AMNA NAWAZ: Virginia, Oklahoma and Georgia held primary and run-off elections last night, and the results in some key races could say a lot about the state of the Republican Party this election cycle.

Lisa Desjardins has been following it all closely and joins me now.

Lisa, let's begin in Virginia now, where the chair of the House Freedom Caucus is in danger of losing his seat to another Republican.

Tell us about the race and the results so far.

LISA DESJARDINS: We're in extraordinary political times, and this is one of the most extraordinary primary races that we're probably going to see all year.

Now, we're talking about Republican Bob Good.

He is the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.

He had a Republican challenger, both men very conservative, both men big supporters of former President Trump.

Let's look at where this race is right now.

If you look at the total there, there you go, just barely within half-a-percentage point.

And my calculation is, it's just 321 votes separate these two men right now.

But look at that.

John McGuire, he's a brand-new state senator, just took that office in January, winning over the incumbent congressman by 321 votes right now.

What's the big difference between these two guys?

Let's look at this.

Former President Trump endorsed McGuire, the nonincumbent, and opposed Bob Good.

Why is that?

Well, it happens that Bob Good endorsed Ron DeSantis in the primary.

Now, you have a situation here where both of these men have signs saying they support Donald Trump, but this has been a real test of Trump and whether he can convince people in a district to vote against an incumbent who has served them for almost two terms now.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, it's rare for an incumbent to lose in a primary like this.

Why else does this race matter?

Why is it one to watch?

LISA DESJARDINS: Right, because what's happening here is Trump taking over the Republican Party continually.

The House Freedom Caucus, while it does generally support former President Trump, is one of the few wild cards left in the House.

We have covered the dysfunction and the kind of bucking that's gone on from the House Freedom Caucus.

Bob Good is someone who led -- who pushed for and led to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy.

This is a hard group to control.

Now, so it could be said that this is a group that perhaps someone coming into office as a president would like to make sure he can control.

Bob Good didn't endorse him.

That's something that the former president didn't like.

And, overall, when you talk to political experts like Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, they say this is a highly unusual race.

LARRY SABATO, Director, University of Virginia Center for Politics: Incumbents almost never lose party primaries.

And the fact that one who is as entrenched as Bob Good, who's also a major national figure, being chairman of the Freedom Caucus, should lose even by one vote is a headline.

The message was very clear.

Donald Trump was saying, if you cross me personally and if you cross my agenda, this could happen to you.

LISA DESJARDINS: Conservative outside groups poured $10 million in this Republican-versus-Republican race.

That's extraordinary, Groups from everything from Marjorie Taylor Greene in supporting John McGuire.

Kevin McCarthy has gotten involved in this race.

The Club for Growth has gotten involved.

Right now, where it stands is, Bob Good is not saying that he's lost.

He's going to wait, because, under Virginia law, ballots that were filed that got postmarked by election time, if they're received by Friday, they still count.

So we really don't know where this race is going to end up.

AMNA NAWAZ: I know you're tracking a number of other races as well.

Tell us where else you have been watching and why they matter this cycle.

LISA DESJARDINS: Some other big names.

Tom Cole is a well-known Republican, one of those powerful Republicans, now the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

He also had a challenger from the right who said Tom Cole is too friendly with Democrats.

Tom Cole easily won that election.

But it was something that people were watching very closely.

He's sort of a voice of moderation at times in the House Republican Conference.

Then, also another race in Georgia in the Fifth Congressional District, a candidate there was -- is someone who was convicted on January 6.

We're going to get to the deficit in just a second.

But there was a candidate in Georgia Fifth Congressional district who was convicted of entering the Capitol with his wife on January 6.

That's Chuck Hand right there, the Republican.

He lost in that primary.

It was a real test to see if there was support for someone like that who faced actual jail time because of January 6.

So those are two races that we were watching as well.

AMNA NAWAZ: This is the point in the conversation when I do want to turn to the Congressional Budget Office.

It's a story that is related to this in some way, but let's just focus on that story first.

The CBO came out with a stunning conclusion about the deficit.

Tell us what that was.

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes, let's get right to that graphic that popped up.

It's really hard to ignore.

The CBO has said that their projection is now that we will have a $1.9 trillion deficit this year.

That is much larger than they originally forecast.

And it is about 7 percent of our gross domestic product.

So, right now, we're approaching about a trillion dollars in interest payments in this country each year just on interest on our debt.

Now, why did things go up?

Student loans, the forgiveness programs from the Biden administration, that costs more than CBO had thought it would.

And Medicaid costs also have been larger than expected.

AMNA NAWAZ: And how is this connected to the races you're following, Lisa?

LISA DESJARDINS: Let's tie it all together, as we like to deal here at "NewsHour."

It is connected, because Bob Good and the Freedom Caucus, their central kind of raison d'etre has been about spending and cutting spending.

And if former President Trump or whoever becomes president, whoever wins this election, they will have to reckon with potentially a Freedom Caucus that will still try and say, we aren't going to support any bills that raise spending or that don't cut it more.

So, a Freedom Caucus that has less power really does have an effect potentially on the debt, deficit, and also on the functioning and potential shutdowns ahead.

These issues are all very connected.

Freedom Caucus is one of the loudest voices on the deficit, but a voice that some people say is too disruptive.

So that's why Bob Good and these races matter quite a lot.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, Lisa Desjardins, thank you very much.

LISA DESJARDINS: You're welcome.