Two veteran US senators faced potential career-ending challenges on Tuesday, as voters cast ballots in four state primary contests amid widespread anti-Washington anger ahead of November's midterm elections. Democrats Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas faced strong tests from the left.
While a US Senate race in Kentucky between a Republican establishment favourite and a conservative "Tea Party" activist tested the strength of that loosely organised conservative movement. Kentucky will be the first state to close its polls, with voting ending at 7 pm EDT (2300 GMT) in the months-long, state-by-state process of the two parties picking their candidates for November's congressional elections.
The three primary election battles highlighted the biggest day of voting so far in a year when opinion polls find a sour voter mood fuelled by distrust of Washington and worries that neither Democrats nor Republicans are doing enough to rescue the economy and restrain government spending.
President Barack Obama, his Democrats bearing the brunt of voter anger, flew to recession-hit Ohio on Tuesday to deliver a message that efforts to revive the economy were bearing fruit, adding 290,000 jobs last month. The anti-Washington mood, which pollsters say is the strongest in decades, threatens to sweep away many well-known incumbents and put Democratic control of Congress at risk in November's election.
When all 435 House of Representatives seats, 36 of 100 Senate seats and 37 of 50 state governorships are at stake. Prominent incumbents in each party - three-term Republican Senator Robert Bennett of Utah and 14-term Democratic Congressman Alan Mollohan - already failed to win their party nominations in a possible sign of things to come.
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