Democrats' big bets on GOP primaries come due: What to watch in Tuesday's elections

Democrats have a lot riding on Tuesday’s primaries. The Republican primaries, that is.

Facing hurricane-force electoral headwinds in November, Democrats have launched an unprecedented effort to meddle in GOP nominating contests across the country, elevating extreme candidates and attacking Republican hopefuls they view as greater threats in the general election.

Tuesday’s races feature four races in which Democratic candidates or groups are seeking to influence Republican primary voters, including a more-than-$30-million effort in the Illinois governor’s race. There are also multi-million-dollar campaigns to boost far-right Republican statewide candidates in Colorado, the one-time swing state where then-President Donald Trump was trounced two years ago.

Plenty of other big-ticket primaries on Tuesday don’t involve inter-party meddling, including two member-versus-member congressional races in Illinois and a handful of Republican incumbents taking heat for voting to investigate the Jan. 6 attacks at the Capitol. There’s also the tabloid-fodder GOP race for New York governor, a Republican pile-up for a Senate seat in safely red Oklahoma and a handful of open House races splitting both parties’ establishment and confrontational wings.