Democrat Elissa Slotkin and Republican Mike Rogers have prevailed in their parties' primaries for an open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan.

While Michigan remains one of the crown jewels of the fall presidential campaign, the focus now turns to state primaries that may play a major role in deciding control of the narrowly divided U.S. Senate, U.S. House and state legislature.

Detroit-area businessman Sandy Pensler has announced his withdrawal from the Republican Senate race in Michigan just ahead of the state's primary.

The retirement of Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow has opened a Senate seat in Michigan.

Former President George W.

Under election law the House would intervene if the Electoral College gave no presidential candidate the majority Jan. 6. “There ain't no light at the end of the tunnel in the House of Representatives,” Pelosi said at a recent press conference. The president can be selected by a House majority — 26 states — if the Electoral College deadlocks or is unable to agree on the winner. Another is Montana, where Democratic former state Rep. Kathleen Williams and Republican state Auditor Matt Rosendale are vying for the state's lone at-large seat. Veteran GOP election lawyer Ben Ginsberg said there’s a long ways to go from election day Nov. 3 and a potential House vote on Jan. 6.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – In close elections, it doesn't take much for third-party candidates to play an outsize role — as Democrats learned the hard way in 2016. A vital third-party candidate would likely help him tremendously.”But third-party candidates are facing hurdles that didn't exist four years ago, potentially weakening their impact. In a court decision last week, the Green Party candidate was barred from appearing on Pennsylvania’s ballot. “I saw last time, there’s no hope in a third-party candidate in this basically two-party system that we have. But the president’s team, which has denied playing a role in West’s bid, has done little game-planning for a third-party candidate.

(CNN) - The House voted 240-187 on Tuesday night to officially condemn racist language from President Donald Trump in a motion that was supported by four House Republicans. While Tuesday's vote largely fell along party lines -- 235 Democrats voted "Yea" and 187 Republicans voted "Nay" -- four Republicans and one independent voted in favor of the resolution. Alongside Rep. Justin Amash, who left the Republican Party earlier this month, the four GOP House members who voted for Tuesday's resolution are listed below. Rep. Will Hurd (TX-23)In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour Monday, Hurd, the sole black Republican House member, deemed Trump's tweets "racist." Rep. Susan Brooks (IN-05)Brooks, who is retiring from Congress at the end of her term, tweeted Tuesday she voted to condemn Trump's "racially offensive remarks" because they "do not reflect American values."

Amash, who announced Thursday he was leaving the GOP, said that he has had problems with the Republican Party "for several years,"and that he would leave even if Trump were not president. CNN's interview with Amash comes days after he announced in a Washington Post op-ed, "Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party." And I think that's very dangerous for our country and I don't think a lot of people appreciate it," he said. Amash responded, saying, "That's not how people are supposed to talk about each other, to each other." Amash told Tapper that he is still "very confident" that he can win his congressional seat in Michigan as an independent.

"Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party," Amash wrote in a Washington Post op-ed Thursday morning. "Great news for the Republican Party as one of the dumbest & most disloyal men in Congress is 'quitting' the Party," the president tweeted. "The Republican Party, I believed, stood for limited government, economic freedom and individual liberty principles that had made the American Dream possible for my family," he wrote. "Preserving liberty means telling the Republican Party and the Democratic Party that we'll no longer let them play their partisan game at our expense." "In some sense you've delegitimized objections to the President," Amash told CNN of the group's loyalty to Trump in March.