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:
Ocasio-Cortez easily wins renomination in New York's 14th District
This wasn't a race that we expected to be close, but the AP projects that Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will easily win renomination in New York's solidly blue 14th District. I note the contest only because she faced a primary challenge from former insurance executive Marty Dolan, who originally ran against Bowman in the 16th District primary, but switched races to take on Ocasio-Cortez. Dolan mostly got attention from conservative media outlets — Ocasio-Cortez is their bête noire — but it turns out that, amazingly, appearances on Fox News aren't a good way to win a Democratic primary.
—Geoffrey Skelley, 538
A rough night for the Colorado Republican Party (but a good night for Colorado Republicans)
In Colorado, the state party organization is in a state of constant disarray, but they found the time to endorse a number of candidates in competitive GOP primaries tonight. Those candidates aren’t doing particularly well: in the 3rd District, former state Rep. Ron Hanks is losing handily to attorney Jeff Hurd; in the 5th District, state party chairman Dave Williams lost to radio host Jeff Crank, and in the 8th District, former state Rep. Janak Joshi lost in a landslide to state Rep. Gabe Evans.
While that’s a poor track record for the state party itself, it’s music to the ears of national Republicans who want to win House races. Hanks, Williams, and Joshi were poor fundraisers who had lots of baggage in their backgrounds and would have made holding onto even GOP-leaning seats more of a challenge. With all three losing tonight, national Republican groups can focus on the most competitive seat, the 8th District, and feel a lot better about the 3rd and 5th Districts.
—Jacob Rubashkin, Inside Elections
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
Lauren Boebert is risking it all in a new district
After coming within 600 votes of losing her seat in the 2022 midterm election and enduring an awful year in her personal life, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert has ditched her district to attempt to win over Republican voters on the other side of the state, in the 4th District. This seat, which was previously held by Republican Rep. Ken Buck — who resigned earlier this year after announcing his retirement last year — is more reliably red, having gone for Trump by a margin of 19 percentage points in 2020 (compared to an 8-point margin in the 3rd). So if Boebert can secure the GOP nomination, she'll all but guarantee herself a spot in the next Congress.
Standing in her way are some primary candidates with more local cachet, such as former state Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg and Deborah Flora, a former Miss Colorado and local talk radio host. However, Boebert has a major fundraising advantage (she's raised $3.7 million, compared to the next-highest raiser, Flora, who's raised less than half a million), as well as Trump's endorsement, and the sole poll we have for this race shows her up 35 percentage points. So she's definitely got a solid shot at the primary in her new district.
In addition to the race to fill this seat in the 119th Congress, there is a separate special election to see out Buck's term. Republicans are favored to win that race.
—Kaleigh Rogers, 538