Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, a Democrat candidate for the 7th Congressional District, hugs supporter Annie Arnoult as she arrives to vote in the primary runoff at St. Anneís Church, Tuesday, May 22, 2018... (Associated Press) 
 
 Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, a Democrat candidate for the 7th Congressional District, hugs supporter Annie Arnoult as she arrives to vote in the primary runoff at St. Anneís Church, Tuesday, May 22, 2018 in Houston. (Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP) (Associated Press) 
 
 AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — National Democrats breathed a sigh of relief after a liberal outsider lost her runoff in a high stakes U.S. House race for one of three Republican-held seats they hope to flip this November in the deep red state. 
 
 The most-watched race of Tuesday's Texas primary runoffs saw liberal activist Laura Moser defeated by Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, a former Planned Parenthood board member. The result was cheered by the party establishment, who saw Moser's as an unelectable drag on their chances of retaking the House. 
 
 Democrats also nominated a candidate for governor who breaks barriers but is expected to struggle to gain traction against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in November. Lupe Valdez is the first openly gay and first Latina gubernatorial candidate in Texas. But she's faltered on the campaign trail with basic policy issues while failing to win the endorsement of some Hispanic activists because of her past cooperation with federal immigration agents while serving as Dallas County sheriff. 
 
 Both outcomes soothed party nerves in a slate of runoffs Tuesday night that otherwise unfolded with little fanfare in Texas, which remained shaken by a high school shooting that killed 10 people just as early voting ended last week. 
 
 While Democrats have few illusions of ousting Abbott in November, Valdez's win spared the party from putting at the top of their ticket Houston businessman Andrew White, a moderate who personally opposes abortion. 
 
 "Tonight is a victory for all of us who are fighting for a stronger and fairer Texas. A tolerant and diverse Texas. A Texas where the everyday person has a voice and a fair shot — just as I had," said Valdez, who once picked green beans as a migrant farmworker. 
 
 In Congress, Fletcher's win was one of three Texas primary runoffs that are key to whether Democrats can flip the minimum 24 GOP-held seats they'll need to seize a House majority in November. 
 
 Not willing to take any chances, the fundraising arm for congressional Democrats worked to undercut Moser in a district that Republican John Culberson has held since 2001 — but has shifted to a more Hispanic, better educated battleground that Hillary Clinton narrowly won in 2016. 
 
 Moser made the runoff despite the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee criticizing her for writing jokingly in 2014 that she'd rather have teeth pulled than live in small-town Texas. 
 
 Susan Wright, a voter in Houston, said she thought "Democrats in Washington really screwed up" by attacking Moser. 
 
 "It was too bad they decided to make it sound like someone has done a big investigative report on her. I never saw it." Wright said. 
 
 Guns did not appear to be a major issue in the runoff days after the shooting at Santa Fe High School outside Houston. Hours before polls closed Tuesday, Abbott hosted the first of three round table discussions this week with policymakers to discuss better fortifying schools. 
 
 But Abbott hasn't mentioned gun control and Democrats say Texas Republicans — who have a dominating majority in the state Legislature — won't dare cross the National Rifle Association by considering tighter firearm limits. Democratic candidates generally agree on gun control and there hasn't been much debate so far in the runoff races. 
 
 Two other Texas districts Democrats hope to flip are Dallas U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions', which supported Clinton instead of Trump, as did Rep. Will Hurd's, encompassing 800 miles of Texas-Mexico border from San Antonio to El Paso. Former NFL linebacker Colin Allred advanced to face Sessions and Air Force veteran Gina Ortiz Jones won to take on Hurd. 
 
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 Eds: Associated Press Writer Juan Lozano contributed to this report from Houston. 
 
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 Sign up for "Politics in Focus," a weekly newsletter showcasing the AP's best political reporting from around the country leading up to the midterm elections: https://bit.ly/2ICEr3D ||||| Another primary, another big night for female Democratic candidates. 
 
 In Georgia, Stacey Abrams trounced her opponent and will campaign this fall to become the first female African-American governor in history. In Kentucky, fighter pilot Amy McGrath proved her naysayers wrong when she upset Jim Gray, the mayor of Lexington recruited by national Democrats. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also averted the predicament it desperately sought to avoid: a Texas House hopeful whom it attacked as a surefire general election loser flamed out in the state‘s primary runoff. 
 
 The third multi-state primary night of the 2018 midterms featured primaries in Arkansas, Georgia and Kentucky — plus the Texas runoff. Here are POLITICO’s five takeaways from the night: 
 
 The Georgia governor’s race will test a risky Democratic gambit. 
 
 The primary between Abrams and state Rep. Stacey Evans was always a curiosity: two women named Stacey who had served in the state House — one black, one white. 
 
 But it also pitted two contrasting strategies against each other. Evans had argued the road back to the governorship in Georgia — the most recent Democratic governor, Roy Barnes, left office after the 2002 election — was through moderates and blue-collar white voters who supported politicians like Barnes and Zell Miller, the late former governor and senator. 
 
 Abrams is making a different bet — one that is about to be tested on a massive stage — on expanding the electorate. She’s looking to register and engage more black voters, who turned out at a lower rate in the last midterm elections in 2014, when 40.6 percent of African-American voters turned out, compared with 47.5 percent of whites. 
 
 Abrams isn’t the only Democrat making that argument: Progressives across the map have insisted that running to the left, especially on economic issues, could access a well of untapped voters. 
 
 But Abrams’ strategy goes beyond ideology. And she’ll have no shortage of surrogates with potential 2020 ambitions swinging through the emerging presidential battleground state, which Trump won by just 5 points in 2016. 
 
 It’s still Democrats’ Year of the Woman. 
 
 Democrats nominated Abrams, an African-American woman, in Georgia. In Texas, the nation’s second-most-populous state, the party nominated Lupe Valdez, a gay Latina, for governor. 
 
 In a closely watched Democratic primary for a House seat in Kentucky, former Marine fighter pilot McGrath, a first-time candidate, defeated Gray. 
 
 Democrats chose women for two of the three Texas swing districts: Fletcher in the 7th District, and Gina Ortiz Jones in the 23rd. 
 
 Women are winning lots of Democratic Party nominations, and the party will be relying on them heavily in the fall. The latest POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, released Wednesday, shows Democrats with a 9-point lead among female voters on the generic congressional ballot, compared with a 1-point advantage among male voters. 
 
 
 
 
 
 It was a pretty good night for the Democratic establishment. 
 
 It took an extra 11 weeks, but the DCCC’s gambit in Texas’ 7th District paid off. 
 
 Back in February, the party committee quietly posted a series of negative talking points about former journalist Laura Moser on its website. She’s vulnerable to attacks as a carpetbagger, the online posting said. In an article she wrote for Washingtonian magazine, she disparaged other parts of Texas. (The online posting was no longer available on the DCCC’s website late Tuesday night.) 
 
 Moser seized the opportunity to cast herself as an insurgent taking on the establishment, collecting campaign dollars online and surging to a second-place finish in the March 6 primary. 
 
 But her momentum stalled — not because her opponent, Lizzie Fletcher, and the Democratic establishment brandished those weapons against her. Instead, they laid off. Fletcher never really attacked Moser, and the DCCC didn’t add Fletcher to its list of top recruits — as it did with two other first-place primary finishers in Texas runoffs. (Those other two “Red-to-Blue” candidates — Ortiz Jones in the 23rd District and attorney Colin Allred in the 32nd — won easily on Tuesday, too.) 
 
 Amy McGrath celebrates with her husband, Erik Henderson, after winning her primary in Kentucky’s 6th District on May 22, 2018. | James Crisp/AP Photo 
 
 The size of Fletcher’s victory — the attorney and former Planned Parenthood board member won roughly twice as many votes as Moser — also makes it more difficult for those irked by the DCCC’s stance in the race to argue that the limited party intervention was decisive. 
 
 McGrath in Kentucky wasn’t national Democrats’ first choice. The party recruited Gray to run, even after McGrath’s viral announcement video brought her big money from small, online donors. 
 
 But, as in Texas’ 7th, the committee never added Gray to its “Red-to-Blue” list. And there’s no evidence McGrath will be a weaker candidate against Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) in the fall than Gray would have been. In fact, the DCCC was quick to release a weeks-old internal survey produced by its analytics department showing McGrath ahead of Barr in a then-hypothetical general election matchup. 
 
 In Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District, state Rep. Clarke Tucker won the nomination outright, capturing 58 percent of the vote in a four-way race. He’ll be able to take the fight to GOP Rep. French Hill in a district Trump won by 10 points without first having to deal with a June runoff. 
 
 Conservatives are poised to make their mark on the Texas delegation. 
 
 Texas’ GOP House delegation has long been among the most conservative in the conference, but it was poised to move farther right after Tuesday’s runoff. 
 
 Six GOP members are retiring at the end of the year or have already resigned: Ted Poe, Sam Johnson, Jeb Hensarling, Joe Barton, Lamar Smith and Blake Farenthold. Five of the primary races to replace them came down to runoffs on Tuesday, with conservatives mostly winning the day. 
 
 In the 6th District, former Tarrant County Tax Assessor Ron Wright, who was endorsed by the conservative Club for Growth, narrowly defeated former Navy fighter pilot Jake Ellzey. Chip Roy, Sen. Ted Cruz’s former chief of staff and another Club endorsee, defeated businessman Matt McCall. Conservative activist Michael Cloud defeated Bech Bruun, whom the Club opposed, in the 27th District. 
 
 All in all, the Club for Growth — which has often clashed with congressional GOP leaders on spending and other fiscal issues — went 3-for-4 in Texas GOP runoffs on Tuesday. 
 
 Pence couldn’t drag Bunni Pounds over the finish line. 
 
 The Club’s only defeat in Texas was a race in which it was aligned with a cadre of bold-faced GOP names, including the vice president. 
 
 Pence — along with Cruz and Hensarling — backed Bunni Pounds, a political fundraising consultant, in the 5th District. She also had the support of an array of other conservative groups and figures, including the Tea Party Express and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. 
 
 But Pounds was defeated Tuesday night by state Rep. Lance Gooden, 53 percent to 47 percent. Despite the help from prominent conservatives in Texas and beyond, Pounds couldn’t overtake Gooden, who finished first in the March primary. 
 
 The defeat will sting for Pence: It was the first open primary into which he’s waded so far this cycle and is a minor setback in the vice president’s quest to stamp the Trump-era GOP with his image. 
 
 Scott Bland contributed to this report. 
 
 
 
 CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this story incorrectly described Jim Gray as the former mayor of Lexington, Kentucky. Gray is still serving as mayor, though he is retiring from the post at the end of this year. ||||| State Rep. Clarke Tucker won the Democratic primary in Arkansas’ 2nd District on Tuesday, to face Republican Rep. French Hill in November. 
 
 Tucker was one of four Democrats vying for the nomination, and he comfortably averted a June 19 runoff. 
 
 With 67 percent of precincts reporting, he had 57 percent of the vote to 21 percent for his nearest challenger, public school teacher Gwen Combs, according to The Associated Press. 
 
 His outright victory means he can now focus on the general election. National Democrats had signaled they believed he was the strongest contender against Hill. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Tucker to its Red to Blue program for promising challengers in April, granting him access to additional committee resources. 
 
 Tucker has spent $363,000 on his campaign so far — airing two television ads ahead of Tuesday’s primary. He had $2400,00 in the bank as of May 2, the pre-primary reporting date, according to Federal Election Commission documents, the most of any Democrat in the race. Hill, who is in his second term in Congress, ended the period with $1.6 million in cash on hand. 
 
 Democrats are targeting the 2nd District even though President Donald Trump carried the seat by 10 points in 2016. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Likely Republican. ||||| Former House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams won the Democratic nomination for Georgia’s top office on Tuesday, defeating ex-state Rep. Stacey Evans and advancing her quest to become the nation’s first black female elected governor. 
 
 She will face one of two Republicans in November in the race to succeed Gov. Nathan Deal, a competition that will test whether the state is truly competitive after more than a decade of GOP rule. 
 
 “We are writing the next chapter of Georgia history, where no one is unseen, no one is unheard and no one is uninspired,” a jubilant Abrams said, adding: “And I know for the journey ahead, we need every voice in our party - and every independent thinker in the state.” 
 
 Abrams attracted national attention, big-name endorsements and millions of dollars in outside spending with her “unapologetic progressive” platform to flip the Georgia governor’s office for the first time since 2002. 
 
 FOLLOW: Primary election results 
 
 RELATED: Cagle, Kemp headed to runoff for GOP nomination 
 
 ISSUES: Where the candidates for Governor stand 
 
 She overcame a stiff challenge from Evans, who tried to frame herself as the more ardent progressive. Evans fueled her campaign with nearly $2 million of her own money, pummeling Abrams with criticism for supporting a 2011 Republican-backed measure that cut awards to the HOPE scholarship. 
 
 Each of the Democratic and Republican candidates tried to carve out his or her niche in a race that attracted more than $22 million in campaign contributions – and flooded the airwaves with more than $13 million in TV ads. 
 
 Though her Republican opponent is not yet known - Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle will face Secretary of State Brian Kemp in a July 24 showdown - the Georgia GOP quickly attacked her over her financial background. 
 
 “I’ve tried to make sense of her personal and professional finances, and my head is spinning,” said Georgia GOP chair John Watson, who called on her to release her tax returns and other financial records. 
 
 Abrams owes more than $200,000 in debts, including about $54,000 to the IRS. She has said she’s on payment plan to pay back the debt, and has sought to frame her struggles as evidence she understands the problems that Georgians face. 
 
 Evans, meanwhile, quickly endorsed Abrams and vowed to help Democrats form a united front against President Donald Trump and state Republicans. 
 
 "The Democratic party is trying to find a unified voice to rally against Trump,” said Evans. “We must do that." 
 
 Shifting strategy 
 
 
 
 The Democrats largely abandoned centrist talk to appeal instead to left-leaning voters with a promise of implementing gun control, increasing financial aid for lower-income families and taking steps toward the decriminalization of marijuana. 
 
 Stacey Abrams visited the AJC to discuss her run for governor. We had three questions for her. 
 
 That’s a stark contrast from more moderate appeals from a generation of Democratic candidates for governor, who often sought the National Rifle Association’s endorsement and touted fiscally conservative policies. 
 
 They are echoing many in the party’s base who insisted on that shift. Claudia Colichon, who lives in north Atlanta, said she demands candidates who embrace mass transit funding and fight for gun control. 
 
 “There needs to be a progressive change,” said Colichon. “People are seeing that conservative policies aren’t working.” 
 
 Abrams drew support from Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and a string of other high-profile Democrats and raised about two-thirds of her campaign funds from outside the state. National groups chipped in another $2 million worth of ads supporting her. 
 
 Evans mounted a lower-key campaign focused on local endorsements and smaller gatherings. The election-eve activities highlighted their differences. While Abrams held a large get-out-the-vote rally, Evans slung beers for supporters at an Atlanta bar. 
 
 United and divided 
 
 
 
 Both Abrams and Evans united around a host of issues, including expanding Medicaid, growing the medical marijuana program and continuing Deal’s criminal justice overhaul. And both are outspoken opponents of “religious liberty” measures they say amount to state-sponsored discrimination. 
 
 The two attorneys also both were the products of hardscrabble childhoods that shaped their views of government, served together in the state House in their 30s and had up-close views of the tragic toll of substance abuse on their families with siblings who faced legal trouble. 
 
 But they’ve clashed on other issues, including how aggressively they oppose the NRA, how they would handle the state’s $26 billion budget and even how they would address Stone Mountain and other Civil War monuments. 
 
 The biggest policy divide, however, centered on the HOPE scholarship, which provides tuition aid to Georgia college students who maintain a “B” average. 
 
 Evans said Abrams betrayed her party by working with Republicans seeking cost-cutting moves to reduce the program’s awards in 2011. Abrams countered that more “seasoned” Democrats sided with her in that vote because they knew negotiating with the GOP would prevent deeper cuts. 
 
 A new philosophy 
 
 
 
 The other central disagreement in the race involved strategy. 
 
 Evans banked on a more conventional Democratic plan to win over independent voters and moderates, particularly suburban women, who have fled to the GOP. Abrams staked her campaign on energizing left-leaning voters, including minorities who rarely cast ballots. 
 
 The two competed for support in an increasingly diverse electorate and at times racial tensions surfaced. 
 
 There was the moment last year when Abrams supporters shouted down Evans at an Atlanta conference of progressive activists with chants of “support black women.” Evans, who is white, drew scorn with a video at Ebenezer Baptist Church that faded her face into the image of Martin Luther King Jr. 
 
 For Democrats, the divisive primary for governor was somewhat novel. Jason Carter, the party’s 2014 nominee, faced no Democratic competition. And former Gov. Roy Barnes steamrolled over opposition in 2010 during his failed comeback bid. 
 
 The party has also largely avoided fierce primary battles between black and white candidates for governor since the 1990 vote, when then-Lt. Gov. Zell Miller trounced former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young. 
 
 Evans, who represented a Smyrna-based district, faced an uphill battle from the moment she entered the race. Black women form the largest bloc of voters in the Democratic primary, and Abrams’ campaign predicted African-American turnout overall could make up 65 percent of the vote. 
 
 To make inroads, Evans staged a slate of smaller rallies and meet-and-greets, and she relied heavily on prominent black officials to spread her message. She also spent far more heavily on TV than Abrams, inundating the airwaves with a HOPE-themed pitch. 
 
 In her victory speech, Abrams moved to unite the party by praising Evans’ supporters. She pledged to repeal a campus carry law, expand the HOPE scholarship, improve workforce training programs and strengthen labor unions. 
 
 And she tried to appeal to more centrist voters by saying she would be the “state’s public education governor” – emphasis on the word “public.” 
 
 “Together we will shape a future with a boundless belief in the historic investment of children who are at the very core of every decision we make,” she said. 
 
 
 
 - Staff writer Ariel Hart contributed to this report. 
 

– A historic win in Georgia has put Stacey Abrams on course to become the first black female governor in American history. Abrams—the former minority leader of the state House—defeated former state Rep. Stacey Evans by a large margin to secure the Democratic nomination, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Abrams, who has written eight romantic suspense novels under the name Selena Montgomery, had the support of national figures including Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in her bid to be the nation's first black female nominee for governor, the BBC reports. In November, she will face either Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle or Secretary of State Brian Kemp, depending on the result of a July 24 runoff vote for the GOP nomination. In other races: Newcomer wins in Kentucky. Retired Marine pilot Amy McGrath, one of several political newcomers to have big wins Tuesday, defeated Lexington Mayor Jim Gray in the Democratic primary for a House seat in Kentucky, CNN reports. Democrats hope to flip the seat in November. A shift right in Texas. Conservatives won four out of five runoff GOP primaries in Texas, meaning one of the most conservative House delegations is likely to shift even further right, Politico reports. Among the winners was Chip Roy, Sen. Ted Cruz's former chief of staff. Political consultant Bunni Pounds, however, failed to defeat state Rep. Lance Gooden in the 5th District, despite support from Mike Pence and the Tea Party Express. Democratic outsider wins in Texas. In what the Washington Post describes as part of "an ongoing embrace by Democratic voters of non-politicians, women, veterans and nonwhite candidates," former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez won the Democratic nomination for Texas governor. Valdez, who is openly lesbian, would be the first Latina in the position. Air Force veteran Gina Ortiz Jones won the Democratic nomination for a House seat, and would be the first openly lesbian congresswoman from the state if elected. Score one for the establishment. The AP reports that national Democrats were relieved when activist Laura Moser, seen as too liberal to win a general election, lost a Texas primary runoff to former Planned Parenthood board member Lizzie Fletcher. The House seat she will compete for is one of 24 that Democrats aim to flip in November. Key win in Arkansas. State Rep. Clarke Tucker defeated three challengers for the Democratic nomination for a House seat, Roll Call reports. Tucker, a cancer survivor, has promised to expand Medicaid. He will face GOP Rep. French Hill, a hardline ObamaCare opponent, in November.