ATLANTA -- Georgia Democrats voted Tuesday to give Atlanta lawyer Stacey Abrams a chance to become the first black female governor in American history, on a night when several other women advanced in primaries across the U.S.
The former state House minority leader already set historical marks with a primary victory making her the first black nominee and first female nominee for governor of either majority party in Georgia.
Primary elections also took place Tuesday in Kentucky, Texas and Arkansas.
Abrams, 44, beat former state Rep. Stacey Evans -- also an Atlanta-area attorney -- in Tuesday's race, which was characterized by a battle over their legislative records on education.
Abrams is a celebrated romance novelist who made economic mobility and affordable health care cornerstones of her campaign. She garnered major party endorsements from Hillary Clinton, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, R-Ga., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
No Republican candidate gathered more than 50 percent of the vote in that primary -- so the top two face a July 24 runoff. Abrams will face either Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle or Secretary of State Brian Kemp.
Abrams would succeed Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, who has held the office since 2011 and is term-limited.
Elsewhere in Georgia, a Little Rock native won the Democratic primary for the right to challenge U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson of West Point in the fall midterm election.
Democrat Chuck Enderlin, a Delta Air Lines pilot from Newnan, defeated high school science teacher Rusty Oliver of Columbus.
Ferguson, a freshman Georgia congressman, defeated former Army officer and helicopter pilot Philip Singleton of Sharpsburg in the Republican primary in western Georgia's 3rd Congressional District.
The district includes portions of 13 counties along or near the Georgia-Alabama state line.
Teachers populated several ballots in Kentucky, where a high school math teacher ousted the majority leader of the Kentucky House of Representatives on Tuesday in a GOP primary race.
Travis Brenda credited a groundswell of teacher support for the win and said it sends a message that teachers and public sector workers won't be silent. His race follows a wave of education protests at the Kentucky Capitol and elsewhere around the country, with teachers and others calling for increased pay and more funding for education.
Voters turned on state Rep. Jonathan Shell -- who two years ago was credited with helping orchestrate the first GOP takeover of Kentucky's House of Representatives in nearly 100 years -- over his role in writing a state law that changed the state's pension system.
"He lied to us," school bus driver Carol Plummer said. "I hope it sends a message."
Shell helped write a bill that moved all future teachers into a hybrid pension system. Lawmakers passed it on one of the last days of the legislative session, hurrying it through. It was never available for the public to read before the vote.
The bill, signed into law by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, prompted thousands of teachers to march on Kentucky's Capitol, closing schools in more than 30 districts.
"They picked on the wrong group," said Brenda, a fourth-generation farmer and 20-year teaching veteran who has never run for public office before.
At least 15 other current and former teachers were on Tuesday's ballot in Kentucky.
Brenda will face Democrat Mary Renfro in November.
In a central Kentucky congressional district, voters opted for retired Marine officer and fighter pilot Amy McGrath over Lexington Mayor Jim Gray to advance to a fall campaign against Republican Rep. Andy Barr.
McGrath, making her first bid for public office, is among a handful of female Naval Academy graduates running for Congress this year.
Gray also lost a 2016 Senate race.
Voters in eastern Kentucky's Rowan County meanwhile denied a Democratic nomination to a gay candidate who wanted to challenge the local clerk who denied him and others same-sex marriage licenses.
David Ermold had wanted to challenge Republican Kim Davis, who went to jail three years ago for denying marriage licenses in the aftermath of a U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
Texas had three House runoffs that will be key to whether Democrats can flip the minimum 24 GOP-held seats they'll need for a majority when a new Congress convenes next year. All three were among 25 nationally where Trump ran behind Clinton in 2016.
In a San Antonio-Mexican border district, Gina Ortiz Jones, an Air Force veteran and former intelligence officer, got Democrats' nod to face Republican Will Hurd in November. Jones would be the first openly lesbian congressman from her state.
Hurd is one of just two black House Republicans, and he won in 2016 despite criticizing Trump.
Former NFL player Colin Allred won a battle of two attorneys and former officials under President Barack Obama's administration in a runoff for the Democratic nomination in a metro-Dallas district. He topped Lillian Salerno and will face Republican Rep. Pete Sessions in November. Both Allred and Salerno made the runoff ahead of national Democrats' initial preferred candidate. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee later lined up behind Allred.
In a metro-Houston matchup, attorney Lizzie Fletcher beat out activist Laura Moser in what had become a proxy for Democrats' fight between liberals and moderates. National Democrats' campaign committee never endorsed Fletcher, but it released opposition research against Moser amid fears that she's too liberal to knock off vulnerable Republican Rep. John Culberson in the fall.
In the governor's race, Democrats tapped former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez to take on Republican incumbent Greg Abbott in November. Valdez is Texas' first openly gay and first Hispanic nominee for governor.
Valdez, 70, won despite losing the support of some Hispanic activists over her record on immigration as sheriff and a lack of fundraising.
Elsewhere in Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz's former chief of staff edged closer to joining his former boss in Congress.
Republican Chip Roy won his primary runoff Tuesday night in a hotly contested San Antonio congressional district. He becomes the GOP nominee to replace Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, who is retiring after 30 years on Capitol Hill.
Information for this article was contributed by Ben Nadler, Kate Brumback, Jeff Martin, Jonathan Landrum and Alex Sanz of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/23/2018