Stacey Abrams wins Georgia Democratic primary for governor; GOP contest is too early to call, NBC News projects

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams speaks at a news conference during the primary election in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. May 24, 2022.

The Republican gubernatorial primary was too early to call when polls closed Tuesday evening, according to NBC News.

David Perdue, a former U.S. senator backed by ex- President Donald Trump, was favored in the polls to defeat incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

The progressive Democrat who narrowly lost to Kemp in the governor's race will face the GOP candidate who advances to the general election.

If no candidate gets a majority of the vote, there will be a second election in June.

Biden was the first Democratic presidential candidate in decades to win the state of Georgia when he defeated Trump in the 2020 election. Trump claimed that the race and others were rigged against him. The governor refused to overturn Georgia's election results.

Jody Hice was endorsed by Trump, who was seen as an enemy of Hice. Trump asked for enough votes in Georgia to win the 2020 election.

Both Perdue and Hice have said the same things. William Barr, Trump's attorney general at the time, came to the same conclusion after reviews of ballots. Dozens of lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies did not change the election results.

The primary races in Georgia, a swing state that narrowly voted for Biden in the 2020 presidential election, are the biggest test to date of Trump's influence over the Republican Party.

Most of the candidates Trump endorsed in the election cycle have won their primaries, though many of them were not competitive. After a single term in the White House, the former president has held onto his position as the defacto leader of the GOP. Even if the former president did not endorse them, many Republican primary candidates tried to appeal to the party's base by talking up their pro-Trump credentials.

Republicans hope to win majority control of the House and Senate in the November elections. The president's party tends to lose in the mid-term elections, and the lead-up to the primaries has been marked by high inflation and low approval ratings for Biden.

This is breaking news. You can check back for updates.