Disappointed primary voters weigh their choices: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail. In today’s edition, Ben Kamisar and Bridget Bowman have the key takeaways from our latest voter focus groups in Michigan and Texas. Plus, Kristen Welker dives into the downballot effects of this cycle’s key gubernatorial races. — Adam Wollner Focus groups: Their candidates lost in the Michigan and Texas primaries. Now what? By Ben Kamisar and Bridget Bowman Some voters who backed losing candidates in two key Senate primaries this year are still wrestling with whether to support their party’s nominee on Election Day, with major implications for who controls the Senate majority next year.

Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Texas Republican Ken Paxton are both trying to stitch their parties back together for their battleground races after divisive primaries. Two focus groups — one with Michiganders who supported Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens’ unsuccessful Senate bid, and another with Texans who backed Republican Sen. John Cornyn in that primary — reveal how some rank-and-file voters are struggling to process personal concerns about the nominees alongside a desire to be loyal to their party. The focus groups, produced by Syracuse University and the research firms Engagious and Sago and observed