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. 
 
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 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. ||||| 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. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Eds: Associated Press Writer Juan Lozano contributed to this report from Houston. 
 
 ___ 
 
 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 ||||| — Stacey Abrams, a Georgia politician who embodies what many progressives argue is the future of the Democratic Party, launched what she hopes will be a history-making campaign Saturday when she officially announced her candidacy for governor of the Peach State. 
 
 The 43-year-old Democratic leader of the Georgia State House, who enters as the front-runner for her party’s nomination, is aiming to become the first African American woman to be elected governor in U.S. history. Abrams is widely considered to be one of the most skilled and savvy political leaders in the state legislature and hopes to replace term-limited Gov. Nathan Deal (R), who has served since 2011. But it won’t be easy: No Democrat has won statewide office in Georgia since 2006, and just 11 black women have ever been elected to statewide positions nationwide. 
 
 “Pray for me and work with me,” Abrams told about 100 supporters who braved persistent swarms of gnats to help her kick off her campaign at a barbecue at Chehaw Park in Albany, a small city about three hours south of Atlanta. “I want government to work everyday, for everyone.” 
 
 Abrams, a Yale-trained lawyer and business executive who writes romance novels on the side, has an army of supporters across the country eager to prove Democrats can win if the party puts its energy into expanding its base among the increasingly diverse state population rather than fretting over white swing voters. That is what Abrams has tried to do as founder of an organization that says it has registered 200,000 new voters in Georgia — along with her work in the state’s House, often while cooperating with Republicans on key legislation and policies — has made her popular with progressives who say the party should rebuild and strengthen the coalition that elected and reelected President Barack Obama. 
 
 The rapidly changing complexion of the South, which has seen the percentages of African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans increase, creates the potential for a political makeover. Abrams and other progressive political activists of color believe new voters will want candidates who look more like them. 
 
 From left, Margaret Titus, sisters Barbara and June White, and Della Cromartie of Thomaston, Ga., watch as Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams announces her run for governor. (Melissa Golden/Melissa Golden) 
 
 “Democrats in the South have to reject the notion that our geography requires that politicians soften our commitment to equality and opportunity and that you have to look a certain way,” Abrams said in an interview Friday. “We have to be architects of progressive solutions, and that means leadership that believes we can defy the odds. I believe Democrats have the ability to win, because we have the votes.” 
 
 Steve Phillips, a progressive strategist who makes the case for a “new American majority” coalition of people of color and liberal whites, said there are more than 1 million eligible but unregistered voters of color in Georgia — more than enough to close the gap for Democrats, who have narrowed the margins of their losses in the past several elections. 
 
 “Georgia is getting more diverse every year. Those numbers are trending in favor of somebody like Stacey,” said Phillips, who is also founder of Democracy in Color, a multimedia effort to push the idea that the Democratic Party’s future is in the growing diversity of the country. 
 
 The daughter of United Methodist ministers, Abrams said she is running for governor because she thinks “every Georgian deserves the freedom and the opportunity to thrive, and too many of us are being left behind and left out.” 
 
 Abrams arrived in Georgia as a child, when her parents moved with their five children from Gulfport, Miss., looking for better educational opportunities. Abrams earned degrees from Spelman College, the University of Texas and Yale Law School. She is the first female leader of either party in the Georgia General Assembly and the first African American leader in the Georgia House. 
 
 “My life is proof that where you begin doesn’t dictate who you become,” she said. 
 
 At her kickoff, she told the crowd that she launched her campaign outside the metro Atlanta area because “Albany is just like where I grew up. I’m from a town that is about 150 miles from the capital. Sometimes that 150 miles is a lifetime away. I’m from a place that can also be forgotten because it’s not where we think politics and business should happen.” 
 
 Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams greets a guest at her event after announcing her entry into the 2018 gubernatorial race at Chehaw Park. (Melissa Golden/Melissa Golden) 
 
 Five women — three white and two black — from Thomasville, a small town near the Georgia-Florida line, drove up together to cheer on Abrams. They call themselves Indivisible Women of Southern Georgia and say they are united in their opposition to President Trump. They say that as governor, Abrams could perhaps stem some of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut services for vulnerable children and roll back environmental protections. They also applaud Abrams’s efforts to register more voters and plan to launch a drive in their home county. 
 
 In 2014, Abrams founded the New Georgia Project, which focuses on voter registration and engagement with a goal of signing up 800,000 voters of color by 2024. Supporters hail the New Georgia Project for its efforts to urge civic engagement among voters of color, while detractors say it has not lived up to its ambitious promise to register hundreds of thousands of voters. 
 
 The group, along with other organizations, sued Georgia’s secretary of state for practices that have resulted in applications being rejected or not being processed in a timely fashion. It also joined a lawsuit to reopen the voter rolls to new registrants for the June 20 runoff in the special election for the state’s 6th Congressional District. 
 
 Brian Kemp, the secretary of state who has criticized the group’s lawsuits and in 2014 launched an investigation of the New Georgia Project for allegedly submitting fraudulent voter applications, is running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. 
 
 Abrams, who was first elected to the state House in 2007, representing part of Atlanta and suburban DeKalb County, says her most important legislative achievement was getting more money and support for grandparents or other family members who take in children whose parents can’t care for them. She is intimately familiar with the challenge because her parents are caring for her niece. Abrams said her brother was addicted to drugs and incarcerated. 
 
 She drew some criticism for brokering a deal with Republicans that resulted in cuts to a popular state-funded college scholarship program. Abrams said she was trying to save the program from total elimination. 
 
 The rise of Abrams’s political career seems to have curtailed her other passion — writing romance novels. Between 2001 and 2009, she published eight books under the nom de plume Selena Montgomery. Abrams said she got her love of writing fiction from her father, who would spin intricate serial bedtime stories for her and her siblings. She started out in the 1990s wanting to write spy novels, she said, but publishers weren’t interested in a black female heroine. “So I made my spy fall in love,” Abrams said, thus launching her literary career. Although she hasn’t published a novel since 2009, Abrams, who also has published nonfiction books about policy, said she plans to continue to write, even if she becomes governor. “I don’t think anything will stop me from writing,” she said, although she acknowledged that it might be hard to keep deadlines. 
 
 Despite her growing national profile, which will probably attract cash and volunteers from across the country, Abrams is not the only female Democrat eyeing the state’s top executive job. State Rep. Stacey Evans, who is white, announced her candidacy last month. The 39-year-old lawyer is taking a similar approach in touting her success overcoming a tumultuous childhood and becoming the first in her family to go to college. 
 
 Emily’s List, which promotes female candidates who support abortion rights, is backing Abrams, who in 2014 received the organization’s first Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award, named in honor of the former Arizona congresswoman who was seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire, killing six people, as she met with constituents at a Tucson shopping center. 
 
 Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List, described Abrams as “a strong, powerful woman who has a vision for the future of Georgia.” She said Abrams is a doer as well as a dreamer: “Her ability, particularly as leader in the legislature, and what will make her a great governor, is the ability to pull folks together to really come to solutions even if they all don’t agree with each other.” 
 
 Charles Bullock, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia, said that many believe Abrams is the smartest member of the General Assembly, noting that “most Republicans would not want to be quoted on that, but in private many will acknowledge her intellect and hard work.” 
 
 But Bullock said Abrams might be slightly ahead of her time. “Despite her abilities, she may be running four to eight years too early,” he said, pointing out that in 2014, Michelle Nunn, daughter of a popular former U.S. senator, had a well-funded campaign but got just 45 percent of the vote in the race with David Perdue (R-Ga.) for the U.S. Senate. 
 
 Abrams analyzes the race differently. In 2006, she said, the Democratic nominee for governor lost to his Republican opponent by 400,000 votes; in 2010, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate lost by less than 260,000 votes; in 2014, Nunn lost by 197,000 votes. 
 
 “We’ve been able to cut their margin of victory in half in two cycles, but what we have never done is reach out to those voters who’ve been left out and been forgotten,” Abrams said. “What we haven’t done is register hundreds of thousands of new voters who come to the election wanting to see progress, wanting to see opportunity. And what we have not done is build a coalition of voters who have a shared ambition for success. I’ve done that.” ||||| Democrat Stacey Abrams entered the campaign for Georgia governor on Saturday with a pledge to expand pre-kindergarten programs and make technical college education free, promising she’d bring a “bold and ambitious approach” to state government that will invigorate the economy. 
 
 Abrams, who heads her party’s caucus in the Georgia House, said that as governor she’ll embrace the same knack for compromise with Republicans who have controlled the statehouse for more than a decade when she sees common ground. But she said she would stick to a fiercely progressive agenda on some of the biggest partisan divides, including efforts to restrict abortion or pass “religious liberty” legislation she views as discriminatory. 
 
 To emphasize that point, her announcement coincided with formal endorsements from Emily’s List, the influential left-leaning group, and Democracy for America, a progressive PAC with about 1 million supporters across the nation. 
 
 “Georgia is ready for a Democratic governor. My success demonstrates that difference doesn’t have to be a barrier,” Abrams told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Southern politicians have to reject a notion that difference is a barrier and that we can’t all be committed to progress and equality.” 
 
 Abrams faces a fellow state legislator, Stacey Evans, in the Democratic primary of the wide-open race to succeed Gov. Nathan Deal. Four Republicans are already running: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Secretary of State Brian Kemp and state Sens. Hunter Hill and Michael Williams. 
 
 Democrats face long odds flipping the Georgia governor’s mansion, which has been in Republican hands since Sonny Perdue’s 2002 upset victory. But partisans hope to capitalize on the state’s changing demographics and the same angst over President Donald Trump that is propelling Jon Ossoff in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District race. 
 
 Abrams, 43, has made her pursuit of Georgia’s highest office no mystery, and she filed paperwork to run for the seat earlier this month. She is set to launch her campaign at a rally in Albany, a community that she said reminds her of her Mississippi upbringing. 
 
 The kickoff in Albany, a 150-mile drive outside of vote-rich Atlanta, was meant to symbolize not only her connection with rural Georgians but also the dichotomy in her own family. 
 
 Her sister Leslie Abrams, the first black female federal judge in Georgia, lives and works in Albany. Her brother Walter, whom she has spoken little of publicly, is serving a prison sentence stemming from a drug addiction and a long-undiagnosed mental illness. 
 
 “I want a state that lifts up Walter and lifts up Leslie – and treats both as our children and our possibilities,” she said. “And I want to believe that when Walter finally returns, he’ll have the same opportunities for success that anyone has.” 
 
 Her background will play a prominent role in her campaign. Her parents struggled with poverty while raising Abrams and her five siblings in Gulfport, Miss. The family later moved to Atlanta, and Abrams graduated from Spelman College and Yale Law School. 
 
 She won an Atlanta-based seat in the Georgia House in 2006 and built a national profile as a leading voice for the party in the South. She has already received a flood of attention for her run: She would be the first black governor in Georgia – and the first black female governor in the nation. 
 
 Her opponents have long criticized her style and tone, as well as her willingness to negotiate with Republicans on controversial measures. One of her testiest decisions was support of a 2011 law engineered by Deal that slashed funding for the state’s HOPE scholarship program. 
 
 Evans, her Democratic opponent, called that day the darkest of her legislative career. Abrams said the rising costs of the lottery-funded program gave her little other choice but to seek a compromise. 
 
 “HOPE was dying,” she said, calling Deal’s initial proposal a series of “drastic cuts” that would have gutted the pre-kindergarten program. “If we had refused to work and help that program, we would have lost a generation of children who don’t get a do-over.” 
 
 She added: “Sometimes fighting for Georgians means working with the other side. I’m willing to risk my leadership to make certain that Georgians get what they need from their government.” 
 
 ‘Finding innovative ways’ 
 
 Abrams said she’ll campaign on a pledge to expand the state’s universal pre-k program, which now serves 80,000 4-year-olds, to also include 3-year-olds. She would urge schools to teach computer science courses earlier and back legislation to make technical college courses tuition-free. 
 
 “It’s about finding innovative ways to invest with what we have,” she said of how she would pay for it, adding that she’ll spend the next few months touring the state to talk with residents and community leaders to hone her policy. 
 
 Abrams might be best known nationally for the New Georgia Project voter registration group that she founded. It aims to register hundreds of thousands of left-leaning voters within the next decade – and has become a favorite target for state Republicans. 
 
 She also has another claim to fame: She’s a prolific author of romance novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery, and she wrote her first book while in her third year at Yale Law. She’s been known to insert characters from the Georgia political scene into her work. 
 
 More recently, Abrams has taken on kinship care as a cause, often talking about the problems her parents had navigating the legal maze after they took in a granddaughter – Walter’s daughter Faith – to raise. 
 
 The Democratic primary is shaping up to be an all-women contest that could determine the direction of the party: Should it appeal to moderates and independents who have drifted to the GOP, or should it double-down on mobilizing liberals? 
 
 Supporters of Evans, a Smyrna attorney who announced her campaign last week, hope she can attract voters in metro Atlanta’s fast-changing suburbs that once reliably voted Democratic. 
 
 Abrams also talks of broadening the party’s base, but one of her biggest strengths may lie in the traditional supporters of the Democratic Party: Black women make up the biggest bloc in Georgia’s Democratic electorate. 
 
 In the interview, Abrams said the state’s changing demographics – Georgia is expected to be majority-minority by the mid 2020s – will give Democrats a tantalizing opening next year. 
 
 Mark Taylor lost the 2006 race for governor by about 400,000 votes. Jason Carter lost in 2014 by about 200,000. The key to closing that 200,000-vote deficit, she said, is showing how Democrats can “change the trajectory of the state” forever. 
 
 “We can be a state that expands on our progress and is bold and imaginative. Or we can continue to serve only those that are privileged and leave people out,” she said. “I not only have the commitment to this type of service, I have the background and experience to make it work.” 
 
 Read more on MyAJC: How Trump is shaking up the governor’s race 
 
 And: Georgia governor race: Who is running in 2018
– 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.