These are Tuesday’s key House races

By Rachel Janfaza and Andrew Menezes, CNN

The 2022 midterm season returns in earnest Tuesday, with primary elections in five states: Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington.

In addition to high-profile Senate, gubernatorial and other statewide races, there are a number of key US House races to watch as Democrats fight to defend their razor-thin majority, with the political winds blowing largely in Republicans’ favor.

Former President Donald Trump has weighed in on several of these GOP House primaries, including three featuring incumbents who voted to impeach him last year and who all face Trump-backed challengers. Several other House incumbents on the ballot Tuesday are facing stiff primary challenges, and at least one of them will not be returning to Congress next year — the loser of a member-versus-member Democratic primary in Michigan.

Tuesday’s elections are being held under new congressional lines instituted following redistricting after the 2020 census. Michigan was the only state of the five voting Tuesday that lost a seat in reapportionment, going from 14 to 13 districts. The other four states maintained their House seat counts.

The new maps in Arizona, Michigan and Washington were drawn by redistricting commissions. Republicans had control of drawing the lines in Kansas and Missouri.

Here’s a look at the key House primaries we’re watching Tuesday:

Arizona

Republicans are eyeing pickup opportunities in several districts that became more favorable to the party under the new map.

In the new 2nd District, which Trump would have carried by 8 points in 2020, several Republicans are challenging Democratic Rep. Tom O’Halleran. They include Navy veteran Eli Crane, who has Trump’s endorsement; state Rep. Walt Blackman, an Army veteran and the first Black Republican elected to the Arizona legislature; and business consultant Mark DeLuzio.

The new 6th District, which Joe Biden would have carried by just a tenth of a point, is a successor seat in southeast Arizona to the one being vacated by retiring Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick. The GOP front-runner is Juan Ciscomani, who worked at the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and was a senior adviser to Gov. Doug Ducey. Leading Democratic hopefuls include former state Sen. Kirsten Engel, who has Kirkpatrick’s endorsement, and state Rep. Daniel Hernandez, who was an intern for Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords in 2011 when he helped save her life after she was critically wounded in a shooting outside a Tucson grocery store.

Republicans are also targeting Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton in the Phoenix-area 4th District, which Biden would have carried by 10 points. Top GOP contenders include Tanya Contreras Wheeless, a former Phoenix Suns executive who has the backing of House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik’s leadership PAC, and Marine veteran Kelly Cooper.

Meanwhile, in the new 1st District, also in the Phoenix area, six-term Rep. David Schweikert, who was previously reprimanded by the House for ethics violations, is facing a tough challenge from businessman Elijah Norton, who has attacked the incumbent for his ethics issues and had loaned more than $4.3 million to his campaign as of July 13. Democrats are targeting this seat, which Trump would have carried by less than 2 points. Their top hopefuls include community leader Jevin Hodge, who is on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red to Blue program for promising recruits, and former Phoenix Suns executive Adam Metzendorf.

Kansas

Two-term Rep. Sharice Davids — who made history in 2018 as one of the first Native American women elected to Congress — is the lone Democrat in the Kansas delegation and saw her Kansas City-area 3rd District change from one Biden carried by 11 points in 2020 to one that would have backed him by 4 points. Davids likely faces a rematch with former Kansas GOP Chair Amanda Adkins, who is on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Young Guns program for strong recruits.

Michigan

Michigan’s new citizen-driven redistricting commission produced a congressional map that was seen as more reflective of the purple state.

Democratic prospects have improved in the Grand Rapids-area 3rd District, which Biden would have carried by about 9 points. Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, faces a fierce primary challenge from Trump-backed John Gibbs, a former Department of Housing and Urban Development official. The House Democratic campaign arm recently drew intraparty criticism for running ads touting Gibbs, whom it sees as a weaker general election opponent. Hillary Scholten, an attorney who lost to Meijer in 2020, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

The redrawn 11th District in suburban Detroit features a member vs. member Democratic primary between Reps. Haley Stevens and Andy Levin. The race has become one of the key battlegrounds in the party’s evolving rift over Israel and overlapping debates about Democrats’ broader ideological direction. Levin, who is Jewish, has the backing of the campaign arm of J-Street, a moderate “pro-Israel, pro-peace” group, while Stevens, who is not Jewish, has benefited from spending by the United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with the more hawkish American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. High-profile Democrats have weighed in on the race, with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsing Stevens and Levin securing the support of Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. The winner would be heavily favored in the fall in a district that would have backed Biden by 20 points.

Republicans, meanwhile, have their eyes on three seats in Michigan.

In the new 10th District, a suburban Detroit seat that would have backed Trump by 1 point in 2020, Army veteran John James, who lost closer-than-expected races for US Senate in 2018 and 2020, is the front-runner for the GOP nomination. James is on the NRCC’s Young Guns program and has Trump’s endorsement. Democrats seeking the seat include former local prosecutor and judge Carl Marlinga, attorney and Palestinian rights activist Huwaida Arraf and Warren City Council Member Angela Rogensues.

The GOP is also targeting Democratic Reps. Elissa Slotkin in the new Lansing-anchored 7th District and Dan Kildee in the new 8th District, which includes Flint. State Sen. Tom Barrett is the lone Republican seeking to challenge Slotkin, while three Republicans are competing to take on Kildee. Biden would have narrowly carried both seats.

Meanwhile, two deep-blue Detroit-area seats have competitive Democratic primaries. In the new 12th District, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a member of the “squad” of House progressives, faces Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, Lathrup Village Mayor Kelly Garrett and former state Rep. Shanelle Jackson. In the open 13th District, leading Democrats include state Sen. Adam Hollier, an Army veteran; Michigan Civil Rights Commission Chair Portia Roberson, who has the endorsement of retiring Detroit-area Rep. Brenda Lawrence; and self-funding state Rep. Shri Thanedar, who ran for governor in 2018.

Missouri

With no swing seats in Missouri, the GOP’s 6-2 edge in the state’s US House delegation is expected to hold in November. But there are several competitive primaries.

In the deep-blue St. Louis-anchored 1st District, Democratic Rep. Cori Bush, who unseated an incumbent in the primary last cycle, faces several intraparty challengers on Tuesday, including state Sen. Steve Roberts. Bush, who has gained national attention as a member of the progressive House “squad,” holds a strong fundraising edge in the race.

With GOP Reps. Vicky Hartzler and Billy Long running for US Senate, the deep-red seats they’re vacating have drawn plenty of interest. Among the Republicans looking to succeed Hartzler in the 4th District, which includes parts of western and central Missouri, are Navy veteran and former Boone County Clerk Taylor Burks, former TV news anchor Mark Alford, state Sen. Rick Brattin and farmer and CPA Kalena Bruce, who has the endorsement of Gov. Mike Parson. GOP hopefuls for Long’s 7th District seat in southwestern Missouri include former state Sen. Jay Wasson, and sitting state Sens. Eric Burlison and Mike Moon.

Washington

Two House Republicans in the Evergreen State, who were part of the so-called impeachment 10, also face Trump-endorsed primary challengers Tuesday. But chances of Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse surviving may be greater than Meijer’s under Washington state’s open primary system, which sees all candidates run on the same ballot, regardless of party, with the top two vote-getters advancing to November.

Herrera Beutler is seeking a seventh term in the 3rd District, a southwest Washington seat that Trump would have carried by 4 points in 2020. Army veteran Joe Kent, a fellow Republican who has Trump’s backing, says the 2020 election was stolen and has made the incumbent’s vote for impeachment a center point of his campaign. Other candidates on the ballot include author Heidi St. John and state Rep. Vicki Kraft, both Republicans, and Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, an auto repair shop owner.

In the 4th District, in central Washington, Trump has endorsed Army veteran Loren Culp to take on Newhouse, who is seeking a fifth term. Culp was the GOP nominee for Washington governor in 2020 and though he lost by more than 500,000 votes, he refused to concede, repeating similar election lies as the former President. Newhouse holds a significant fundraising advantage over his opponents, who also include Navy veteran and former NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler, a Republican, and businessman Doug White, a Democrat.

And two-term Rep. Kim Schrier is once again a GOP target in the 8th District, east of Seattle, which Biden would have carried by 7 points. Her Republican challengers include Army veteran Jesse Jensen, who lost to Schrier by less than 4 points in 2020; Matt Larkin, who ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general in 2020; and King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, whose mother, the late Rep. Jennifer Dunn, represented an earlier version of the district.

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CNN’s Renée Rigdon contributed to this report.