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:
Final thought: A good night for House Republicans
On the whole, House Republicans got good news tonight, especially in Colorado. Having Evans, Crank and Hurd as their nominees doesn’t guarantee they’ll win (maybe just the 5th District), but it substantially raises the party's chances of winning each of those seats compared to what any of their unsuccessful primary opponents' odds would have looked like. Elsewhere, GOP leadership avoided a firebrand winning a safe seat in South Carolina and can enjoy a little schadenfreude as Bowman loses in New York’s 16th District, while Mondaire Jones gets an additional headache in the highly competitive 17th District by losing the Working Families Party primary.
—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections
Final thought: Abortion may not be as big an issue in blue states this year
As Mary wrote earlier, only 3 percent of New Yorkers said that abortion was a key issue in advance of these primaries, down from 11 percent last year. Abortion access is protected in the state, but Democrats were hoping to nationalize it as an issue to win key races this fall. A vote for a Republican in the House or Senate, the thinking goes, is one step closer to a national abortion ban.
However, that strategy didn’t work for Klee Hood, who made access to abortion a centerpiece of her campaign. She lost to Mannion, who also supports abortion rights but also supports some restrictions after 24 weeks. If that issue isn’t as top of mind for New York voters, or other blue state voters, by the time November comes, that could make it harder for Democrats to gain an advantage in tighter general election races in close districts. That’s especially because voters do still care a lot about economic issues and rate Biden’s handling of the economy poorly. Whether abortion will be as much of a deciding factor this year as it was in the midterms, which proved to be good for Democrats, remains one of the biggest questions of this election cycle.
—Monica Potts, 538
Final thought: Outside groups can help sway a primary, but the ground needs to be fertile
We've talked a lot about the many millions AIPAC spent to take down Bowman in New York's 16th District and about losing GOP candidates who faced sizable outside opposition from groups that opposed more anti-establishment Republicans in primaries. In many of these cases, these outside groups came in and spent a lot of money to oppose or support a candidate, and, unsurprisingly, that influenced the outcome!
But the candidates also mattered a great deal in making outside groups' lines of attack and support count in these primaries. Bowman wasn't that strong to begin with, for instance, and he'd made headlines for many wrong reasons in recent months. Someone like Williams in Colorado had angered a lot of people in his party, making it easier for the sizable outside investment against him to work. In South Carolina, Burns had Trump's endorsement, but he also had a very controversial background that may have encouraged outside groups to invest in Biggs to beat him.
—Geoffrey Skelley, 538
Final thought: Trump should stick to padding his endorsements
Trump's out-of-pocket endorsements of non-incumbent, contested candidates who really didn’t seem favored to win were a gamble that didn’t pay off. What it did demonstrate is that a Trump endorsement, though it does carry weight in a Republican primary, is not the Midas touch he likes to pretend it is.
—Kaleigh Rogers, 538
Jeff Crank projected to trounce the state party chair in the GOP race in Colorado's 5th
The AP projects Jeff Crank, a conservative talk radio host, to win in Colorado's 5th District, surrounding Colorado Springs, winning over the state party's chair, Dave Williams. Despite being the party chair and getting Trump's endorsement, there was a lot of money and energy being spent to keep Williams — a controversial figure who has taken the state party on a hard right tack — from being the nominee. The Koch brothers' PAC has spent over $100,000 supporting Crank, while a super PAC of Republican megadonors has spent $1.2 million opposing Williams. Along with his talk radio gig, Crank has a background in politics, having previously worked as a regional vice president for Americans for Prosperity and as a staffer for former Rep. Joel Hefley. Though this district has shown signs of shifting to be less red in recent years, it's also the only district in the state to have never sent a Democrat to Congress, so Crank has some good odds heading into November.
—Kaleigh Rogers, 538