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.


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Initial results in Maryland's 3rd District

With 27 percent of the expected vote reporting in the Democratic primary for Maryland's 3rd District, Elfreth leads Dunn 37 percent to 28 percent. Meanwhile, Lam has 10 percent. Morse, the Sanders-endorsed candidate I just mentioned, is much further back with just 1 percent.

—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor


Moore leading in West Virginia's 2nd

As I wrote earlier, West Virginia voters have a slew of anti-abortion candidates to choose from. Justice represents the first winner on that list. Miller and Evans in the 1st District are both on our list, and several candidates in the 2nd District also qualify as anti-abortion candidates by our definition.

With the first batch of about 12 percent of the votes in, incumbent Miller is comfortably leading her challenger, Evans, in West Virginia's 1st congressional district. The current leader in the 2nd District is Moore, with 48 percent of the vote share (27 points ahead of his closest rival) and 21 percent of the expected vote reporting. Three candidates for West Virginia governor are also anti-abortion, including the current leader, Morrisey.

—Monica Potts, 538


West Virginia polls seem to have been ... mostly ... on target

So far, it looks like the polls in West Virginia's GOP Senate and gubernatorial primaries did a pretty solid job, even with the four-way pileup for governor.

However, there is one race looks to be a bit of a polling miss in the state: the GOP primary for attorney general. So far, with about 20 percent of the expected vote reporting, state Auditor John McCuskey leads state Senator Mike Stuart by 22 points, a far cry from the 1-point race we saw in recent preelection polling from Research America/WV Metro News. McCuskey significantly outspent Stuart throughout the race, and it looks like that investment might be paying off.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538


Blankenship bears a striking resemblance to another oddball figure in politics

Every time I see a picture of him, I have to remind myself he's not Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy. They have an uncanny resemblance.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538


Democrats fear a repeat of Jan. 6

As Nathaniel mentioned earlier, West Virginia's 1st Congressional District's Republican primary has a candidate, Evans, who served three months in jail after filming himself storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. His performance in the district, which includes the state capital city of Charleston, will be a good illustration of where the party is when it comes to how important election denialism remains. Evans apologized for his actions in court, but after leaving jail, he began calling himself a "J6 patriot."

This evolution mirrors what has happened in the Republican Party, as GOP primary voters have become less likely to believe Trump is to blame for Jan. 6, more swayed by conspiracy theories about the insurrection and less likely to say Biden was legitimately elected, according to a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll from the third anniversary. As Mary mentioned earlier, Democrats are much more worried about a repeat of the insurrection and worried that democracy in the U.S. is in peril.

So far there's only about 3 percent of the vote reporting, and Miller has opened up with a lead with 65 percent of the vote. But if Evans upsets the race and pulls out a win over the incumbent Miller, who has also shown unwavering support for Trump, his actions on that day are unlikely to hurt him in this deep red district.

—Monica Potts, 538