Kelly Ayotte and Joyce Craig to face off in New Hampshire governor's race

Republican Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Joyce Craig have won their parties’ primaries for governor in New Hampshire, The Associated Press projects, setting up what’s expected to be a close November matchup in the Northeastern battleground state.

Ayotte, who has largely stayed out of electoral politics since she lost her Senate re-election campaign in 2016 by just over 1,000 votes, defeated former state Senate President Chuck Morse for the GOP nomination. Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, beat out Cinde Warmington, a former health care lobbyist and a member of the state’s Executive Council, in the Democratic primary.

Tuesday’s winners will quickly move into a rapid eight-week general election campaign to replace Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who opted not to run for a fifth two-year term.

Reproductive rights, housing costs and the opioid crisis have already emerged as the most prominent themes for the November general election, which the nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter has rated as a “toss-up.”

Ayotte’s victory Tuesday was expected. She held a wide lead in most polls of the GOP primary, allowing her to set her sights early on the general election.

The Democratic race had been considered far closer, creating a bruising primary that many Republicans in the state said would weaken the eventual nominee.

Craig and her allies had attacked Warmington over her past as a lobbyist for Purdue Pharma and the broader notion that the company pushed the highly addictive OxyContin — a particularly poignant message in New Hampshire, where the opioid crisis has ravaged several rural communities. Warmington and her supporters criticized Craig over the problems Manchester experienced on her watch, most prominently crime and homelessness.

In the general election, Democrats have signaled that they plan to highlight reproductive rights and paint Ayotte as opposing abortion rights — an issue with widespread support in the state, according to polls.

Meanwhile, Maggie Goodlander defeated Colin Van Ostern in a contentious and expensive Democratic primary in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, the AP projected.

Goodlander, who was a senior official in the Biden White House and the Justice Department, and Van Ostern, a former member of the state Executive Council, had traded increasingly sharp attacks over who would be a better champion for reproductive rights and the influence of outside money, with campaigns and groups combining to spend $3.5 million on the race.

Goodlander, who is married to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, was backed by national figures like Hillary Clinton and EMILY’s List, while Van Ostern had earned support from Rep. Annie Kuster, who’s retiring after six terms.

The winner of the primary will enter the general election as the favorite in the blue-leaning 2nd District.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com