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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Coal country was weak for Biden, though

West Virginia actually has a history of casting protest votes against incumbent Democratic presidents in primaries, Irena. For instance, in 2012, Barack Obama beat total rando Keith Judd here just 59 percent to 41 percent. This year, Biden is winning a decent 71 percent of the vote, but he's especially weak in coal country in the southwestern part of the state — for example, winning just 49 percent in Mingo County. But these are no anti-Israel protest votes; coal country is a deeply conservative part of the country that nonetheless still has a lot of registered Democrats. These protest votes, therefore, are protesting the liberal direction that the national party has taken this century.

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


Jason Palmer is so back

The only presidential primary-related news you should pay attention to tonight is that Jason Palmer, the Democratic winner in American Samoa on Super Tuesday, is on the ballot again today in West Virginia! With 69 percent of the expected vote in, ABC News has projected that Biden will win the Mountain State's Democratic primary, but Palmer is sitting in second place with 12 percent of the vote.

—Irena Li, 538


Checking in on anti-abortion candidates

With Morrissey's projected win in the Republican gubernatorial primary, the GOP in West Virginia is nominating a slate of anti-abortion candidates. In Maryland's 6th, Parrott's projected win for the Republican nomination means that abortion could be a big issue in the competitive district in November. Maryland voters, like voters nationwide, are supportive of abortion rights, and this fall they'll decide on an amendment that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. The projected Democratic primary winner, McClain Delaney, has championed abortion rights in her campaign. In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Parrott said abortion should be left to the states.

—Monica Potts, 538


Answer: I'm not surprised by Elfreth winning

Dunn's fundraising and national profile always made him look like the frontrunner in Maryland's 3rd, but Elfreth ran strong from the beginning, and the scant polling of the race we had showed her even with Dunn or ahead of him, before, during and after the UDP spending push (which, as Geoff noted, allowed the pro-Elfreth voice to be louder on TV than the pro-Dunn voice). And Elfreth's team was confident heading into today. I spoke with one of her allies this morning who was blunt in their assessment of the state of the race: "Elfreth will win it. She had TV plus organizing." Sometimes, it's that simple!

—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