Besides choosing among the GOP presidential candidates, Maryland and D.C. voters will also choose candidates for congressional and city council races.

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Marylanders will vote in House and Senate primaries and, in D.C., several Council seats are being hotly contested, including the at-large seat Vincent Orange is trying to keep.

Heated campaigns for both parties' nominations have made Maryland's 6th Congressional District the most closely watched House race in the primary election. 

Ten-term Republican incumbent Roscoe Bartlett faces seven challengers Tuesday, led by state Sen. David Brinkley.

WATCH live coverage of the local races here.

Brinkley says Bartlett hasn't lived up to his conservative talking points. Bartlett says he's done his best in a divided Congress that sometimes requires him to vote for bills with amendments that contradict his own views.

The five-way Democratic race features a brawl between state Sen. Rob Garagiola and Montgomery County businessman John Delaney. The winner of that race is primed to likely take on Bartlett in November.

"This seat has been Republican for a longtime," Delaney said. "(It's a) great opportunity to take it back."

The intensity of their contest reflects the redistricting that has made the 6th District competitive for Democrats for the first time in 20 years.

Incumbents in Maryland's seven other congressional districts face little threat of losing their seats.

Maryland's Democratic and Republican Senate primaries are crowded this year.

Democratic Sen. Benjamin Cardin is a popular and well-funded incumbent headed into Tuesday's primary against Prince George's state Sen. C. Anthony Muse.

There are seven other candidates in the Democratic primary, including Raymond Blagmon, J.P. Cusick and Chris Garner. Ralph Jaffe, Blaine Taylor, Ed Tinus and Lih Young also are on the ballot.

In the Republican race, former U.S. Secret Service Agent Daniel Bongino, of Severna Park, is running against Richard Douglas, a Bush administration defense department appointee from Bladensburg. 

There are eight other GOP candidates in the race, including Joseph Alexander, Robert Broadus, William Capps and Rick Hoover. The other candidates are David Jones, John Kimble, Brian Vaeth and Corrogan Vaughn.

It's one of 11 races on the ballot, including five D.C. Council seats.

The most competitive races are the Ward 7 held by Yvette Alexander, the Ward 8 seat held by Marion Barry, and the at-large seat held by Vincent Orange.