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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Latimer continues to lead as more votes report in NY-16

The AP now estimates that 48 percent of the expected vote has reported in the Democratic primary for New York's 16th District, and Latimer holds a 10-point lead over Bowman, 55 percent to 45 percent. Latimer is winning 63 percent of the vote in Westchester County, which he leads as county executive, and which will cast the vast majority of votes in this seat. A projection may not be far away here.

—Geoffrey Skelley, 538


VIEW PAC candidate loses in Colorado

With Boebert's win, the VIEW PAC endorsed candidate, Flora, is out. As I mentioned earlier on the blog, this race was interesting to me because it pitted two GOP women's groups against each other. VIEW PAC endorsed Flora, while Maggie's List endorsed Boebert. VIEW PAC has a history of being anti-Freedom Caucus, so it wasn't surprising they didn't back Boebert, but it was somewhat surprising they endorsed in the race at all. Of course, as the saying goes, women (even within the same party) are not a monolith!

—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor


Republicans pick Trump-endorsed Gabe Evans in ultra-competitive CO-08

According to the Associated Press, businessman and state Rep. Gabe Evans has won the Republican Primary for Colorado's 8th Congressional District. With 64 percent of the vote reporting, he currently has a 78 percent to 22 percent lead over his opponent, Janak Joshi, a physician and former state representative.

Evans will face off against incumbent Democratic Rep. Yadira Caraveo, who won the district by 1,600 votes in 2022. It is the most competitive seat in Colorado according to the Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index.

—G. Elliott Morris, 538


Boebert is projected to win Colorado's 4th

The AP projects that Lauren Boebert will win the GOP nomination in Colorado's 4th District. With 66 percent of the expected votes in and Boebert at a sizable lead above her next closest competitor, Deb Flora, it's (as my dad would say) all over but the crying. Boebert had a big fundraising advantage, Trump's endorsement, and obviously has a ton of name recognition, but after the headlines of the last year, that didn't necessarily equate with a guaranteed win. She had her work cut out for her in this new district, according to her campaign, where voters were skeptical of her reputation. But she reportedly put in the work, trekking all across this district over the last few months. A spokesperson for her campaign told me last month that on Easter weekend alone, she drove the district end-to-end for multiple campaign stops, totaling about 1,000 miles. Whatever combination of hard work, notoriety and deep pockets seems to have worked, and now she can all but cruise into the seat in November in this deep red district.

—Kaleigh Rogers, 538


Women we're watching tonight

According to our analysis of primaries this cycle through May 21, 41 percent of Democrats' nominees for House, Senate and governor are women, compared with just 16 percent of Republicans' nominees. It wasn't until June 11 that Republicans nominated a nonincumbent woman in a seat they're strongly favored to win in November: Julie Fedorchak in North Dakota's at-large district. But today's races present a couple more opportunities for Republican women to make gains.

One race I'll be watching is the runoff between Biggs and Burns in South Carolina's 3rd. Biggs has been endorsed by VIEW PAC, one of the organizations trying to elect more Republican women, but Trump endorsed Burns. This will be a safe Republican race in November, so a Biggs win would likely add a woman to the Republican conference.

In Utah, incumbent Rep. Celeste Maloy faces a serious challenger, even though she has an endorsement from Trump. Her challenger has been endorsed by Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Tommy Tuberville and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramawamy and is painting Maloy as too "D.C."

In Colorado, there are only two Republican women running today, and they are facing off against each other in the 4th Congressional District. Flora has been endorsed by VIEW PAC, but Boebert has the support of Maggie's List, which is another of the GOP groups dedicated to electing more women. This is the second time we've seen two GOP women's groups endorse against each other in primaries thus far. Last week, in South Carolina's 1st, Rep. Nancy Mace was endorsed by VIEW PAC, while Winning for Women supported her challenger, Catherine Templeton. Mace prevailed*.

While Mace and Boebert both had backing from Trump, Boebert is a member of the Freedom Caucus, while Mace is not, which could explain why VIEW PAC backed Mace but not Boebert. In 2022, VIEW PAC endorsed a challenge to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in her primary, another female member of the Freedom Caucus.

In Democratic primaries today, EMILYs List, the prominent political action committee formed to elect pro-choice Democratic women, has endorsed just two nonincumbents, both in New York: Goroff in the 1st and Laura Gillen in the 4th. Gillen, a lawyer and former Hempstead Town Supervisor, is unopposed in the primary, and she stands a decent chance of defeating incumbent Republican Rep. Anthony D'Esposito in November.

I'll keep you updated on these candidates and more throughout the night.

Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor