A look ahead at Tuesday's primary election races

NPR | By Saige Miller,

Ailsa Chang

Published August 4, 2026 at 4:16 PM EDT

Five states hold primary elections Tuesday in races that could signal the future for the Democratic and Republican parties.

Saige Miller

Saige Miller is a national politics reporter on NPR's Politics & Policy desk, where she primarily focuses on the West Coast. She reports from rural Washington state.

Ailsa Chang

Ailsa Chang is an award-winning journalist and a host of NPR’s newsmagazine All Things Considered, as well as NPR’s daily news podcast Consider This.

See stories by Ailsa Chang

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