California may still be tabulating its votes from last week’s races, but the midterm primary calendar stops for no one, with contests in four states on the docket Tuesday.

Once again, the influence of former President Trump looms large, with several contests offering tests of the power of his endorsement and the durability of his lies about the 2020 election.

In South Carolina, a pair of House races handed Trump a split decision. His chosen candidate handily defeated one of the Republican members of Congress who voted for his impeachment, but Trump failed to oust a second member who fell out of his favor.

Of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina was particularly unexpected. He did not come from a moderate district, like California Rep. David Valadao, but from deep-red Myrtle Beach; he voted in line with Trump’s position more than 90% of the time.

“I have backed this President through thick and thin for four years. I campaigned for him and voted for him twice. But, this utter failure is inexcusable,” Rice said in a statement explaining his impeachment vote.

The backlash was immediate. The South Carolina state GOP censured him. Rice said he received death threats. And he drew a number of challengers for his reelection bid, including Russell Fry, a state legislator whom Trump endorsed in February.

In the days leading up to his primary, Rice forcefully defended his vote, calling Trump “spiteful and petty and vengeful.”

The message appeared to fall flat with GOP primary voters. Fry, Trump’s chosen candidate, won with just over 50% of the votes cast, avoiding a runoff against Rice, which had been expected. Rice was the first of the Republicans who voted to impeach to lose his primary.

Another South Carolinian catapulted to notoriety in January 2021 — GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, a first-term member who had just flipped her Charleston district from blue to red. She voted to certify Joe Biden’s win, said the storming of the Capitol “wiped out” Trump’s legacy, and denounced the influence of conspiracy theorists in her party.

The iconoclasm, plus her compelling backstory — she dropped out of high school after being raped as a teenager, then went on to be the first woman to graduate from the Citadel — earned her frequent television appearances and buzz about being a new face of the Republican Party.

But Mace’s stance on Trumpism has been muddled. She did not vote to impeach Trump, but publicly sparred with her party’s most vehement pro-Trump voices — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado. In February, she made a pilgrimage to Trump Tower in New York, recording a video touting her early support for Trump.

Mace posted the video on Twitter the day after Trump endorsed Katie Arrington, a former state legislator, to run against her. Trump reasserted his support this week: “Don’t forget that Katie Arrington, a wonderful person, is running against the terrible Nancy Mace, who really let us down.”

Mace, meanwhile, was backed by two ex-members of Trumpworld: former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Mick Mulvaney, who did a stint as White House chief of staff. While Rice had been more assertive about his break from Trump, Mace tried to draw attention elsewhere, to her voting record and Arrington’s past election flops. It worked — Mace won the contest outright, bypassing a runoff against Arrington.

It’s fitting that one day after the latest Jan. 6 committee hearing came Nevada’s secretary of state primary. The former delved into the origins of Trump’s 2020 election lies; the latter is an example of how those falsehoods still reverberate.

Jim Marchant, a former state legislator who clinched the Republican nomination, stood out among several GOP candidates in his zealous embrace of false election conspiracy theories. In 2020, he sued over his loss in a Nevada congressional race, alleging fraud; the suit was dismissed by a state judge. He has since allied with figures such as MyPillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell, who has traveled the country pushing outlandish and unproven election theories.

As scores of GOP candidates embrace groundless charges of fraud, the positions with oversight over voting has become a matter of national interest. Fierce Trump allies have won their primaries in key posts, such as Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, who would appoint the state’s top elections official if he wins, and Kristina Karamo, who, in a campaign powered by unproven allegations of voter fraud, is on track to be Republicans’ secretary of state candidate in Michigan.

And the front-runner for the GOP nomination for Nevada governor, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, told the Nevada Independent he recognizes

Biden’s election as legitimate. Trump, citing Lombardo’s law enforcement experience, endorsed him anyway.

Texas’ Rio Grande Valley used to be a Democratic stronghold. On Tuesday, it was a cause of Democratic heartburn as results rolled in for the 34th Congressional district’s special election to replace Democratic Rep. Filemon Vela Jr., who resigned in March.

Not only did Republican Mayra Flores win the election, she cleared 50% by the barest of margins and denied Democrat Dan Sanchez a chance at a runoff. The outcome stands in stark contrast to Vela’s commanding wins in the district over the last 10 years and Democratic dominance more broadly that goes back decades.

There are some caveats: This the type of low-turnout election that has defied sweeping conclusions in the past. National Democrats did not make much of an effort for the seat, since the winner would only hold the seat until January. Flores had far more money than Sanchez, and, thanks to redistricting, she’ll be running in a far more Democratic-leaning district in November against Rep. Vicente Gonzalez.

Still, coupled with the notable shift of the region’s Latino voters into the Republican column in 2020, there is a clear sense that a political realignment could be in the works. That ramps up the pressure for Democrats in November to shore up their standing with working-class Latino voters.