Schmidt, serving her first full House term, defeated state Rep. Tom Brinkman to win the Republican nod in her Cincinnati-area district. Schmidt, who earned Democrats’ ire in 2005 for implying that Iraq war opponent Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) was “a coward,” told voters that she would be a more effective and bipartisan legislator than Brinkman, a staunch opponent of tax increases, who had outraised Schmidt during the primary campaign. The incumbent was leading Brinkman by 19 points with four-fifths of the vote reported, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

In the Lone Star State, Paul defeated accountant Chris Peden, who had called himself a “proven conservative Republican,” a not-so-veiled shot at Paul’s libertarian leanings. Paul, who was criticized by Peden for not being a mainstream Republican, was leading his opponent by a 2-to-1 margin in early returns, according to the San Antonio Express-News, which declared Paul the winner.

“Some Washington insiders would have you believe that Republicans no longer believe in the principles our country and party were founded upon, but the voters in my district have once again proven them wrong,” Paul said in a statement.

Paul, seeking an 11th term, has no Democratic opponent.

Kucinich defeated Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman in a Democratic primary. The former Democratic presidential hopeful received criticism from Cimperman and his hometown paper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, for failing to tend to his home district’s concerns. Kucinich, who led Cimperman by about 22 points with a fifth of the vote reported, will be a heavy favorite to win a 7th term due to the Cleveland-area district’s Democratic tilt.

One House candidate in Texas whom Republicans were banking on failed to make it past a Tuesday primary, while another in Ohio was on the brink.

In Texas’s 23rd congressional district, Republicans chose county commissioner Lyle Larson over lawyer Quico Canseco, despite Canseco’s willingness to fund his own campaign. Larson will face Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D), who is seeking a second consecutive term. Rodriguez was ousted from Congress in 2004, but he returned in 2006, when he defeated his Republican opponent by 8 points.

In the district of retiring Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), county commissioner Matt Miller was virtually tied with state Sen. Kirk Schuring, who had received the endorsement of Regula, an 18-term congressman, and had raised more money than Miller. Schuring led Miller, who has undergone two surgeries since a car crash last weekend, by just 274 votes with nearly three quarters of the votes in.

The winner will face State Sen. John Boccieri, who won the Democratic nomination and has raised more than any of the Republican candidates.

In retiring Rep. Deborah Pryce’s (R) district, Republicans chose Steve Stivers, a state senator and former Army battalion commander, as their candidate, according to the Associated Press. Stivers will face Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy, who lost to Pryce by less than 1,100 votes in 2006. Another Republican state senator, Steve Austria, won his party’s nomination in the race to succeed Rep. Davis Hobson (R), who is leaving Congress after nine terms, the AP declared. 

Republicans believe they have a shot of picking up at least one Democratic-held seat in Ohio -- Rep. Zack Space’s in the rural southeast. GOP voters chose state agriculture Fred Dailey as their nominee over three other candidates. Dailey, however, starts the general election at a fundraising disadvantage; he raised about $111,000, $1.1 million less than Space’s total.

In partial Texas returns, Democrats favored state Rep. Rick Noriega as their nominee for U.S. Senate against John Cornyn (R), who is seeking a second term. Noriega, who served with the Army National Guard in the war in Afghanistan, needs a majority of the votes in his four-candidate race to secure a place on the November ballot. He had received 51 percent of the vote with a quarter of the results remaining. If Noriega falls short of a majority, he will face the other top vote-getter in an April 8 run-off. Gene Kelly, the 2000 challenger to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R), was in second place with 27 percent of the vote.

Noriega was the only one of the four to raise more than $1 million for his campaign. Cornyn, who defeated a lightly regarded primary challenger, has already raised nearly $13 million and has about $7.7 million in the bank.