Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) will face his second runoff in three months in August after finishing just shy of the 50 percent needed to win Tuesday’s primary outright. 

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Graves led state Sen. Lee Hawkins 48.8 percent to 26.8 percent. 

Graves won a special election runoff June 8 for the right to serve out the term of former Rep. Nathan Deal (R), who resigned to focus on his gubernatorial campaign.  

Graves defeated Hawkins in that June 8 runoff, but a primary was still necessary to gain the nomination for the fall to serve a full two-year term.  

Graves was one of six Republican candidates in Tuesday’s primary. He had strong backing from area Tea Party groups and won the endorsement of The Club for Growth. 

Graves and Hawkins will square off again on Aug. 10. 

Deal, who was endorsed by Newt Gingrich, faces a Sarah Palin-endorsed candidate in the runoff for the GOP nomination.

Georgia Democrat Roy Barnes will run for his old job after winning his party’s gubernatorial primary Tuesday. Barnes won a resounding victory over Attorney General Thurbert Baker, his closest competitor in the seven-man primary.

With about half the results counted, Barnes had a commanding lead with 63 percent of the vote to Baker’s 22 percent. The Associated Press declared him the winner. Barnes served one term as governor that ended in 2003.

The Republican gubernatorial primary, meanwhile, appears headed to a runoff between former Secretary of State Karen Handel and former Rep. Nathan Deal. The race hasn’t been called yet.

Barnes’s victory got the attention of the the Republican Governors Association, which called him “a lifetime politician and a personal injury trial lawyer.”

“While this is Roy’s fourth run at being governor of Georgia, we are confident the outcome in November will be so decisive that this will mercifully be his last,” Nick Ayers, executive director of the RGA, said in a statement. 

—This post was updated at 10:10 p.m. and 10:16

Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond (D) will vie to become the first African-American elected to the Senate from the South since Reconstruction.

He won the Democratic primary Tuesday to face Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) in the November election.

Thurmond defeated Democratic activist R.J. Hadley in the primary, capturing 83 percent of the vote according to unofficial results. The Associated Press declared him the winner. 

Thurmond has been labor commissioner for 12 years, but has raised only $117,000 since announcing his Senate bid in April. Isakson had almost $5 million banked at the end of June, according to his pre-primary filing.

The first-term Republican was thought to be vulnerable in light of his recent health scare.

Isakson, 65, was hospitalized twice in March for what he said was “just a toxic shock reaction to bacteria.”

But he promised to make a full recovery and wage a vigorous reelection campaign.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) faces logistical complications as she ponders whether to run for the late Sen. Byrd’s seat.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee out-raised its Republican counterpart in June and reported more cash on hand than the National Republican Senatorial Committee. 

The DSCC raised more than $7 million in June, and the committee has $21 million cash on hand. The NRSC raised just over $4 million in June and has $19.7 million cash on hand.  

In a statement, DSCC Executive Director J.B. Poersch said the fundraising numbers show “enthusiasm for Democrats is only growing.”  

“Republicans continue advocating for a return to the failed Bush economic policies which brought our economy to its knees in the first place,” said Poersch.  

Both committees tried to draw attention to strong fundraising quarters from their candidates in key races. Republicans noted their edge in several open-seat Senate contests. 

“The big story this month has been the tremendous fundraising success enjoyed by our Senate Republican candidates, particularly in our open seats where Republicans raised more money in virtually every race,” said NRSC Executive Director Rob Jesmer in a statement.  

The DSCC pointed to cash-on-hand advantages held by a number of Senate incumbents facing challenges this fall, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).  

The DSCC has raised a total of $71.9 million this cycle to the NRSC’s $68.4 million.

Rod Blagojevich opted not to testify Tuesday at his corruption trial in Chicago.

Blagojevich's legal team told the judge that the former Illinois governor will not testify in his own defense, sources told the Chicago Tribune. The Democrat was widely expected to take the stand to bolster his defense against charges related to his appointment of a successor to President Obama's old Senate seat.

The situation, however, could change. U.S. District Judge James Zagel told the defense team to mull the decision overnight, the Tribune reported. Zagel subsequently adjourned the trial for the day.

The Senate campaign of Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is featuring President Obama’s recent fundraising trip to Missouri in a new attack ad. 

The 30-second spot released Tuesday slams Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D) as a “rubber stamp” for the “Pelosi-Reid-Obama liberal agenda.”

The spot uses images of Obama and Carnahan on stage together at a July 8 fundraiser in Kansas City, Mo. It ends with the voiceover saying Blunt will “work for Missouri, not Barack Obama.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee hit back in a statement accusing Blunt of “adopting the Republican establishment playbook trying to nationalize the election.” 

Republicans are anxious to tie Carnahan to the president, and earlier this month signaled it would be a key part of their strategy. Obama’s approval rating in the state is less than 50 percent, and key parts of his legislative agenda are deeply unpopular there. He lost the state to Republican John McCain in 2008 by less than a point. 

The National Republican Congressional Committee raised $9 million in June and now has $17 million cash on hand — a net gain of $5 million for the month.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also raised $9 million for the month.

Officials at the NRCC said June was its best monthly fundraising performance in four years and touted it as a sign of things to come.

The committee is now going into "fundraising mode," Pete Sessions, NRCC chairman, told reporters Tuesday. "The NRCC has raised more in January to June of this year than we did all of 2009."

The NRCC edged the DCCC by about $2 million in the second quarter, bringing in a total of $21.2 million since April 1.

Sessions said its numbers are "supportive and indicative" of a backlash against the Democrats' agenda.

"This is a referendum on the success of President Obama and Nancy Pelosi," he said.

Still, Sessions said he expected to be outraised by the DCCC, which has $33.7 million banked for the general. "We learned in '06 money isn't everything," he added, noting the GOP significantly outraised the Democrats that cycle but still lost control of the House.

[The NRCC had a cash-on-hand advantage of $2 million going into the final two weeks of the 2010 midterms. But it was outraised the DCCC by some $12 million in 2006, when both committees brought in close to $100 million by Election Day.]

Sessions's deputy, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), said the GOP is now "getting traction" in races from Arkansas to Oregon.

"Remember, 18 months ago we Republicans were treated like mold, not really alive but you couldn't kill us either," Walden said. "A lot's changed in 18 months."

--Updated at 5:38 p.m.