New York, Colorado and Utah primaries 2024: Bowman loses, Boebert wins

Three Trump-endorsed candidates also lost in Republican primaries.

June 25 was one of the most jam-packed primary election days of the year: Democrats and Republicans in Colorado, New York, Utah and parts of South Carolina picked their party's nominees for this fall's elections.

Two incumbent representatives — Jamaal Bowman and Lauren Boebert — who have made enemies inside and outside their own parties faced serious challengers in their primaries, but they met with different fates. Bowman lost to a more moderate Democrat, George Latimer, in what was the most expensive congressional primary in history. However, Boebert easily prevailed in her Republican primary despite running in an entirely new district.

It was also a bad night for former President Donald Trump. Going into these primaries, only one candidate he had endorsed for Senate, House or governor had lost; tonight alone, three did, including his preferred candidate to replace retiring Sen. Mitt Romney in Utah.

In addition, the fields are now set in some key congressional matchups this fall. In Colorado, Republicans avoided nominating far-right candidates who could have put normally safe red districts in play. Meanwhile, Democrats picked their fighters in two competitive New York House districts that could help them reclaim the House majority.

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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Mannion projected to win in New York's 22nd Congressional District

With 76 percent of the expected vote reporting, Mannion is projected to win the Democratic primary in the 22nd Congressional District in New York, according to the AP. He has 62 percent of the vote so far, while Hood has 38 percent. As I wrote earlier, the race had seemed closer in its final days, but ended up being an easy victor for the state senator. He has a good chance of winning against incumbent Williams this November, as redistricting has made the district bluer.

—Monica Potts, 538


Checking in on candidates of color

Most of the candidates of color we were tracking tonight were New York incumbents who ran in uncontested primaries (or easily won, in the case of Ocasio-Cortez), with the notable exception of Bowman, who is projected to lose his bid for reelection by a big margin to his challenger, Latimer.

On the GOP side, it looks like Evans will be the only one candidate of color to win a contested race tonight. Trump-endorsed Burns projected to lose his runoff in South Carolina to Biggs, and Yu seems headed to a last-place finish in his race in Colorado's 4th congressional district, which Boebert is projected to win. Joshi is projected to lose in Colorado's 8th district, and Varela is projected to lose against Hurd in the 3rd congressional district, Boebert's current seat.

—Monica Potts, 538


First results from Utah's 3rd District

With 33 percent of the expected vote counted in Utah's 3rd District, it's shaping up to be a close GOP primary. All five candidates are currently in double digits. State Sen. Mike Kennedy leads with 31 percent, followed by Roosevelt Mayor JR Bird (25 percent), trampoline tycoon Case Lawrence (21 percent), Mitt Romney’s relative Stewart Peay (13 percent) and state auditor John Dougall (10 percent).

Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections


Mannion still leading in New York's 22nd

With 72 percent of the expected vote reporting, Mannion is still leading Hood, 62 percent to 38 percent, according to the AP. It's a more wide-open race than was expected, especially with the accusations against Mannion of a toxic work environment surfacing against him in recent days. Hood doesn't have much time to make up ground.

—Monica Potts, 538


Democratic divisions on full view in New York's 16th District

In Tuesday's marquee race, Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman could lose renomination against Westchester County Executive George Latimer in New York's dark blue 16th District. This race is defined by internal Democratic divisions over the Israel-Gaza conflict, the influence of pro-Israel groups and controversies about Bowman's past behavior. Bowman has joined with fellow members of the progressive "Squad" and some other Democrats to criticize and oppose U.S. support for Israel, a position that made him a major target for pro-Israel groups.

Bowman lacks a strong electoral record, having won only 54 percent of the primary vote in his first reelection campaign in 2022. He also attracted scrutiny last September when he pulled a fire alarm in a Capitol Hill office building just before a high-profile vote to avoid a government shutdown, for which he was censured by the House and had to pay a fine. On top of this, old blog posts by Bowman came to light in January that included conspiracy theories about the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. All of this has helped boost the primary challenge from Latimer, who's also built up a strong local political reputation in Westchester County — where 9 in 10 of the district's voters live, according to Daily Kos Elections.

Still, the big story is Latimer's support from pro-Israel donors and organizations. Latimer has raised $5.8 million, $2.4 million of which came via individual donors who used the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as a conduit to contribute to his campaign. This has helped give him a financial leg up on Bowman, who has raised $4.3 million. And the monetary disparity grows far starker when we look at outside spending. Groups have spent a whopping $17.7 million either opposing Bowman or supporting Latimer, according to OpenSecrets, while they've spent only $3.0 million attacking Latimer or boosting Bowman. As a result, this has turned into the most expensive House primary on record, according to AdImpact.

The principal group behind the massive spending is United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with AIPAC, which has forked out $14.6 million on the race to take down Bowman. Despite the pro-Israel connection, the group's ads rarely mention the ongoing conflict, instead criticizing Bowman on issues such as not supporting President Joe Biden's position on a major infrastructure package in 2021 and a debt ceiling deal in 2023. Bowman and his allies haven't taken this lying down. In the last primary debate, Bowman attacked the "racist MAGA Republicans" — a reference to AIPAC's bipartisan sources of financial backing — supporting Latimer, a criticism leveled in ads put out by Bowman and outside groups backing him.

The most recent survey of the race — an Emerson College/The Hill/WPIX poll from early June — found Latimer ahead of Bowman 48 percent to 31 percent, which signals just how in danger Bowman is of becoming the first Democratic incumbent to lose renomination in 2024.

—Geoffrey Skelley, 538