Morrissey, Braun, Renacci win

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Don Blankenship couldn't overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and pressures from within his own party to capture the Republican U.S. Senate primary in West Virginia.

Nearly a year to the day after his release from prison, the bombastic ex-coal executive conceded the Republican Senate nomination Tuesday night but remained defiant.

Blankenship's defeat denied him a chance to take on incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin in November. Instead, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey will run.

North Carolina

U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger has lost a Republican primary for his seat to the Rev. Mark Harris, a Baptist pastor he only narrowly beat two years ago.

Both Pittinger and Harris campaigned as evangelical Christians who would outdo the other to support President Donald Trump, who did not endorse either candidate.

Harris won Tuesday among GOP voters and now must take on Democrat Dan McCready, a Marine veteran who has raised almost $2 million to compete in the 9th district, where Trump's victory was narrower than elsewhere in North Carolina.

Ohio

U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci has won the Republican primary to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio this fall.

Renacci had the backing of President Donald Trump ahead of Tuesday's five-way contest.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has won the Republican primary for governor, sending one of the state's best-known politicians into the fall contest to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. John Kasich. DeWine's victory Tuesday leaves him damaged from a bitter and nasty primary in which Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor likened him to Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and questioned his loyalty to President Donald Trump.

The 71-year-old DeWine is a moderate Republican who served two terms in the U.S. Senate. But Taylor forced him to tack to the right to win the GOP nomination.

DeWine was endorsed by the Ohio Republican Party and was bolstered by his partnership with Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, who dropped his own governor bid to become DeWine's running mate.

Obama-era consumer agency head Richard Cordray has won the Democratic nomination for Ohio governor despite a surprisingly rigorous challenge from former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (koo-SIH'-nich).

Tuesday's win by the former consumer watchdog under President Barack Obama buoys Democratic hopes of reclaiming control of a critical battleground state, where Republican Gov. John Kasich is term-limited.

Indiana

An independently wealthy businessman who largely self-financed his own campaign has beaten two sitting congressmen to become Indiana's Republican nominee for Senate.

Republican primary voters picked Mike Braun to challenge Joe Donnelly, who is considered one of the Senate's most vulnerable Democrats.

Braun ran as an outsider, blasting Reps. Todd Rokita and Luke Messer as "career politicians" who failed to follow through on campaign promises.

The multimillionaire owns Meyer Distributing, a national auto parts distribution business.

Braun has campaigned on his business background and has pledged to bring back jobs that have been outsourced overseas.

But an Associated Press review of his business record found he regularly imports goods from foreign countries and has been sued by employees in three states over unpaid wages and poor working conditions