New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware primaries

New Hampshire state Senate President Chuck Morse conceded the Republican Senate primary Wednesday morning to Don Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general and election denier who has embraced former President Donald Trump’s approach to politics – a letdown for the GOP establishment in the race to take on Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan.

Bolduc joins a list of candidates national Republicans worry won’t be able to appeal to the broader November electorate.

The race was the final puzzle piece as 2022’s primary calendar wrapped up, with the eight-week sprint to November’s midterm elections now underway. New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware held their primaries Tuesday.

Here are some takeaways from the results:

Trump-aligned candidate triumphs in New Hampshire Senate primary

Morse was backed by establishment Republicans, including moderate Gov. Chris Sununu, and was boosted by a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, which pumped more than $4 million into the race in an attempt to stop Bolduc from winning the primary.

Bolduc aligned himself closely with Trump. He said he “concurred with Trump’s assessment” about the 2020 election – that is, Trump’s lie that President Joe Biden’s victory came as a result of widespread fraud.

“I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by” that letter, Bolduc said in an August primary debate.

Trump’s style trumps his substance in New Hampshire

Mimicking Trump’s brash style and parroting his election denialism again proved more potent in a Republican primary than embracing the policy substance of his tenure in the White House.

That’s the lesson from the Republican primary in New Hampshire’s 1st District, where 25-year-old political newcomer Karoline Leavitt, a former Trump aide who more closely mimicked the brand of politics that has defined Trump’s orbit of political acolytes, defeated Matt Mowers, another former Trump administration official but one who was more cautious on issues like the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from the former President.

Mowers fully embraced aspects of Trump’s tenure. His website was full of positions that defined the former President, and Mowers touted the fact that Trump endorsed him in his failed attempt to win the seat in 2020.

Rhetorically and stylistically, however, the two were dramatically different.

Rhode Island picks candidates in competitive House race

The field is set for what's expected to be one of New England's most competitive congressional races this fall, after Rhode Island state treasurer Seth Magaziner won the 2nd Congressional District's Democratic primary, CNN projected.

He is now set to face Republican Allan Fung, the Cranston mayor, in the district where long-time Rep. Jim Langevin is retiring. Langevin, a Democrat, has won his races without serious competition since 2001, and President Joe Biden won there by 14 percentage points in 2020. But Republicans believe the seat is winnable. 

Fung was the Republican candidate for governor in 2014 and 2018, losing twice to former Gov. Gina Raimondo but performing well in the district, which covers the western half of the state.

McKee hangs on in Rhode Island

One of the least popular governors in the country, Rhode Island's Dan McKee faced four primary challengers as he seeks his first full, elected term in office.

But McKee, who took over as governor last year when Raimondo left the job to join the Biden administration, is no stranger to tough primaries — he almost lost his bid for renomination as lieutenant governor in 2018.

Both of his closest rivals, former CVS executive Helena Foulkes and Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, ran as reformers with pledges to clean up government. Foulkes, who promised not to run for reelection if she didn't revitalize Rhode Island schools, was endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The race was a bust for progressive favorite Matt Brown, the Bernie Sanders-endorsed former secretary of state, who trailed the leaders four years after losing a primary challenge to Raimondo.

Karoline Leavitt will win the GOP nomination for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, CNN projects, and face Democratic incumbent Rep. Chris Pappas in November. 

The Gen Z candidate graduated from Saint Anselm College in 2019 and then went to work in the Trump White House. She eventually became assistant press secretary under White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. After Trump’s loss, she went to work for Rep. Elise Stefanik, now the third-ranking House Republican. She was endorsed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. She previously told CNN that she was running in part, to bring young voters into the Republican Party.

Leavitt defeated another Trump alum, Matt Mowers, who was an adviser in the State Department in former President Donald Trump’s administration and is the former New Hampshire GOP executive director. 

Leavitt’s victory came in the face of millions in outside spending seeking to halt her rise and help Mowers win the nomination. After polls showed Leavitt, 25, tied with Mowers, millions flooded into the state from outside groups like Congressional Leadership Fund and Defending Main Street, including in attack ads that called her “woke,” “immature” and “irresponsible.”

Those Republican groups believed Mowers, not Leavitt, would be best positioned to face Pappas, one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in the country, in November. A Mowers victory would have meant a rematch of their 2020 campaign, a race Mowers lost by 5 percentage points.

More on the race: But Leavitt’s victory is proof of how mimicking his style and political aggression is a winning strategy. Both Republicans worked for Trump -- Leavitt in the White House and Mowers during the campaign and at the State Department -- but where Mowers attempted to walk a fine line in his embrace of Trump, Leavitt was more aggressive and brash.

Mowers’ caution opened the door for Leavitt, and turned the race into one as much about style as it was about the substance. Both Mowers and Leavitt centered their campaigns on the same policy that helped elected the former President, but the upstart winner was unabashed about her support for the former President, especially on the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

Earlier this month, when Mowers was asked if he had confidence in elections, the candidate said, “I have confidence in New Hampshire elections,” but added that there was space to “get better.”

Leavitt unloaded on Mowers for the answer, saying “the 2020 election was undoubtedly stolen from President Trump” and accusing Mowers of siding with Biden in believing the Democratic president “legitimately won more votes than Donald Trump.”

Democrats believe Levitt’s win is a victory for Pappas, giving the vulnerable Democrat an easier chance of winning in November.

CNN's Dan Merica contributed reporting to this post.

Incumbent Gov. Dan McKee will win the Democratic nomination for Rhode Island governor, CNN projects. He will face Republican Ashley Kalus in November.  

McKee was elevated from lieutenant governor in 2021 after former Gov. Gina Raimondo became President Joe Biden’s Commerce secretary.  

He defeated Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea and former CVS president Helena Foulkes in today's primary.

In the closely watched Republican Senate primary in New Hampshire, the candidates are separated by just about 2,000 votes as results continue to roll in across the state.

Chuck Morse, the state Senate president, is leading Don Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general, in many of the big cities, but not by a big margin, according to a break down of numbers so far from CNN senior political analyst John Avlon. Many results in rural parts of the state are still coming in.

Top Republicans harbor reservations about Bolduc, whom even people close to him describe as a “loose cannon” without much of a political organization or fundraising ability. During the campaign the GOP establishment spent money trying to boost Morse, who they think it the stronger candidate to win the seat in November.

Meanwhile, in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, two ex-Trump staffers are battling it out to face incumbent Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas in the fall.

Watch more here:

The 2022 primary season is poised to go out with a bang, with voters in New Hampshire and Rhode Island deciding a series of fiercely contested races that could play a major role in defining who controls the House and Senate next year.

Over more than six months, voters around the country have set the stakes for November’s general election – a series of contests that will decide control at nearly every level of government beneath the presidency. Democrats are defending narrow majorities on Capitol Hill and hard-won state executive seats across the country, while Republicans are trying to wrest back control of Congress and put a halt on President Joe Biden’s agenda. The GOP is also positioned to elect a slate of 2020 election denier to key posts in the states and potentially the House and Senate.

Tonight's key race: On Tuesday, Granite State Republicans are hoping to flip key Democratic-held Senate and House seats, but – as has been a theme throughout the year – they could see those ambitions dimmed if candidates the party views as more viable in a general election are not the pick of primary voters more closely aligned with former President Donald Trump’s politics.

It’s been a tough few months for Republicans seeking to control the Senate in January. And Tuesday’s primary could represent the coup de grace.

Many Republicans are worried that Don Bolduc, a retired Army brigadier general who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2020, could win Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary, setting off a frantic burst of outside spending from Republicans looking to boost Chuck Morse, the state Senate president and establishment favorite.

Bolduc has shown little ability to raise money – he had pulled in less than $600,000 by August 24, compared to Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan's $31.4 million – and has a propensity to speak provocatively, with even Republican operatives who know him well describing him as a “loose cannon.”

To help Morse, Sununu endorsed Morse days before the primary and recently spoke with Trump, urging him to get into the race. Trump has yet to endorse, but some Republicans in the state were worried he would back Bolduc.

Another key race: In the Republican primary in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, voters will decide whether mimicking Trump’s style is more effective than running on his policies.

Republicans Matt Mowers and Karoline Leavitt are the frontrunners in the primary. Both worked for Trump – Mowers on his 2016 campaign and in the State Department, and Leavitt in the White House press shop – and both are fully running on board with the former President’s agenda.

Read more about tonight's primaries here.

Incumbent Democrat Sabina Matos will face Republican Aaron Guckian in Rhode Island's lieutenant governor race in November, CNN projects.

Matos is seeking a full term.

Ashley Kalus will win the Republican primary for Rhode Island governor, CNN projects.

Kalus was the favorite in the GOP primary and had already launched attack ads on incumbent Democratic Gov. Dan McKee.

The last Republican governor of Rhode Island was Don Carcieri, who served from 2003 to 2011. 

Seth Magaziner will win the Democratic nomination for Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District, CNN projects. He will face Republican Allan Fung in November.

Magaziner, the Rhode Island treasurer, had been running for the governor’s seat but pivoted to run for the congressional seat after Rep. Jim Langevin announced he would retire.  

Magaziner raised the most money in the race and had high name recognition in the state and stacking up endorsements — including one from Langevin. 

He defeated Sarah Morgenthau, who was the director of the Peace Corps Response under former President Barack Obama, David Segal, who once served in the state legislature and ran a failed congressional race in 2010, and Joy Fox, who worked as communications director for Langevin and former Gov. Gina Raimondo. 

While President Joe Biden won big in the district and Langevin has represented it since 2001 without much competition, Republicans expect Fung, the former Cranston mayor, to run a credible campaign. 

Fung was the Republican candidate for governor in 2014 and 2018, losing twice to Raimondo but performing well in the district, which covers the western half of the state.

Incumbent David Cicilline will win the Democratic primary in Rhode Island's 1st Congressional District, CNN projects.

He served as an impeachment manager during former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial.

Cicilline will face Republican Allen Waters in November. Both ran unopposed in their respective primaries.