As 2026 primary season nears its end, voters in more than a dozen states still face major August and September contests

The 2026 primary season is entering its final stretch, but several high-profile races remain scheduled before election-season attention fully shifts to November, according to The Hill. The publication highlighted five notable contests that are still set to be decided in the coming weeks, keeping party nomination battles active into late summer.

The Hill’s roundup says voters in more than a dozen states will head to the polls in the August and September period to determine key matchups. Those contests, the report adds, are expected to influence which candidates ultimately advance to the general election ballot.

While the general election is months away, primary outcomes can still affect the balance of power in both federal and state legislatures by narrowing the field of nominees. The Hill frames the remaining August and September races as especially consequential because they arrive close to the point when political attention typically consolidates around general-election campaigning.

The five contests identified in The Hill’s article represent a mix of primary timing and political importance across different states, the report says. The practical effect, as described by the roundup, is that the nomination process will not be uniform statewide, with some jurisdictions concluding earlier and others still choosing nominees in the final phase of the primary calendar.

For voters, the remaining contests extend the window for primary-level policy and leadership preferences to be translated into ballot decisions. For campaigns and party organizations, the late-summer schedule compresses the period between nomination and the start of full general-election outreach.

The Hill’s reporting underscores that, even as observers begin to look past primaries, the last August and September races can still determine who appears on the November ballot. Those results, once certified by election officials in each state, are expected to shape how parties and candidates prepare for the general election campaign. Because the underlying roundup does not provide additional contest details in the material available here, further reporting or official election calendars would be needed to confirm the specific races, filing deadlines, and ballot dates for each contest.