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:
Knives out for Hogan
That was quick. Just minutes after Hogan was projected the victor in the Republican primary, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is out with a new digital ad, using his own words against him — spotlighting Hogan calling himself a "lifelong Republican" (a not-so-veiled attempt to paint him as anything but moderate).
Democrats know the balance of the Senate is at stake here. They seem to be wasting no time reminding everyone else.
—Brittany Shepherd, ABC News
Polls are now closed in Nebraska
It's 8 p.m. Central, and the polls are now closed in the final state we're watching tonight: Nebraska.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
Johnny O is no Johnny-come-lately
He may be new on the national scene, but us Marylanders have been watching Johnny O's career with great interest for nearly two decades. He got to the state house in 2006 at just 24 years old and has been pegged as a rising star ever since then. At just 41, he's young enough to be a credible Senate or gubernatorial candidate down the line.
—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections
Johnny O's lead is Johnny whoa
Not only did Olszewski win, Elliott, but he is blowing the competition out of the water with 82 percent of the vote (with 30 percent of the expected vote reporting). I can't remember ever seeing a non-incumbent doing that well in a primary.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
Answer: Dunn wasn't from around there, and Elfreth had a lot of outside help
Meredith, the race seemed very close in a way that made it hard to project just who would win. It's true that Dunn raised a very large amount of money and definitely had a lot of traction online. But Elfreth raised a fair bit herself and actually represents part of the district in the Maryland state legislature, whereas Dunn didn't have an initial base of support as he hails from outside the seat in Montgomery County. Most critically, Elfreth received ample outside support from United Democracy Project, the AIPAC-associated super PAC. So while Dunn had raised $4.6 million to Elfreth's $1.5 million, UDP spent $4.2 million in support of Elfreth while Dunn had no outside help. To be clear, a candidate's campaign dollar goes farther when booking ads than for outside groups, but as Jacob pointed out in late April, the combined broadcast ad time bought by Elfreth and UDP sometimes outdistanced Dunn during the campaign.
—Geoffrey Skelley, 538