South Carolina, Nevada and Maine primaries put the stakes of democracy in focus. Here’s what we’re watching

Voters in South Carolina, Nevada and Maine head to the polls Tuesday in primaries that could shape who controls key levers of democracy in their state and nationwide.

The races span very different, geographically diverse states, but the stakes are connected. 

In South Carolina, Republicans are choosing their nominee for next governor after a failed Trump-backed push to gerrymander the state’s congressional map and weaken the power of Black voters in the state’s only Democratic-held U.S. House district. 

In Nevada, a swing state that could again help decide the next presidency, Republicans are choosing a nominee for secretary of state — the official who oversees voting access, election administration and helps certify results.

And in Maine, a voting rights champion is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor after building a national pro-democracy profile as secretary of state. 

Tuesday’s primaries will test whether voters elevate candidates who have embraced restrictive voting policies, attacks on fair representation and election denial — and whether pro-democracy candidates can build momentum heading into November.

South Carolina polls close at 7 p.m. ET, followed by Maine at 8 p.m. ET and Nevada at 10 p.m. ET. Maine uses ranked choice voting in primaries, which means voters can rank candidates in order of preference and results may take longer if no candidate wins a majority outright.

Here’s what we’re watching.

Will South Carolina Republicans elevate a Trump-backed candidate ready to gerrymander and attack voting rights?

South Carolina’s Republican primary for governor could determine whether the state makes another attempt to redraw its congressional map and weaken the political power of Black voters.

Gov. Henry McMaster (R) is term-limited, and whoever wins the crowded GOP primary will be heavily favored in November in a state that hasn’t elected a Democratic governor in more than two decades. That makes Tuesday’s Republican primary the most important contest in the race to replace him.

The top democracy issue hanging over the race is redistricting. 

South Carolina Republicans recently tried to redraw the state’s congressional map in a Trump-ordered push to target U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn’s 6th Congressional District, the state’s only Democratic-held U.S. House seat and its only majority-Black district. 

The plan failed in the state Senate after some Republicans joined Democrats to block it, but the next governor could play a key role if Republicans try again next year.

Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, who has Trump’s endorsement and McMaster’s backing, is the candidate most closely tied to that fight. McMaster reportedly faced accusations that Trump’s endorsement of Evette was connected to his decision to call the special redistricting session, though McMaster denied any quid pro quo.

Evette is running on a restrictive voting agenda. 

Her campaign says she would require voters to prove their citizenship before registering, tighten ID requirements, push state agencies to share voter roll data and create an “Election Integrity Unit” within the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate alleged election fraud.

Those proposals echo the broader Republican agenda to make voting harder under the banner of “election integrity,” even as voting rights advocates warn that proof-of-citizenship and strict ID requirements can block eligible voters who don’t have required documents readily available.

The question Tuesday is whether South Carolina Republicans put Evette on track to become governor — and whether the next leader of the state will be a Trump-backed ally ready to revive attacks on fair maps and voting access.

Will Nevada Republicans nominate an election denier to run the state’s elections?

The most important secretary of state primary Tuesday is in Nevada, a perennial swing state where the next top election official could oversee the 2028 presidential election.

The Republican primary features Jim Marchant, one of the country’s most prominent election deniers, against three other candidates who also support making it harder to vote. Whoever wins will likely face incumbent Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D), who defeated Marchant in 2022.

The secretary of state is Nevada’s chief election official. That means the office oversees election procedures, helps certify results and gives guidance to county election officials — all critical duties in a state that has been decided by narrow margins in recent presidential elections.

Marchant has spent years spreading false claims about voting and elections. 

After losing a U.S. House race in 2020, he sued to overturn the result and became involved in efforts to send alternate Trump electors to Washington as part of the broader scheme to reverse Trump’s loss. 

In 2022, when he ran for secretary of state, he said he would not have certified President Joe Biden’s Nevada win in 2020.

Now, Marchant is running again for the same office. His campaign platform calls for requiring strict proof of citizenship to vote, ending universal mail-in ballots, eliminating electronic voting machines, moving to hand counts and forcing all voters to re-register.

Those proposals would upend Nevada’s current election system, where active registered voters automatically receive mail-in ballots and can also vote early in person or on Election Day.

Marchant is not the only Republican in the race running on restrictive voting policies. But his candidacy carries especially high stakes because of his long record of election denial and his role in the broader MAGA effort to put Trump loyalists in charge of state election offices.

The question Tuesday is whether Nevada Republicans nominate Marchant again — and whether one of the nation’s most important battleground states moves closer to putting an election denier in charge of its next presidential election.

Will a voting rights champion win Maine’s Democratic nomination for governor?

Maine’s Democratic primary for governor gives pro-democracy voters one of the night’s clearest champions to watch: Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.

Bellows has spent years running elections in a state that consistently ranks near the top of the country in voter turnout. As secretary of state, she has defended same-day voter registration, helped defeat a sweeping anti-voting ballot measure and pushed back against Trump administration efforts to obtain sensitive voter data from Mainers.

That record has made Bellows a national figure in the fight over democracy and fair elections.

In 2023, she ruled that Trump was disqualified from Maine’s Republican presidential primary ballot under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause, which bars certain officials who engaged in insurrection from holding office. The U.S. Supreme Court later reversed similar efforts to keep Trump off the ballot, but Bellows’ decision made her one of the most visible election officials willing to hold Trump accountable for Jan. 6.

More recently, Bellows has been one of the state officials resisting Trump’s renewed pressure campaign on elections. Her office rejected the administration’s demand for private voter data and condemned Trump’s sweeping election executive order, which sought to give the federal government more power over voter lists and mail-in voting.

Now Bellows is trying to turn that record into a Democratic nomination for governor. If she wins, it would be a major victory for voting rights advocates and set up a general election in which Maine’s pro-democracy election system would be central to the race.

But results may take time.

Maine uses ranked choice voting in primaries, meaning voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and voters’ next choices are counted until someone wins a majority.

The question Tuesday is whether Bellows’ record defending voting access and Maine voters’ private data is enough to carry her through a crowded Democratic field.