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.
Latest headlines:
Celebrate polling wins
We talk a lot about how effective or useful polling is these days, and Americans don't have a tremendous amount of trust in polling. According to a recent Marist poll, 61 percent of Americans said they trust polls "not very much" or "not at all."
So I think it's important to make note of when polls do a good job of depicting where a race stands. And Noble Predictive Insights's latest poll of Utah, which they fielded last week, was pretty spot on. They found Curtis leading the Senate primary field with 48 percent, followed by Staggs (28 percent), Wilson (9 percent) and Walton (6 percent). According to the AP, the current results are: Curtis 52 percent, Staggs 28 percent, Wilson 14 percent and Walton 6 percent, with 67 percent of the expected vote counted. That's pretty good. And in the gubernatorial race, Noble Predictive Insights found Cox ahead, 55 to 42 percent, over Lyman. He currently leads 59 to 41 percent, with 68 percent of the expected vote counted. Not bad for a primary poll!
—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections
Utahns feel OK about their state
Cox may have been booed at the convention, Meredith, but Utah voters seem to feel OK about the state under his leadership. In a HarrisX/Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted earlier this month, when asked whether the U.S. was on the right or wrong track, 77 percent of Utah voters said it was on the wrong track, compared with 14 percent who said it was on the right track. But when asked the same question about their own state, 48 percent said it was on the right track, and 36 percent said it was on the wrong track. That level of satisfaction is pretty rare these days, so despite some recent closer polling, I'm not surprised to see Cox running away with this race.
—Mary Radcliffe, 538
Checking in on anti-abortion candidates
With the latest results in Colorado and Utah, lets check in on the anti-abortion Republicans we're tracking. Boebert and Crank are projected to win in their primaries in Colorado. And in Utah, Curtis is projected to win the GOP nomination for the Senate, incumbent Rep. Moore is projected to win his primary in the 1st District,and incumbent Gov. Cox is projected to fend off his challenger in the gubernatorial primary. We're still waiting on results in the state's 2nd and 3rd districts.
—Monica Potts, 538
Moore wins easily in Utah's 1st
I said I'd keep an eye on the Republican primary in Utah's 1st District, and I've done so, but there's nothing to see: The AP has already projected that Moore win will renomination, despite his loss among party activists at the GOP convention earlier this year. He's currently leading Miller, his more MAGA challenger, 73 percent to 27 percent, with 58 percent of the expected vote reporting.
—Nathaniel Rakich, 538
How did women do tonight in competitive primaries?
Tonight I tracked several primaries in which women had a chance to win. On the Republican side, in the runoff in South Carolina’s 3rd, Biggs’s projected victory over the Trump-endorsed candidate should add a woman to the GOP conference in November given that district’s rightward lean. In Colorado’s 4th, another safe red district, it was likely a woman would win — we just weren’t sure who — and Boebert ended up the winner there. However, we’re still waiting to see whether Maloy will ward off her challenger to prevail in Utah’s 2nd.
Among Democrats, nonincumbent women didn’t have a remarkable night. In New York’s 1st District, Goroff is projected to lose despite her support from the Democratic-aligned powerhouse EMILYs List. Also in New York, the AP has projected that Sarah Klee Hood will lose the primary in the 22nd. The only nonincumbent Democratic woman who prevailed tonight in a district winnable in November is probably Laura Gillen in New York’s 4th District.
—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor