larger test.