Primary election results of some of the most-watched races

Voters took to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in primary elections held in several states across the country.

The eight states that held elections are: Alabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.

SEE ALSO: Latinos to play decisive role in New Mexico primary election

Leading up to Tuesday’s primary elections, there were plenty of bizarre comments and controversies involving candidates. For example, there were remarks of castrating pigs and a scandal involving a candidate’s wife who has dementia.

Here are the results of some of Tuesday’s most-watched primary challenges:

New Mexico

Attorney General Gary King won New Mexico’s Democratic gubernatorial race Tuesday, defeating four opponents. King finished in first with about 35 percent of the votes.

He will now go on to challenge Republican Gov. Susana Martinez in the general election. Martinez, who was unopposed in the Republican primary, is favored to win re-election. She is a rising star in the Republican Party, and became the nation’s first Latina governor when she was first elected in 2010.

King faces a tough challenge against Martinez, who has accumulated a hefty campaign war chest of more than $4 million and has already aired television ads.

California

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and former U.S. Treasury official Neel Kashkari finished in first and second place, respectively, and will go on to compete against each other in the general election.

For the first time in California history, the state used a top-two primary system in which all candidates compete in a single contest and whoever finishes in first and second place advances to the general election.

Brown sailed to first place picking up about 55 percent of the votes, while Kashkari came in second with about 19 percent of the votes.

Mississippi

The most-watched U.S. Senate primary took place in Mississippi. Here, tea party-backed state Sen. Chris McDaniel is hoping to unseat longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran. But the race was too close to call early Wednesday.

With nearly all precincts reporting, both candidates appeared to be short of the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff election on June 24. A win for McDaniel would translate into a victory for the tea party, which has been facing a series of defeats so far this year.

The race was marred with controversy recently when a blogger allegedly broke into the nursing home where Cochran’ wife, who has dementia, is residing and took photos of her with the intent of using them against Cochran. Several of McDaniel’s supporters were arrested in connection with the case. McDaniel has insisted that he had nothing to do with the incident.

Iowa

State Sen. Joni Ernst easily came in first place in a five-way primary contest among Republicans seeking to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson.

Ernst, who received the endorsement from Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, enjoyed support from both the tea party and the Republican establishment. She needed to win more than 35 percent of the vote to win and finished first with about 56 percent of the vote.

She gained national attention after releasing a television ad titled “Squeal.” The ad introduced her as a candidate who grew up castrating pigs on an Iowa farm. Another television ad showed her firing a pistol and an announcer saying that “once she sets her sights on Obamacare, she’s going to unload.”

SEE ALSO: More Latinos projected to vote in this year’s midterm elections