Six States Vote May 19: The Ossoff Toss-up Headlines a Heavy Primary Calendar

Tuesday, May 19, 2026 is the busiest primary day of the spring. Six states vote: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, and Oregon. The night's marquee race is Cook Political Report's only Toss-up on the Senate map. That's Georgia, where Democrat Jon Ossoff is seeking a second term in a state Donald Trump carried in 2024.

Below is what's on each state's ballot, who's on it, and where the night will actually matter for November.

Georgia: the Toss-up Senate primary

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Georgia is the only state on the May 19 calendar where the November Senate race is genuinely uncertain. Ossoff won his 2021 special election by 1.2 points. Trump then carried the state by a similar margin in 2024. Cook rates the seat Toss-up, and the Republican primary on the 19th is the last step before the November matchup is set.

Ossoff is unopposed on the Democratic side and has banked roughly $54 million in fundraising, more than any other Senate Democrat on the ballot this cycle. The Republican primary is led by:

• Derek Dooley, the former Tennessee head football coach and son of legendary Georgia coach Vince Dooley, leads the field at roughly $3.9 million raised.
• Mike Collins, the GA-10 congressman, has raised about $3.3 million. Buddy Carter, the GA-1 congressman, is close behind at roughly $3.1 million. Dooley has attacked both House members on Trump loyalty, and they've leaned hard into their voting records to push back.

Georgia also has an open governor's race on the ballot, with term-limited Brian Kemp leaving office. The race is rated Toss-up. Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones and Attorney General Chris Carr are the fundraising leaders on the Republican side. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who certified Joe Biden's 2020 win over Trump's protests, is running as the moderate alternative. On the Democratic side, former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is the highest-profile name in the field.

Two House primaries are worth flagging beyond the statewide races. GA-10 is open because Mike Collins is running for Senate, and GA-11 is open after Barry Loudermilk announced in February he would not seek a seventh term. (GA-14, Marjorie Taylor Greene's old seat, is a separate story: Greene resigned in January, the special election ran in March and April, and Republican Clay Fuller already won the runoff to fill out the term.) Find your district at the Georgia ballot lookup.

Pennsylvania: three House races that could decide the chamber

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Pennsylvania has more competitive House districts than any other May 19 state. Four races are rated Toss-up, Lean R, or Likely R by Cook, and the Republican incumbents in each will face a Democratic challenger nominated on Tuesday.

• PA-1 (Bucks County), Likely R. Republican Brian Fitzpatrick has survived several cycles in a suburban Philadelphia swing district. He has $2.6 million raised and no serious primary challenger.
• PA-7 (Lehigh Valley), Toss-up. Freshman Republican Ryan Mackenzie won by one point in 2024. He is unopposed in his primary; Democrats are running a contested primary to choose his challenger.
• PA-8 (Northeastern PA), Lean R. Freshman Republican Robert Bresnahan Jr. also won narrowly in 2024 in a blue-collar district that has trended Republican.
• PA-10 (Harrisburg-York), Toss-up. Republican Scott Perry, a former House Freedom Caucus chair, has been a Democratic target for years. He has $2.1 million on hand and no primary challenger of his own.

If Democrats are going to flip the House in November, several of the roughly two dozen seats they need will likely come from this list. The May 19 primary will not settle any of them, but it will set the matchups. The Pennsylvania governor's race (Democrat Josh Shapiro seeking a second term) is rated Safe Democratic. Find your district at the Pennsylvania ballot lookup.

Kentucky: the McConnell open Senate seat

Polls are open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time (most of the state is Eastern; the western counties are Central). Mitch McConnell is retiring after seven terms, and the Republican primary for his seat is the headline race in Kentucky on Tuesday. The frontrunner is Lexington-area congressman Andy Barr, who has $6.4 million raised and $2.4 million on hand. That's the largest war chest of any non-incumbent Senate candidate on a May ballot. Barr withdrew from his KY-6 reelection bid to make the run.

The seat is rated Safe Republican for November, so whoever wins the Republican primary is heavily favored to replace McConnell. KY-6 itself is now an open seat with a crowded Republican primary in the Lexington area, also rated Safe R. The other five Kentucky House districts have incumbents on the ballot. Republicans James Comer (KY-1), Brett Guthrie (KY-2), Thomas Massie (KY-4), and Harold Rogers (KY-5) are all running for reelection in Safe R districts. Democrat Morgan McGarvey (KY-3) is the lone Democrat in the delegation and is also up.

Alabama: open Senate and governor races, both rated Safe R

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time. Tommy Tuberville is leaving the Senate to run for governor, and Kay Ivey is term-limited out of the governor's office. Both seats are rated Safe Republican, so the Republican primary on May 19 is effectively the general election. Alabama uses a runoff system: if no candidate clears 50 percent, the top two return for a June 23 runoff.

The Senate Republican field is led by Mobile congressman Barry Moore, who has $2.4 million raised. Behind him: former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson at $1.5 million, state Attorney General Steve Marshall at $1.3 million, and businessman Rodney Walker further back. The Democratic primary features Kyle Sweetser, a former Republican who endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, against Birmingham business owner Dakarai Larriett.

All seven Alabama House seats are also on the ballot, including AL-1 (an open seat after the incumbent's retirement) and AL-2, where Democrat Shomari Figures is seeking a second term in a district redrawn by court order in 2024. Civil rights icon Terri Sewell is on the ballot in AL-7. Find your district at the Alabama ballot lookup.

Idaho and Oregon: quieter ballots, but worth the trip

Idaho polls are open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time (most of the state is Mountain; the northern Panhandle is Pacific). Republican Senator Jim Risch is running for a fourth term in a Safe Republican seat. Governor Brad Little, also Republican, is running for reelection in a Safe Republican race. Idaho closed its Republican primary in 2011, meaning only registered Republicans can vote on the Republican ballot; the Democratic primary is open to unaffiliated voters.

Oregon polls close at 8 p.m. Pacific Time, but the state runs an entirely vote-by-mail election. Ballots had to be received (not just postmarked) by 8 p.m. on Election Day starting in 2024. Oregon's six House seats are all rated Safe or Likely for the incumbent party. The race to watch is OR-5, where freshman Democrat Janelle Bynum is defending her seat in a district that has flipped twice in two cycles. Oregon's governor and U.S. Senate races (Senator Jeff Merkley seeking a fourth term) are both rated Safe Democratic.

Before you go: rules to know

Primary rules vary by state more than the November ballot does. A few things worth knowing for May 19:

• Most of these states run closed or semi-closed primaries. Georgia is technically open, meaning any voter can request either party's ballot, but the ballot you pick becomes part of the public record. Idaho's Republican primary is closed; the Democratic side is open to unaffiliated voters. Pennsylvania and Kentucky are closed: only voters registered with a party can vote in that party's primary, and the registration deadline has already passed. Alabama and Oregon are semi-closed. (For more, see our explainer on open and closed primaries.)
• Bring ID. Every state on the May 19 ballot requires some form of identification at the polls. We covered the specifics in what to bring on Election Day.
• If something goes wrong. If your name is missing from the rolls, the machine rejects your ID, or you are told you are at the wrong polling place, ask for a provisional ballot. You have a legal right to one. It will be reviewed and counted if you were eligible to vote.
• For your federal picks, you can mark your Senate, House, and governor selections ahead of time with a My Ballot account and pull them up on your phone in line. For state legislative races, judges, school board, and county offices, your county clerk's sample ballot is the source of truth.

Not voting on May 19?

Louisiana votes on Saturday, May 16, but only partially. After the Supreme Court's April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais struck down the state's congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, Governor Jeff Landry issued an emergency order suspending the May 16 U.S. House primaries while the legislature redraws the lines. The U.S. Senate Republican primary is still on, and it's a real fight: incumbent Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in the second impeachment, is facing a Trump-endorsed challenge from former congresswoman Julia Letlow, plus former congressman John Fleming and Mark Spencer. State and local races are also still happening. The House primary suspension is being challenged in court by Black lawmakers; as of publication, the suspension stands. For background on the underlying ruling, see our explainer on the Callais decision.

The next federal primary day after May 19 is June 2, a six-state cluster that includes California's 52 House seats, an open Senate seat in Iowa (Joni Ernst is retiring), and the New Jersey and Montana primaries. The full list of primary dates and registration deadlines is on the election calendar.

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