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Republican Party primaries, 2022
| 2022 Republican Party primary elections |
|---|
 |
| Battleground primaries |
| U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds State executive battlegrounds |
| Federal primaries |
| U.S. Senate primaries U.S. House primaries U.S. House primaries with multiple incumbents |
| State primaries |
| Gubernatorial primaries Attorney General primaries Secretary of State primaries State legislative primaries |
| Primary overviews |
| Democratic Party primaries, 2022 Republican Party primaries, 2022 Top-two and top-four battleground primaries, 2022 U.S. House battleground primaries, 2022 |
| Primaries by state |
Ballotpedia covered every Republican Party state and federal primary in 2022 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 Republican U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and state-level primaries.
Click here to read about Democratic Party primaries in 2022.
Federal primaries
- See also: United States Congress elections, 2022
All 435 U.S. House seats and 34 U.S. Senate seats were up for regular election on November 8, 2022. Special elections were also held.
Ballotpedia's coverage of Republican federal election primaries in 2022 is linked below:
- United States House Republican Party primaries, 2022
- United States Senate Republican Party primaries, 2022
State primaries
Ballotpedia's coverage of Republican state legislative and executive primaries in 2022 is linked below:
- State legislative Republican primaries, 2022
- Republican Party gubernatorial primaries, 2022
- Republican Party Attorney General primaries, 2022
- Republican Party Secretary of State primaries, 2022
Primaries by state
All 50 states held primaries for state or federal offices in 2022. In Louisiana, all candidates appeared on the November 8 primary ballot regardless of partisan affiliation. If one candidate received more than 50% of the vote, they won the election outright. Otherwise, the top two candidates advanced to a general election on December 10.
Major themes in the 2022 Republican primaries
Breaking down Trump's primary endorsements and outcomes
Perhaps the most persistent storyline throughout the 2022 GOP primaries was former President Donald Trump's (R) involvement, mainly via endorsements. We tallied 244 primaries and conventions in which Trump endorsed, 241 of which had taken place as of September 15, 2022 (the other three were in Louisiana). See our endorsements page for a full list.
Unopposed
Of the primaries completed at the time, 60 candidates (25%) Trump endorsed ran unopposed. (We counted candidates who only had write-in opposition as unopposed.)
Contested
Of the 176 contested primaries that had taken place in which Trump endorsed (excluding five races in which candidates didn't make the ballot), 159 Trump endorsees won and 17 lost. That's a success rate of 90%.
Endorsed GOP incumbent challengers
Some of the most noteworthy GOP primaries of the year were those where Trump endorsed a challenger to a Republican incumbent. There were 17 such primaries, and six endorsed challengers defeated incumbents. All are listed in the table below.
Note that we didn't include the two primaries in which GOP incumbents ran against each other due to redistricting. In West Virginia's 2nd, Trump backed Rep. Alex Mooney against Rep. David McKinley, and Mooney won. And in Illinois' 15th, Trump-endorsed Rep. Mary Miller defeated Rep. Rodney Davis. (More on these races below.)
Over the year, we covered a number of stories on battleground races in which Trump's influence was a major theme. Here are just a few stories capturing key moments:
- Trump to rally for Dunleavy, Palin, Tshibaka in Alaska (July)
- Trump endorses Vance in Ohio U.S. Senate primary (April)
- Trump endorses Oz in Pennsylvania U.S. Senate primary (April)
- RGA releases second pro-Kemp ad, Trump campaigns for Perdue in Georgia (March)
- Arrington challenges Mace in SC-01 with Trump endorsement (February)
Potential 2024 presidential contenders emerge as counter-force
We also saw a thread of counter-forces throughout the primaries. Sometimes it was contrasting endorsements, and other times, overt criticism of Trump's involvement.
Former Vice President Mike Pence (R) made five gubernatorial primary endorsements in 2022, three of which contrasted with Trump's endorsements. Pence backed Karrin Taylor Robson in Arizona, incumbent Brian Kemp in Georgia, and Rebecca Kleefisch in Wisconsin.
In one of our first Heart of the Primaries issues of the 2022 cycle, we wrote that Maryland's term-limited Gov. Larry Hogan (R) endorsed Kelly Schultz in the gubernatorial primary the day after Trump endorsed Dan Cox. Cox won the primary in July, and Hogan said he wouldn't support Cox in the general election.
Hogan said Trump's endorsements against incumbent Republicans hurt the party. Hogan branched out from his home state, fundraising for incumbents Trump opposed including Kemp and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-03).
Arizona's term-limited Gov. Doug Ducey, chairman of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), endorsed Taylor Robson in Arizona's gubernatorial primary along with Beau Lane for secretary of state, countering Trump's endorsement of Mark Finchem in the latter primary.
We also wrote about the RGA spending $850,000 on pro-Kemp ads during Georgia's primary. The Hill's Max Greenwood said that "the spot for Kemp marks the first time that the group is financing a TV ad in a primary to support an incumbent facing a Republican challenger."
Trump, Pence, Hogan, and Ducey were all on our list of potential 2024 presidential candidates as of September 2022.
Democrats spent millions in GOP primaries
According to a Washington Post analysis, Democratic groups and individuals spent around $53 million in Republican primaries this year, 65% of which occurred in Illinois' gubernatorial primary. The rest occurred in 12 primaries across eight states.
The Post's Annie Linskey wrote, "Some Democrats explain their actions by saying they are simply getting a jump on attacking Republican candidates for the general election, while others openly acknowledge trying to secure weaker competition in the fall. But there is little dispute about the effect of altering the Republican primaries in ways that could affect the November matchups."
We wrote about Democratic groups spending in New Hampshire's U.S. Senate primary and the 2nd Congressional District last week. Previous issues included stories on Democratic spending in Maryland's gubernatorial election and Illinois' gubernatorial primary.
After the $35 million Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) and the Democratic Governors Association spent on ads the Post said were meant to boost Darren Bailey, who won the GOP primary, the Post found the next-highest spending levels in Colorado's U.S. Senate primary ($4 million), Nevada's gubernatorial primary ($3.9 million), and New Hampshire's U.S. Senate primary ($3.2 million).
The Post described candidates the Democratic groups apparently intended to support as far right. Four of those candidates won primaries and seven lost.
Linskey's piece also discussed the debate among Democrats over Democratic spending in GOP primaries. Read more here.
Cross-party primary spending has happened before. For example, in 2012, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) ran ads designed to boost Todd Akin in Missouri's GOP Senate primary, whom McCaskill went on to defeat in the general election. In 2020, a Republican group spent on ads and activities supporting Erica Smith (D) in North Carolina's Democratic Senate primary. Cal Cunningham defeated Smith in the primary.
Redistricting and the primaries: By the numbers
The 2022 primaries were the first using new district boundaries enacted after the 2020 census. Forty-four states adopted new congressional district maps. Six states had only one congressional district.
Forty-nine states adopted new legislative district boundaries, except for Montana. The state's Legislature only meets in odd-numbered years and adjourned before the U.S. Census Bureau delivered data to the states on Aug. 12, 2021.
Seven new congressional districts
There were seven new congressional districts as a result of six states gaining U.S. House districts during apportionment: Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas (which gained two seats).
Seven states—California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia—lost one district each.
Six member vs. member elections
As a result of redistricting, six U.S. House districts had two incumbents running against each other in their party's primaries (winner is in bold):
- Georgia's 7th: Carolyn Bourdeaux (D) vs. Lucy McBath (D)
- Illinois' 6th: Sean Casten (D) vs. Marie Newman (D)
- Illinois' 15th: Rodney Davis (R) vs. Mary Miller (R)
- Michigan's 11th: Andy Levin (D) vs. Haley Stevens (D)
- New York's 12th: Carolyn Maloney (D) vs. Jerry Nadler (D)
- West Virginia's 2nd: David McKinley (R) vs. Alex Mooney (R)
In the 2012 House elections following the most recent round of redistricting, 11 primaries featured two incumbents: seven Democratic, three Republican, and one all-party primary in Louisiana with two Republican incumbents.
Two House general elections in 2022 were set to feature two incumbents in November: Neal Dunn (R) against Al Lawson (D) in Florida's 2nd and Mayra Flores (R) against Vicente Gonzalez Jr. (D) in Texas' 34th.
Click here for more on these multi-member matchups.
In 2022, there were 48 incumbent vs. incumbent state legislative primaries: 16 for Democrats and 32 for Republicans.
Two rescheduled primaries
Two states held contests for different types of offices on two different dates because of court decisions regarding redistricting.
New York held statewide and state Assembly primaries as originally scheduled on June 28 and congressional and state Senate primaries on Aug. 23. The New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, overturned the state's congressional and state Senate maps on April 27, ruling that both violated the state's constitutional redistricting process.
Ohio held congressional and statewide primary elections on May 3 and legislative primaries on Aug. 2. The Ohio Supreme Court struck down the state's adopted legislative district boundaries on April 14, after previously overturning three other sets of legislative maps that the legislature or state redistricting commission had approved. The state ultimately used maps the Ohio Redistricting Commission adopted.
U.S. House incumbent primary losses exceed last two redistricting cycles
Overall, 15 House incumbents lost in 2022 primaries—nine Republicans and six Democrats. (Those figures include Republican Bob Gibbs (OH-07), who unofficially withdrew but whose name still appeared on the ballot.) Six incumbent losses were inevitable in 2022 due to primaries featuring two incumbents. Still, the number exceeded the previous two post-redistricting elections in 2012 and 2002. In 2012, 13 House incumbents lost primaries. And in 2002, eight incumbents lost.
Here is 2022's list of defeated U.S. House incumbents:
- Carolyn Bourdeaux (D) - Georgia's 7th
- Mondaire Jones (D) - New York's 10th
- Andy Levin (D) - Michigan's 11th
- Carolyn Maloney (D) - New York's 12th
- Marie Newman (D) - Illinois' 6th
- Kurt Schrader (D) - Oregon's 5th
- Madison Cawthorn (R) - North Carolina's 11th
- Liz Cheney (R) - Wyoming's At-Large District
- Rodney Davis (R) - Illinois' 15th
- Bob Gibbs (R) - Ohio's 7th
- Jaime Herrera Beutler (R) - Washington's 3rd
- David McKinley (R) - West Virginia's 2nd
- Peter Meijer (R) - Michigan's 3rd
- Steven Palazzo (R) - Mississippi's 4th
- Tom Rice (R) - South Carolina's 7th
Four of the nine Republican losses this year were among incumbents who voted to impeach Trump in 2021. Ten Republicans total voted yes on impeachment, and six of them ran for re-election.
See also
- Democratic Party primaries, 2022
- Republican Party primaries, 2020
- The Heart of the Primaries
- Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering primary elections
Footnotes
