Maryland, West Virginia and Nebraska primaries 2024: Alsobrooks beats Trone, GOP incumbents survive
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.
Latest headlines:
Final thought: Trone didn't break the self-funding record for a Senate race
Trone ended up spending just about $62 million out of his own pocket in Maryland's Democratic primary for Senate, but it wasn't enough for him to defeat Alsobrooks. It also left Trone just short of the all-time record for self-funding in a Senate race. In 2018, now-Sen. Rick Scott spent more than $63 million of his personal wealth on his successful campaign. (He's up for reelection this year.) But to put that in perspective, Scott spent that amount over the course of the whole cycle, whereas Trone shelled out nearly the same total for just the primary!
—Geoffrey Skelley, 538
Final thought: Incumbents are powerful
My main final thought for the night is that we've seen once again how powerful incumbency can be. Incumbents won against far-right challengers in primaries throughout the states. In the race I was watching, West Virginia's 1st, there was very little daylight between the two Republican candidates, Miller and Evans. Both were extremely loyal to Trump and the MAGA agenda, but Evans's candidacy largely hinged on him being more loyal to Trump than his opponent because he actually protested on Jan. 6, while Miller had avoided angering the base by voting against certifying the election. As we race toward an election that appears to be a 2020 rematch, the same 2020 spirit pervades many downballot races as well.
—Monica Potts, 538
Final thoughts from a busy night?
All the races we were tracking tonight have now been projected! What are everyone’s takeaways from the night’s results?
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
Coal country was weak for Biden, though
West Virginia actually has a history of casting protest votes against incumbent Democratic presidents in primaries, Irena. For instance, in 2012, Barack Obama beat total rando Keith Judd here just 59 percent to 41 percent. This year, Biden is winning a decent 71 percent of the vote, but he's especially weak in coal country in the southwestern part of the state — for example, winning just 49 percent in Mingo County. But these are no anti-Israel protest votes; coal country is a deeply conservative part of the country that nonetheless still has a lot of registered Democrats. These protest votes, therefore, are protesting the liberal direction that the national party has taken this century.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538