A wall of nametags at a South Korean park testifies to adoptees’ longing for their birth mothers

PAJU, South Korea (AP) — Dozens of Korean adoptees from North America and Europe recently gathered to leave their names on a wall at a former U.S. military base, hoping that, after decades, a birth mother might still be looking for them.

Misted in rain, they fastened ceramic nametags onto mesh that covered a cobblestone wall at Omma Poom Park — meaning “mother’s embrace" — in Paju, South Korea.

More than 900 tags, suspended like unmailed letters, formed a quiet monument to years of mass child-parent separations that has created what's likely the world’s largest diaspora of adoptees.

“There are so many tiles that hang, and yet that is merely a small fraction of us that exist,” said Nicole Rieth, adopted to Michigan when she was 4 months old, in January 1989.

“As far as connecting with my birth mother, it’s not about gleaning specific information from her or even necessarily seeking a relationship. I’ve just always wanted to know who I looked like, because I’ve never had that before.”

Each nametag, hand-painted by an artist, carries the adoptee’s name, birth year and birthplace. Colors mark the decade of adoption, and most are red and sky blue, for the 1970s and 1980s, when foreign adoptions peaked. White is for adoptees who died without reunions.

One laminated note fluttered among the tags, left by anonymous parents searching for a child named “Bora.”

“You are not alone. You have a mother and a father,” it said. “I’m so sorry and I love you.”

Paju, which sits near the North Korean border and once hosted U.S. military bases, carries a long memory of foreign adoptions, which began in the aftermath of the 1950-53 Korean War with mixed-race children born to Korean women and American soldiers, regarded as outcasts at home.

Adoptions surged in the 1970s, when the focus shifted to fully Korean children, typically born to unwed mothers or impoverished families. Thousands were sent annually to the West for decades through the mid-2000s, including more than 6,600 a year during the 1980s, when Seoul’s former military dictatorship aggressively sought to reduce mouths to feed.

Omma Poom opened in June 2025 after a yearslong campaign by Paju-based photographer Lee Yong-nam and Me & Korea, an adoptee support group.

Lee, 72, said his interest in adoption issues grew from searching for a Black-Korean childhood friend likely adopted to America.

“Adoptions continued unchecked and now the pain is surfacing,” he said of the visitors, who are mostly younger than the war generation.

On a hill overlooking Omma Poom, a converted U.S. army building serves as a museum, where some 1,000 profile pages — each containing an adoptee’s photo, birthdate and message to a birth mother — are stored.

One of the profiles belongs to Angela Lee-Pack, adopted to Canada in 1971 at age 2.

“I think about you every day and only wish the best for you,” she wrote to her Korean mother. “I hope one day I will be able to know who I am.”

Growing up in Ontario, Lee-Pack says she endured severe abuse from her adoptive mother, including being locked in a closet without food. She says she was later abused in another home, left at 15, and struggled for years before finding stability as an adult.

Lee-Pack has visited South Korea twice while searching for her birth mother, putting flyers across Seoul and Jeonju.

During her first trip in 2019, a man reached out, believing Lee-Pack was the daughter of a late uncle. The lead unraveled slowly and painfully. The man later found a woman in her 70s whose background appeared to match. But she denied giving up a child and refused contact. Lee-Pack collapsed in her hotel room and cried.

“Every time I look in the mirror I wonder who she is and what she looks like,” she said of her birth mother. “The thoughts never end.”

Rieth says that becoming a mother to two sons led her to begin looking for her birth mother.

According to her adoption file, Rieth was the third child of a couple who relinquished her shortly after her birth in 1988, citing financial hardship during a time when Seoul was actively pressuring families to have fewer children.

Rieth began searching for her biological family in 2024, but letters her adoption agency sent to her birth mother’s last known address went unanswered.

She is now pursuing another search through the National Center for the Rights of the Child, a government office. She wants her sons to know the heritage she grew up without.

“I kind of don’t want to allow myself to hope because the whole journey has been a roller coaster of hoping, finding something out, and diving down into hopelessness, getting a glimmer of a maybe,” she said. “And yet I want to exhaust every effort ... so that there are no regrets.”

During the peak of adoptions, authorities largely ignored rampant fraud, including illegal child procurements from hospitals and orphanages and manipulation of children’s origins. Many were falsely labeled as abandoned orphans to ease placements with Western families.

The deception left generations of Korean adoptees not knowing who they were, where they came from, whether they had been loved, abandoned or stolen.

On the other side were birth mothers pressured to surrender children born out of wedlock, separated from them without consent, or left searching for decades before learning they had been sent overseas under falsified records.

The gathering at Omma Poom came shortly after a group of birth mothers asked South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the alleged illegal adoptions of their children, adding to hundreds of fraud and abuse claims filed by adoptees.

Adopted in 1993 to Michigan, Jalyn Smith's agency in in 2021 located her birth mother, who, according to the file, had relinquished Smith after separating from her biological father. The woman declined contact.

Five years later, Smith is pursuing the search again.

“Hanging it up, I felt proud,” Smith said about her name on Omma Poom’s wall. “I feel proud to be part of this community, though it comes with a lot of conflicting feelings of sadness and anger and grief.”

Angela Lee-Pack, a Korean adoptee from Canada, explains flyers with her photos attached to a newspaper stand during an interview with The Associated Press on a street in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Nicole Rieth, a Korean adoptee from the United States, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Ashley E. Terrell, left, a Korean adoptee from the United States and Christian Jang-Mikkelsen, a Korean adoptee from Denmark, embrace after hanging their nametags at The Wall of Names at Omma Poom Park in Paju, South Korea, on May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Eva-Lotta Margareta Glader, a Korean adoptee from Sweden, puts her nametag on The Wall of Names at Omma Poom Park in Paju, South Korea, on May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Korean adoptees put their nametags with South Korean volunteers on The Wall of Names at Omma Poom Park in Paju, South Korea, on May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

For a state that’s home to Hollywood, there isn’t much star power in California’s gubernatorial race. It’s a somewhat different story in Los Angeles, where a reality television personality is running for mayor as the city prepares to host the Olympics.

More primaries are being held on Tuesday as well. Democrats are banking on a rare chance to regain ground in Iowa, a rural state that has repeatedly eluded them in recent years. Republicans, meanwhile, are grappling with a New Jersey congressman whose unexplained absence could put their already slim majority at risk.

— California: Voters are weighing in on who should lead the nation’s most populous state, where there is no clear leader among candidates vying to advance in the race to succeed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Plus, U.S. House races are on the ballot, along with the Los Angeles mayor’s race.

— New Mexico: Contests in the state include primaries for congressional seats, a U.S. Senate seat and a long list of statewide offices, but the governor’s race is the main attraction. Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is running for the Democratic nomination, which could put her on a historic path for Native American leaders.

— New Jersey: One of this year’s most closely watched House midterms will take place in the battleground district represented by Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who has drawn public scrutiny and concern after missing more than 100 House votes due to an undisclosed medical issue. Voters are deciding which Democrat will run against him in November.

— Read more about races in Iowa, Montana and South Dakota.

Here's the latest:

In-person Election Day voting in Iowa, New Mexico and South Dakota concluded at 9 p.m. ET. Polls closed an hour earlier in the parts of South Dakota that are in Central time.

Comparable primaries from past elections can offer clues about when to expect the first vote results and how long the vote count might take.

In the last contested Iowa state primary in 2022, the AP first reported results at 9:12 p.m. ET, or 12 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 2:29 a.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

In the 2022 New Mexico gubernatorial primary, the AP first reported results at 9:11 p.m. ET, or 11 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 2:50 a.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

In South Dakota’s most recent U.S. Senate primary in 2022, the AP first reported results at 9:02 p.m. ET, or two minutes after the last polls closed. The final vote update of the night was at 3:22 a.m. ET, with more than 99% of total votes counted.

Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot, will take on Rep. Tom Kean Jr. this fall. Her win over three other Democrats in the closely-watched district sets up the state’s premier contest for November, when the party hopes they can flip the seat.

Winning in districts like the 7th, which includes bedroom communities and farm towns as well as Trump’s Bedminster golf club, will be key to Democratic hopes of gaining control of the narrowly divided House.

The win comes as Kean has missed more than 100 votes in the House because of a medical issue that his office has declined to specify.

Rosamaria Cerezo, a 57-year-old substitute teacher, said Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, have failed to make California more affordable.

“Both my husband and I have two jobs each just to make ends meet,” Cerezo said outside a polling location in Elk Grove.

She planned to vote for Republican Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator, in the crowded race to replace Newsom. She wanted to back the GOP candidate she thought had the best chance of advancing to the general election in November.

Outside a polling location in Elk Grove, Tamara Alton, a 65-year-old marriage and family therapist, said she was voting for incumbent Rep. Doris Matsui in the 7th District.

Alton said she’s more familiar with Matsui than her younger challenger, Democrat Mai Vang, a Sacramento City Council member.

“I’m going with who I know,” she said.

Democrat Khydeeja Alam, 42, a small farmer who also works for the state, said she planned to vote for Vang.

Alam, who is Muslim, said Matsui didn’t do enough to engage with Muslim Americans after the war in Gaza began.

“She’s not been accessible, which has been a really big disappointment,” Alam said.

New Jersey’s 7th District remains one of the most competitive U.S. House districts in the country. In 2018, former Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski unseated longtime Republican incumbent Leonard Lance, flipping the seat after decades of GOP control.

Malinowski managed to hold off now-Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in 2020, but following redistricting, the district seesawed back to Republicans in 2022 when Kean won by 2.8 points.

In 2024, Kean expanded his margin to 5.4 points, but Trump won the district by only 1.1 points that same year, making the race for this seat anyone’s game.

John Sileo, a 65-year-old business owner, said he voted for candidates who would put a check on Trump and also California’s liberal government.

The self-described moderate Republican said he never liked Trump and voted for Democrat Joe Kerr for Congress rather than the two Republican contenders.

“Trump has a monopoly now and you’ve got to at least turn the House,” he said outside a vote center in Orange.

Sileo said he refused to vote for Steve Hilton for California’s governor because he is backed by Trump, and wouldn’t vote for Xavier Becerra because he sees him as a continuation of Democrats’ policies in the state.

“I voted for Tom Steyer because at least he’s a disruptor,” he said. “He was the best of poor choices.”

Deanna Crane, 33, said “anyone with a pulse other than Spencer Pratt” would suffice for mayor.

She ultimately went with Nithya Raman because she was unhappy with the way Karen Bass handled the wildfires last January as well as her progress on addressing homelessness.

She said the main issue on her mind was broadly “community,” making sure the people around her were cared for and could afford to live. She went with Tom Steyer in the governor’s race because she felt like he was the most progressive candidate.

“I don’t particularly love voting for a billionaire,” she said. “That was a rough one.”

Frank Coit is a retired orthopedic shoe store owner and Democratic voter from Somerville, where he said he voted for Rebecca Bennett for U.S. House.

A Vietnam War Army veteran, Coit said he liked and appreciated her military service. Bennett served about 15 years in the Navy, working as a helicopter pilot.

“I think every politician going should have some military service,” he said.

Vanessa Rosella, a 47-year-old teacher, said she focused her pick for California’s next governor on the candidate she felt would best defend the state against the president.

“We need someone to stand up,” said Rosella, who cast her ballot for Xavier Becerra.

She said she considered voting for Tom Steyer, but she felt the state didn’t need a billionaire in charge when affordability has become such a critical issue.

In-person Election Day voting concluded in New Jersey at 8 p.m.

Comparable primaries from past elections can offer clues about when to expect the first vote results and how long the vote count might take.

In the New Jersey gubernatorial primaries last year, the AP first reported results at 8:03 p.m. or three minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:43 p.m. with about 93% of total votes counted.

Although South Dakota spans two time zones and some polls close at 8 p.m. ET, state law requires that no results are released until the final polls have closed at 9 p.m. ET.

While a Democrat is favored to win the governor’s job in New Mexico, many voters on the outskirts of Albuquerque cast ballots in the Republican primary.

The fire station serving Edgewood is the town’s only polling place. Registered Republican A. J. Rodriguez voted for Gregg Hull, who he says is most likely to be elected, and be in a position to rein in violent crime and government spending.

“The state keeps voting blue, and we’re getting hammered by policies that aren’t working,” said Rodriguez, a retired sheriff’s office lieutenant. “We need someone who can actually put up a good fight.”

Sophia Brown was voting in her first primary in part because she sees Iowa’s 1st District as within reach for Democrats in November.

“I’ve seen the races be so close, so getting out here earlier feels like it might have an impact,” said Brown, a pharmacist for University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Brown voted for Christina Bohannan, who is seeking her third chance against Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican elected in 2020 and reelected twice by narrow margins.

The 25-year-old resident of Coralville, just outside the University of Iowa’s home in Iowa City, said she often encounters people in her work without health insurance and unable to pay for prescribed medication.

“I see people every day who can’t get discharged from the hospital with the medicine they need,” she said. “That’s something that bothers me, and we need someone who is more acutely aware of that.”

Brett Christensen, a 55-year-old school safety monitor from Orange, said he voted for Republican Ken Calvert for Congress because he feels he is more aligned with the president than his Republican opponent Young Kim.

“Young Kim’s voting record has not been consistent,” Christensen said outside a vote center on Tuesday.

He said he isn’t registered to any political party but finds himself voting more and more Republican, feeling Democrats have shifted too far to the political left. In California’s governor race, he said he voted for the Republican he thought had the best shot of making it to the November ballot: Steve Hilton.

“He’s the only viable Republican candidate that can make it to the runoff,” he said.

Araz Shahinian, 49, went to vote at the Somerville Civic Center in New Jersey’s 7th District. A systems developer, he said he cast his vote in the Democratic primary for Rebecca Bennett, the former Navy chopper pilot.

“She had the more centrist views,” he said. “It’s important to have people who think reasonably about what we need to do.”

Shahinian said he hadn’t been very politically active before, but he’s worried about the state of politics and rising prices. He doesn’t see the GOP as putting forward the right policies. “I don’t think they have answers,” he said.

Iowa wasn’t always a Republican stronghold.

Before Trump reshaped American politics, this was the state the lifted the political career of Barack Obama and sent Tom Harkin to the Senate for five terms.

The party is particularly excited about Rob Sand, who is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination for governor. A native of Decorah, Iowa, he has the rural roots that have become rare among Democrats. Perhaps most importantly, he’s a proven winner in a Republican-leaning state, having been elected twice as auditor.

Republicans head into the primary with five candidates. Trump jumped in last week to endorse Rep. Randy Feenstra.

This is the first open contest for the governor’s seat since 2006. Democrats are hoping that a combination of the economic fallout from Trump’s tariff policies, rising gas prices stemming from the Iran war and the lack of a Republican incumbent could give them their best opportunity in years. Sand also has a fundraising advantage over the Republicans, including Feenstra.

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Spencer Pratt rose to fame on “The Hills,” a show about young people living in Los Angeles. Now he wants to be the city’s mayor.

Pratt’s home was destroyed in the Palisades Fire, and he blames Mayor Karen Bass for the widespread destruction. He is campaigning on a promise to clean up Los Angeles, but faces long odds in a city that hasn’t elected a Republican as mayor since 1997.

His campaign has drawn attention with videos generated by artificial intelligence. One of them casts Pratt as Batman, saving a dystopian city from Bass, portrayed as the Joker.

The Republican has been absent from Congress for months because of an unspecified medical issue.

He issued a statement saying “I will continue putting our constituents first” and “I am optimistic about the road ahead.”

“Right now I am focused on my recovery and under the advice of healthcare professionals. I will transition from virtual work to in person work within a matter of weeks,” said Kean, who is seeking a third term in November. “I look forward to sharing my experience with the public.”

Kean told a local political blog nearly two weeks ago that he expected to be back “in the next couple of weeks.”

Jude Mayer says she wasn’t thrilled about voting for a billionaire for governor. But she believes Democrat Tom Steyer “is talking about the environment in the way that I want to hear about it.”

The 24-year-old says climate change is an imminent threat to her home state in particular.

“I don’t want to be under water in 10 years,” Mayer said Tuesday after voting in Los Angeles.

If she wins her party’s nomination, Haaland will be on a path to become the first Native American woman elected as a governor in the U.S.

In 2018, the member of Laguna Pueblo became one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. Under President Joe Biden, she became the first Native American Cabinet secretary.

New Mexico has trended increasingly blue in recent years, with Democrats winning every statewide elected office since 2017.

Haaland leads her challenger Sam Bregman in fundraising by a significant margin.

Democrats convinced California voters to let them redraw the state’s congressional map to counter the five-seat gain Republicans hoped to earn in Texas when they revised that state’s map at the president’s urging.

But one of the seats Democrats are counting on picking up, a new district outside San Diego that replaces a conservative seat, could end up out of their reach on primary night.

That’s because California’s primary awards spots on the November ballot to the top two vote-getters, regardless of political party. Nine Democrats are on the ballot in the 48th District, so many that some in the party worry the two Republicans will nab the top two slots while the Democrats split the majority of the vote and get locked out of the general election.

Other Democrats are confident their voters will coalesce around one of the most prominent candidates — former Obama administration official Ammar Campa-Najjar or San Diego City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert.

Jose Rivera says casting a ballot, especially in local elections, is a way to make a difference in your community.

“This is proof that you do have a voice,” he said Tuesday outside his LA polling place.

Rivera voted for Karen Bass for mayor because, he said, she deserves a second term to deliver on her promises.

“She’s done a pretty good job in my opinion overall,” he said.

Democrats in New Jersey's 7th District, where incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr. has been absent for months, are picking their nominee to take him on in the fall.

Kean’s team has said he’s dealing with a personal medical issue and he plans to return soon, but they haven’t disclosed any details about what’s made him more than 100 votes in Congress.

Bruce Paterson, 75, a self-described “regular Democrat” who has been supportive of Kean, said at a recent state legislative town hall that he’s been tracking Kean’s absence.

“He has been out for months. Nobody knows where he is,” he said.

Competing for the Democratic nomination are Rebecca Bennett, Michael Roth, Tina Shah and Brian Varela.

The district, which has New York suburbs and rural areas and includes Trump’s Bedminster golf course, has flipped parties in midterms in 2018 and 2022.

Democrats redrew the 40th District southeast of Los Angeles to create a solidly conservative district that was bound to eliminate one of two Republicans they have struggled to defeat over the years: Rep. Ken Calvert or Rep. Young Kim.

Both incumbents are now stuck in the same district and have launched a monthslong slugfest over who is more conservative and more loyal to Trump. Both might make it through to the general election. But if one doesn’t, their political career will end — at least for now.

Julian Bartell quit his job last winter to take a higher-paying position 30 miles from his home in Newton, Iowa. That was just as the war with Iran was starting. The new daily, hour-long commute and its higher fuel cost erased his higher pay, he said.

He was voting for Zach Wahls, the state senator from progressive stronghold of Iowa City, in Tuesday’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary and Travis Terrell, the lesser-known progressive candidate running against Christina Bohannan for the Democratic nomination in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District.

The 22-year-old cook wants to see higher-income earners to pay more in taxes in order to help the working class.

“My priorities are wealth taxes, Medicare for all and guaranteed basic income,” Bartell, a cook, said as he walked out of the Jasper County office building where he was voting around midday Tuesday.

“I don’t see enough change happening for people who need help. There are solutions. We know what they are,” he said. “We just need to get people talking about them more.”

Polls are open across New Mexico, where voters will decide primaries in three congressional seats, a U.S. Senate seat and a long list of statewide offices. The governor’s race is the main attraction as the state grapples with high rates of violent crime, underperforming schools and cuts to federal programs that are key safety nets for residents.

Two Democrats and three Republicans are vying for their parties’ nominations to replace Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who is term-limited. The winner of November’s general election is all but likely to be a Democrat, given the party’s dominance in recent years. A Republican candidate has not won statewide election in New Mexico in 10 years.

Despite the state’s persistent challenges, the primary election comes at a time of promise for the next governor, as elevated global oil prices from the Iran war have translated into increased tax revenue for state coffers.

Leo Blain, 24, likes Raman’s progressive agenda and believes she can be effective at building coalitions.

“I think she has a really good understanding about how the city of LA works and would be a really effective mayor,” Blain said Tuesday outside his polling place.

But Blain found it hard to get excited about any of the candidates for governor.

He voted for billionaire Tom Steyer because he believes the Democrat has the best shot to win in the November general election.

Most of the campaign has focused on issues like rebuilding from the Palisades Fire, affordable housing and persistent homelessness. But there are other, more existential concerns as well.

Hollywood jobs have been decamping for years for cheaper filming locations. A downtown renaissance was crushed by extended pandemic closures, and many office buildings remain desperate for tenants.

The city has long struggled to provide basic services, whether paving buckled streets and sidewalks or keeping streetlights on. The restaurant industry has witnessed a long string of high-profile closures. The city’s notorious gridlock continues unabated.

All of this has increased pressure on city leadership as it prepares to host the Olympics in 2028.

Wallace McCracken was taking time during his lunch break as an energy company safety manager to vote in Newton, the seat of Jasper County in central Iowa.

The 43-year-old registered Democrat said the nation is at a turning point in 2026, and that he wanted to be part of the direction it turns.

“We’re at a precipice and a changing point,” he said, declining to say for whom he voted in Iowa’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary. “If people want change to occur, they’ve got to do something about it.”

The married father of a middle-school student described the course of the nation as “struggling,” in part because he believes government is too tied to corporate interests.

“I would like to see a government did not funnel so much money to private corporations and bend over to lobbyists,” he said, “and, instead, do more for the people directly."

Zach Wahls and Josh Turek are both state lawmakers running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by the retiring Republican Ernst.

They agree on a lot. But they each say they’re the better pick to win a state that’s dominated by Republicans.

Iowa hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since Tom Harkin won his last term in 2008.

GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson is endorsed by Trump and Ernst for the Republican nomination. Hinson faces former state Sen. Jim Carlin in the GOP primary.

John Smith, 56, said the most important factor in his vote in Iowa’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate was identifying an individual who would be “best positioned in the general.”

Smith voted for Josh Turek over Zach Wahls.

The two state lawmakers campaigned on different visions for how to win statewide in November. Democrats want to flip the seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst. U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who has the backing of Trump and Ernst, is seeking the GOP nomination.

“It feels like there’s more opportunity for Democrats to gain ground this year than in past years,” said Smith, who lives in Des Moines.

Steyer kicked off Pride Month and capped off the last full day of his primary campaign for California governor by belting out Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”

A photo he posted on social media shows Steyer, wearing a backward baseball cap, singing karaoke alongside his wife Kat at a bar in the gay enclave of West Hollywood on Monday night.

“I can’t sing,” Steyer wrote Tuesday on X, “but I can wish you a Happy Pride.”

Steyer, a former hedge fund manager turned liberal activist, has spent millions of his own money as he hopes to advance to the November election.

One of California Democrats’ top targets when they redrew the state’s congressional map was Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley. They split his Northern California district in two, tethering each half to more Democratic areas near Sacramento to create two Democratic-leaning seats.

Kiley opted to run in the 6th District, which is crowded with local Democratic candidates. He became an outspoken critic of political gerrymandering and then left the Republican Party to run as an independent. That might be his best shot of survival with the new California map.

Emily MacFarland, a Democrat, said she voted Tuesday feeling concerned about the nation’s democracy and the state of Iowa. She said she’s glad to see more national attention on the once-competitive state. “I’m just hoping that we can become more purple,” the 49-year-old Des Moines, Iowa, resident said. “I think that Donald Trump is helping out all of the Democrats. This is our chance, honestly.” Like other Iowa Democrats, MacFarland said she had a hard time deciding between Josh Turek and Zach Wahls, two state lawmakers competing to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Being more progressive, she said she normally would’ve voted for Wahls. But ultimately, MacFarland chose Turek, who has said his experience winning a state House race in a red district can translate to success statewide. “I feel that he has a better shot at maybe getting a few Republicans that maybe are not happy with the Republican Party, or lean more independent,” she said.

The party has been adrift in the Democratic-leaning state since last year when its Trump-backed candidate for governor lost by double digits.

Voters face a four-way race between attorney Justin Murphy, surgeon Robert Lebovics, Army veteran Richard Tabor and former TV reporter Alex Zdan.

The winner will face Booker, the Democrat who is running for a full third term. Republicans have struggled in Senate contests in New Jersey, which they haven’t won in over five decades.

Kristen Anderson, 48, and her 21-year-old daughter, Sydney Baratta of Des Moines, Iowa, both voted on Tuesday for Zach Wahls to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Anderson said it was a “hard call” because there wasn’t anything wrong with Wahls’ competitor, Josh Turek. Many Iowa Democrats felt torn between the two state lawmakers who want to flip retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat in November. “I don’t have strong inclination that one of them is necessarily better than the other,” Anderson said. But Wahls is “not someone whose going to shy away from his stance,” she said. “He just seems like a good guy, just generally.” Baratta said she wants to see a younger person in office and that she’d be happy with either candidate. But Wahls, she said, brings fresh perspective and a vocal record protecting women’s access to abortion and public education, both important issues to her. “I’m really excited and intrigued by the fact that we might have some younger people in office who can portray my perspective a little bit more realistically,” she said.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was the embodiment of the Democratic establishment for some. So it was perhaps natural that a wealthy former software engineer, Saikat Chakrabarti, announced plans to challenge her in her San Francisco district.

Chakrabarti is the founder of Justice Democrats, a group that launches primaries of fellow Democrats from the left, and he’s used the millions he made in Silicon Valley to fund his campaign. But Pelosi, who has been in office for nearly 40 years, is retiring from her 11th District seat, and it’s not clear Chakrabarti will make it to the November ballot.

He faces state Sen. Scott Wiener, a well-known lawmaker who has served in San Francisco and the state capitol in Sacramento, and San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, who has been endorsed by Pelosi.

Republican Spencer Pratt is dismissing Nithya Raman’s campaign as “weak” and effectively over. The only real race, he says, is between him and Democratic incumbent Karen Bass.

Raman, a former Bass ally and progressive city council member, is challenging the mayor from the left.

In a social media video posted Monday, Pratt says Raman hasn’t gotten anything done during her six years in city leadership. He calls a vote for Raman a waste.

“At this point, it’s me and Karen,” Pratt says.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged his followers to vote for Hilton, a former Fox News TV host and British political adviser.

“He will work with me and the Federal Government, the money will flow because I have confidence in him (but not any of the others!), and we will MAKE CALIFORNIA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance called Hilton a “good guy” and encouraged Californians to vote for him.

“California is such a beautiful state--it just needs better political leadership!” Vance wrote on X.

Nithya Raman was once an ally to Bass, but she filed to challenge her as mayor just hours before the filing deadline. Raman described the city as “at a breaking point.”

She has promised to speed up housing construction, bring back entertainment industry jobs and improve services in a city known for dirty streets and buckled pavement.

Raman hasn’t drawn as much national chatter as Pratt, a former reality television star whose supporters have tried to boost his candidacy with AI-generated videos.

Last week, Raman took a shot at that tactic with her own video showing her flanked by supporters. “No AI was used in the making of this video,” it said.

The nation’s most populous state is dominated by Democrats, but some are unsure of who to vote for.

“I’m kind of pinching my nose and voting this go-around rather than being excited,” said Colin Culver, a 21-year-old San Diego resident who ultimately voted for Tom Steyer.

It’s been a chaotic campaign, particularly when former Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out of the race after being accused of sexual assault.

Paul Mitchell, a Democratic strategist tracking ballot returns, said some voters “are holding onto the ballot because they have seen this kind of topsy-turvy governor’s race,” and “they’re waiting to make sure they’re making the right choice.”

Two Democrats are seeking their party’s nomination to replace Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a term-limited Democrat who will leave office at the end of 2026. Sam Bregman, an Albuquerque-based district attorney, is campaigning on his law enforcement record and promises to stand up to the Trump administration.

Former congresswoman and U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has emphasized her ancestral roots in the state and experience working in the nation’s capital.

Haaland leads Bregman in fundraising by a wide margin, but the primary has become increasingly combative. Bregman’s campaign has seized on the fact that Haaland has declined multiple opportunities to debate him. Meanwhile Haaland’s campaign has cast Bregman as out of touch with everyday New Mexicans, highlighting his personal wealth.

By any measure, Bass’ first term has been challenging. The worst wildfire in city history began while she was traveling with a presidential delegation in Ghana. Homelessness continues to be a challenge.

“I haven’ always got it right,” Bass says.

But now she wants a second term, which would allow her to keep leading the city of 4 million people as it hosts the Olympics in 2028.

Bass is facing challenges from the left and the right. Progressive city council member Nithya Raman and Republican reality television personality Spencer Pratt are among the 14 names on the ballot.

With so many candidates, no one is likely to get a majority of the vote on Tuesday, meaning the election would be settled by a November runoff between the top two.

One of the most closely watched House races in this year’s midterms is unfolding in the New Jersey district represented by Rep. Tom Kean Jr., who’s been absent from votes for nearly three months.

Kean is running unopposed in the Republican primary, where he’s has Trump’s support. But his absence because of an undisclosed personal medical issue has generated outsized interest in the contest.

Kean is seeking a third term.

Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. is running unopposed in the primary for New Jersey’s 7th congressional district on Tuesday. But he’s facing growing scrutiny for an unexplained medical absence that has stretched for more than three months, causing him to miss more than 100 votes in Congress.

Trump weighed in on social media late Monday, saying Kean was “working tirelessly” to support the MAGA agenda.

Though Kean isn’t facing any GOP competition today, he’s seeking reelection this fall in one of the few genuinely competitive congressional districts left on the map. Several Democrats vying to take him on in the general election have made his absence — and the lack of clarity surrounding it — a central part of their message.

Every two years, the attention of the nation’s political class is riveted on a Democratic-leaning congressional district in California’s Central Valley. Republican Rep. David Valadao has been able to fend off repeated Democratic challengers, except in 2018, when he barely lost. But he ran again two years later and reclaimed the seat.

Democrats redrew the district to make it even tougher for Valadao. They recruited a moderate who represents the area in the state capital, Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, to run against him. But she’s had to battle a more liberal rival, political science professor and school board member Randy Villegas. The primary will determine Valadao’s next opponent.

That means all candidates are on the same ballot, regardless of their party affiliation. California has used that system for more than a decade.

It’s occasionally resulted in two candidates from the same party competing against each other in a general election. That happened most notably in U.S. Senate races in 2016 and 2018, when two Democrats faced off.

In the governor’s race, though, one Republican and one Democrat have always advanced to November. Democrats had feared a lockout this year given their large field of candidates. But those worries have diminished in the race’s closing weeks.

A Democrat has held the governor’s office since 2011, when Jerry Brown took over from Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Democrats have also had a firm grip on the state Legislature.

Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco say that means Democrats are to blame for the state’s expensive gas and housing, its homelessness crisis and a slew of other problems. Both have pledged to reduce regulations and taxes.

Hilton has President Donald Trump’s backing. That could help him in the primary but hurt him in the general election in the heavily Democratic state.

Holding on to Iowa is a big part of the GOP’s plan to keep its U.S. Senate majority.

A super PAC affiliated with Senate Republicans has pledged $29 million to help ensure the seat stays in GOP hands.

That means all candidates are on the same ballot, regardless of their party affiliation. California has used that system for more than a decade.

It has occasionally resulted in two candidates from the same party competing against each other in a general election. That happened most notably in U.S. Senate races in 2016 and 2018, when two Democrats faced off.

In the governor’s race, though, one Republican and one Democrat have always advanced to November. Democrats had feared a lockout this year, given their large field of candidates. But those worries have diminished in the race’s closing weeks.

The candidates are U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, state Rep. Eddie Andrews, businessman and former conservative political director Zach Lahn, former state Rep. Brad Sherman and former director of the state Department of Administrative Services Adam Steen.

If no candidate earns at least 35% of Republican primary voters, the nominee would be selected at a contested state party convention.

Trump endorsed Feenstra on Friday, saying on social media that “Randy is MAGA all the way!”

The generational fighting that has been ripping through the Democratic Party continues in California’s primaries.

In the Los Angeles-area’s 32nd District, 42-year-old lawyer Jake Levine is challenging Brad Sherman, 71, a 15-term member of the House of Representatives.

And in the 7th District near Sacramento, 40-year-old city councilwoman Mai Vang is challenging Doris Matsui, 81, who has held the seat since her husband, a congressman himself for decades, died in 2005.

Tom Steyer, the former hedge fund manager turned climate activist, spent nearly $200 million of his money on advertising alone.

The billionaire’s ad campaign was the most expensive in the country by far this election cycle. The data comes from advertising tracker AdImpact.

Steyer’s rivals in the governor’s race and his critics have accused him of trying to buy the election.

But he’s defended his spending, saying he is fighting against powerful corporate interests that are driving up the price of living in the state. Pacific Gas & Electric, a major California utility, is among the corporations and business interests funding anti-Steyer ads.

“I’m only working for the people of California,” Steyer said last week.

They are former mayor of fast-growing Rio Rancho Gregg Hull, cannabis business owner Duke Rodriguez and public relations professional Doug Turner.

While Hull and Turner have not aligned their campaigns with the MAGA movement, Rodriguez was recently served a cease-and-desist letter from a law firm representing Trump for “deceptive use” of the president’s image in campaign materials. That contest's winner faces an uphill battle to win in a state where a Republican has not been elected to statewide office in 10 years.

A sign directs voters to a polling place for the New Jersey primary election in Cherry Hill township, N.J., Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A person walks from a polling place for the New Jersey primary election in Oaklyn, N.J., Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)