WASHINGTON — Senator Marco Rubio of Florida won the Republican nomination for Senate on Tuesday night, a result that enhances the GOP’s chances of retaining that seat and the Senate majority.
The former presidential candidate easily beat business executive Carlos Beruff and will face Representative Patrick Murphy in November. With 98 percent of precincts tallied, Rubio won 72 percent of the Republican vote while Murphy dispatched fellow congressman Alan Grayson with 59 percent of the Democratic vote.
In the banner House primary in the state, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz beat college professor Tim Canova, garnering 57 percent with 99 precincts reporting. Canova raised $3.3 million in mostly small-dollar donations from supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign who were aggrieved over Wasserman Schultz’s handling of the presidential race in her former role as Democratic national chairwoman.
Elsewhere in the state, Representative Corrine Brown, facing a 22-count federal corruption indictment as well as a redrawn district, became the fifth House incumbent to lose a primary this cycle. Former state senator Al Lawson won the Democratic nomination in her stead.
In Arizona, Senator John McCain beat back a vigorous primary challenge from the right in the Republican primary. Former state senator Kelli Ward attacked McCain as too willing to compromise with Democrats but struggled to raise the money and amass the widespread support needed for a serious challenge to the six-term incumbent. McCain held a 20 percentage point lead in early returns Tuesday.
McCain, who turned 80 on Monday, had been campaigning hard, rallying campaign workers and making get-out-the-vote stops in keeping his vow not to take the primary for granted.
‘‘I'm humbled by and grateful for our success tonight and for the honor to be the Arizona Republican Party’s nominee for election to the United States Senate,’’ McCain said in prepared remarks.
Ward had been mainly ignored by McCain, but she got national attention by saying in recent interviews that the senator would be unable to complete another six-year term because of his age.
McCain faces a tough Democratic challenge in the general election from Representative Ann Kirkpatrick.
In another contentious Arizona race, Sheriff Joe Arpaio crushed three rivals to win the Republican nomination in his bid for a sevent term.
Arpaio will face Democrat challenger Paul Penzone during the fall in what’s believed to be his toughest campaign in six terms as Maricopa County’s top lawman. Arpaio easily beat former Buckeye Police Chief Dan Saban and two other lesser-known Republican opponents Tuesday.
A judge has ruled that Arpaio’s officers racially profiled Latinos, and the sheriff was found in civil contempt of court for defying court orders in the case. The judge recently recommended that Arpaio face criminal prosecution over the contempt case, which could subject him to jail time.
In Florida, political watchers scoured primary returns in a bevy of House districts that were been redrawn months ago by a court-ordered redistricting. At least seven of the state’s 27 House seats will have new representatives in January, and as many as eight more could see turnover.
Just a few months ago, the Senate primaries in Florida looked to be marquee contests as each party maneuvered to fill the seat that Rubio pledged to vacate. But in June, Rubio abruptly reversed course under pressure from national Republicans afraid that the seat was in jeopardy — perhaps along with the Senate majority.
Beruff, a real estate developer who embraced the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, stayed in the race but failed to catch fire with Florida voters after spending millions of his own dollars.
On the Democratic side, the battle between Grayson and Murphy looked like it would turn into a proxy fight between progressive and centrist Democrats.
