Norwich was holding a mayoral primary for the first time after changing the city charter.
William F. Milford, a farmer in the Suffolk County community of Southold, said his misgivings about Mr. Bush led him to vote in a primary for the first time.
"As it turned out, providence may have smiled on us," he said, because Texas will now have a consequential Democratic primary for the first time in decades.
Smaller contests — the Democratic primary for the Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, for instance, and the primary for the eleventh district in the New York State Assembly — were scanned for national meaning, too, and taken as tests of the strength of the Sanders coalition.
In Idaho, two candidates in last month's Republican primary for the First District House seat said they favored repeal, including the winner, Raul Labrador.
So was Gov. Michael O. Leavitt, who is running for a third term against three challengers and failed to reach 60percentt in any of three ballots, putting him in a primary for the first time since 1992.
But interviews in Fairfield County, a mostly black area north of Columbia that cast 63percentt of its vote for Bill Clinton in 1996, found several black residents who were at least considering voting in the Republican primary for the first time.
Yes, according to exit polls, most of Paul's support came from independents and those voting in a GOP primary for the first time, but Paul also got 20% of voters who have participated in Republican primaries before – not a lot, but second only to Romney.
