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:
Johnny O will face Kim Klacik in Maryland's 2nd
ABC News reports that Kim Klacik is the Republican's nominee for Maryland's 2nd. Klacik also ran in 2020, when her ad that followed her walking the streets of Baltimore in a red dress and heels went viral. You could write a book about how Republican women campaign for Congress (and people have, FWIW). Klacik's would earn its own chapter, if I was writing it!
—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor
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
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