• JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Facing the political challenge of a lifetime, six-term Sen. Thad Cochran campaigned with leading figures of Mississippi's Republican establishment and cast himself as a reliable opponent of President Barack Obama on Monday on the eve of a primary showdown with tea party-backed rival Chris McDaniel.
• McDaniel made the final rounds of his campaign -- and carried with him the hopes of tea party supporters nationwide eager to topple a high-profile Republican incumbent in this year's primaries. In an interview between stops, he said he wants to "end cronyism in Washington, D.C," said added he intends to "repeal Obamacare in its entirety" and will push for term limits and a constitutional balanced budget amendment.
• Their race drew much of the attention among primaries across eight states on Tuesday. Nominations for the Senate are on the ballot in Alabama; Iowa; Montana; New Jersey; New Mexico and South Dakota as well as Mississippi in a year in which Republicans need to gain six seats to win a majority.
• Gubernatorial primaries are taking place in Alabama, Iowa, New Mexico, South Dakota and California, where Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking a fourth term this fall.
• House races drew plenty of outside interest from the political professionals, even if they gained scant attention nationwide.
• Democrats face a distinctly uphill battle to win a House majority this fall, and they and their allies sought to knock out Republican contenders in primaries in California and New Jersey.
• The House Majority PAC aired a television ad against Republican hopeful Doug Ose in California in an apparent attempt to help a more-conservative Igor Birman win a spot on the ballot. Seizing on votes cast in 2003, when he was in Congress, the ad said, "Doug Ose didn't serve the troops -- he just served himself."
• Ose has criticized the ad, but its mere existence was evidence that party officials believe Birman would present a weaker challenge to Democratic Rep. Ami Bera in the fall.
• The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee paid for mailers aimed at influencing a second race in California, as well as a primary for a House seat in New Jersey that Republican Rep. Jon Runyan is vacating.
• Several states held out the possibility of a second round of competition to pick

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