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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Don Blankenship is not, in fact, back

Real heads may remember Blankenship, a convicted criminal, from 2018, when he almost won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, which would've been establishment Republicans' worst nightmare as they sought to take down Manchin. Well, he's trying for a comeback tonight in the Democratic primary for Senate, and he's in a distant third place.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 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


First results in West Virginia's 2nd

We've got 11 percent of the expected vote reporting in West Virginia's 2nd District, and as expected, state Treasurer Riley Moore is running well ahead of the pack with about 45 percent. In a distant second are Army veteran Joseph Earley and retired Air Force general Chris Walker, both at 17 percent. This should be an easy win for Moore (and also a win for the Moore dynasty, which will notch at least one victory tonight even if Moore Capito loses the gubernatorial primary.

—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections


Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks's election night party is shaping up to be a very Prince George’s County event

About an hour and a half south of Trone's party in Baltimore — in Angela Alsobrooks's home turf of Prince George's County — supporters and staff for the county executive are beginning to fill up Martin's Crosswinds catering center in Greenbelt. Lights are dim with crystal chandeliers glistening; jazz, oldies (and a little Beyonce) is coming out of the speakers and beef wellington, fried shrimp and salmon cakes are heating up on silver burners. Like at the "Trone HQ," Alsobrooks's election night party venue feels very much like a Sweet Sixteen or prom — and some of the attendees have said the same. Overheard moments ago was one voter remarking to another how she came here for high school dances. The candidate, who has captured the backing of much of the Maryland establishment, seems to be appealing to that base of supporters here on election night.

—Isabella Murray, ABC News


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