Maryland, West Virginia and Nebraska primaries 2024: Alsobrooks beats Trone, GOP incumbents survive

538 tracked over 10 competitive primaries for Senate, House and governor.

Tuesday, May 14 was another busy primary day, as voters in three states decided who would be on their general election ballots this fall. In Maryland, Democrats nominated women in two safely Democratic congressional seats, including Angela Alsobrooks, who is poised to become only the third Black woman ever elected to the Senate. In West Virginia and Nebraska, incumbent Republican representatives fended off far-right challengers.

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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Final thought: A good night for Democratic women

Although the table here suggests a lot of Democratic women lost tonight, that's because a lot of Democratic women ran. But Democrats nominated women in a number of places that will be competitive or safe in November, like Maryland's Senate race, and in Maryland's 3rd and 6th Districts. As I mentioned earlier on the blog, as of May 8, 41 percent of Democratic nominees are women, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. Tonight will likely boost that number.

—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor


Final thought: Trone didn't break the self-funding record for a Senate race

Trone ended up spending just about $62 million out of his own pocket in Maryland's Democratic primary for Senate, but it wasn't enough for him to defeat Alsobrooks. It also left Trone just short of the all-time record for self-funding in a Senate race. In 2018, now-Sen. Rick Scott spent more than $63 million of his personal wealth on his successful campaign. (He's up for reelection this year.) But to put that in perspective, Scott spent that amount over the course of the whole cycle, whereas Trone shelled out nearly the same total for just the primary!

—Geoffrey Skelley, 538


Final thought: Incumbents are powerful

My main final thought for the night is that we've seen once again how powerful incumbency can be. Incumbents won against far-right challengers in primaries throughout the states. In the race I was watching, West Virginia's 1st, there was very little daylight between the two Republican candidates, Miller and Evans. Both were extremely loyal to Trump and the MAGA agenda, but Evans's candidacy largely hinged on him being more loyal to Trump than his opponent because he actually protested on Jan. 6, while Miller had avoided angering the base by voting against certifying the election. As we race toward an election that appears to be a 2020 rematch, the same 2020 spirit pervades many downballot races as well.

—Monica Potts, 538


Final thoughts from a busy night?

All the races we were tracking tonight have now been projected! What are everyone’s takeaways from the night’s results?

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538


Welcome!

Welcome to 538’s live blog of the May 14 primaries in Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia! But this is no ordinary live blog. Today, my friends, is arguably the most interesting downballot primary day of the cycle.

The headliner today is the Democratic primary for Maryland’s open Senate seat. The Old Line State could become only the third state to elect a Black female senator, but a wealthy white congressman has spent nearly $62 million (!) to make sure that doesn’t happen. Some have argued that this should-be-safely-Democratic seat could be competitive in the fall if Democrats nominate the wrong candidate, but is that really true? We’ll discuss.

Elsewhere, Republicans could cripple their chances of winning Nebraska’s swingy 2nd District in November if they nominate a far-right primary challenger over a moderate incumbent. Meanwhile, we have one race tonight where someone who spent three months in jail for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 could return there as a U.S. representative, and another that includes a former Capitol Police officer who was there that day.

And that’s just scratching the surface; we’ll be going deep on primary races up and down the ballot. The polls close in West Virginia at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, in Maryland at 8 p.m. Eastern and in Nebraska at 9 p.m. Eastern. Plan your evening accordingly!

—Nathaniel Rakich, 538