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:
Bacon projected to win in Nebraska
Another primary challenge to a sitting Republican representative has fallen short. ABC News reports that Bacon is projected to win the Republican primary in Nebraska’s 2nd District. With 37 percent of the expected vote in, he is defeating Frei, his right-wing challenger, 70 percent to 30 percent.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
Miller will get the chance to hold onto her seat in West Virginia's 1st
ABC News is reporting that Miller is projected to win the GOP primary against her challenger, Evans. She has 64 percent of the vote with a little more than a third of the expected vote reporting.
Miller has stood by Trump and even voted to overturn the 2020 election results, but that didn't stop Evans from calling her a "commie RINO." The primary was more evidence that state Republican Parties have been tearing themselves apart over issues like loyalty to Trump and the 2020 election results, even as there are only small differences between candidates.
—Monica Potts, 538
More Moores in Congress
ABC News reports that Riley Moore, the state treasurer, will win the GOP nomination in West Virginia's 2nd District. He'll be a shoo-in for the general election this fall and will take his seat alongside his aunt, Shelley Moore Capito, who is set to be the state's senior senator at the beginning of next Congress.
—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections
Johnny O has a fortuitous last initial
This Olszewski ad might be my favorite of the cycle so far. He’s shamelessly capitalizing off the success of the American League East-leading Baltimore Orioles — nicknamed the O’s — one of the most exciting young teams in baseball.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
Something to listen to while you wait!
It's going to be a minute before we start to get primary results this evening, so allow me to make a humble suggestion in the meantime: Listen to the 538 Politics podcast!
Yesterday I sat down with my colleagues Nathaniel and Geoffrey and friend of the pod Leah Askarinam to talk about the recent The New York Times/Siena College swing-state polls and preview tonight's races. In case you missed it, the polling was pretty bad for President Joe Biden. He trailed former President Donald Trump in every battleground state except Wisconsin and lagged by 12 percentage points in Nevada.
But there are some caveats in understanding what those polls mean at this point in the cycle. Most importantly, it's less that Trump has picked up ground than that Biden has lost it, and a big question over the next five and a half months will be whether Biden can gain that support back. There's a lot more to say, but I'll let you listen to find out!
As far as tonight's races go, we mainly focused on the important Democratic Senate primary in Maryland, where things are looking truly competitive. We also hit on a couple of House primaries that feature people who were in the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — one Capitol police officer and one Trump supporter. Check it out!
—Galen Druke, 538