A number of important contests outside of Mississippi and New York were decided on Tuesday. Here’s a look at results from some of the big primaries:
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Rep. James Lankford on Tuesday earned an outright victory in the race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Tom Coburn.
The Associated Press reported that Lankford broke the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff in the seven-person GOP primary field. He faced a serious challenge tea party backed T.W. Shannon, the former Oklahoma House Speaker and the only other Republican challenger able to somewhat keep pace with Lankford’s fundraising.
Coburn announced in January he would retire at the congressional session due to recurrence of prostate cancer.
Colorado
Former Rep. Bob Beauprez won the GOP nod gubernatorial primary in Colorado on Tuesday, defeating a conservative hardliner Tom Tancredo and three other Republicans.
Moderate Republican groups had been quietly working to boost Beauprez’s campaign in recent weeks out of fear Tancredo could win alienate moderate voters in the fall campaign against Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper
Maryland
Anthony Brown is poised to become the first African American governor of Maryland after gliding in the state’s Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Brown, who served eight years as lieutenant governor under current Gov. Martin O’Malley, fended off two Democratic rivals including Attorney General Douglas Gansler. Gansler infamously found himself in hot water last fall after a photo surfaced of him at a house party full of teenagers.
Brown is expected to easily defeat his Republican opponent in the heavily Democratic state.
