538 tracked over 10 competitive primaries for Senate, House and governor.
Tuesday, May 14 was another busy primary day, as voters in three states decided who would be on their general election ballots this fall. In Maryland, Democrats nominated women in two safely Democratic congressional seats, including Angela Alsobrooks, who is poised to become only the third Black woman ever elected to the Senate. In West Virginia and Nebraska, incumbent Republican representatives fended off far-right challengers.
538 reporters and contributors broke down the election results as they came in with live updates, analysis and commentary. Read our full live blog below.
We’re up to 63 percent of the expected vote reporting in the Republican primary for West Virginia governor now, and Morrisey (34 percent) is still slightly ahead of Capito (29 percent). Miller lags behind in third place with 18 percent, while Warner is in fourth with 16 percent.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
As I mentioned earlier on the blog, GOP women are struggling to win in primaries this cycle, especially in places that will be competitive in November. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, Republican women are just 18 percent of their party's candidates in House races where filing deadlines have passed as of April 26, and just 14 percent of nominees as of May 8. By comparison, women are 36 percent of all Democratic candidates, and a whopping 41 percent of Democratic nominees thus far. One female Republican hopeful running today is Mariela Roca, in Maryland's 6th District. She is trailing (11 percent) with 30 percent of the expected vote reporting.
—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor
Former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Justice in October, celebrated the governor's victory on his social media account shortly after the race was called in West Virginia. "Congratulations to Big Jim Justice!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Justice, in his own post (on X), nodding to the former president's "America-First" agenda. "Thank you, West Virginia, for placing your support and trust in me. I am truly humbled and will work every day to win in November so we can flip the Senate and deliver on our America-First agenda!" Justice wrote.
The two have a short but storied history. Justice switched his party registration from Democratic to Republican in 2017, announcing the high-profile shift at a Trump rally in Huntington, West Virginia.
—Isabella Murray, ABC News
In Baltimore, Democratic voters are choosing between a current and former mayor, and the race looks very close. Former mayor Sheila Dixon is currently leading incumbent Brandon Scott by less than a tenth of a percentage point with mostly early vote reported, according to the state's board of elections.
This is Dixon's third attempt to return to the mayor's office since she resigned in 2010 after being found guilty of embezzlement. In 2016, she narrowly lost the primary to Catherine Pugh, who later went on to plead guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion. Then in 2020, Dixon lost the primary to Scott by just 2.1 percentage points, though a crowded field of 24 candidates meant neither put up a strong showing.
Perhaps ironically, Dixon's campaign this time around focused in part on crime, an issue that 79 percent of Baltimore voters cited as "extremely serious" or "very serious" in a March Washington Post/University of Maryland poll, far more than other areas of the state. Thirty-two percent of Baltimore City voters also told the pollsters that they feel "not too safe" or "not at all safe" from crime in their neighborhoods.
Two different surveys of the mayoral primary in April both showed a single-digit race with Scott ahead, so this one might go down to the wire.
—Mary Radcliffe, 538
