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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Initial results in Maryland's 3rd District

With 27 percent of the expected vote reporting in the Democratic primary for Maryland's 3rd District, Elfreth leads Dunn 37 percent to 28 percent. Meanwhile, Lam has 10 percent. Morse, the Sanders-endorsed candidate I just mentioned, is much further back with just 1 percent.

—Meredith Conroy, 538 contributor


Moore leading in West Virginia's 2nd

As I wrote earlier, West Virginia voters have a slew of anti-abortion candidates to choose from. Justice represents the first winner on that list. Miller and Evans in the 1st District are both on our list, and several candidates in the 2nd District also qualify as anti-abortion candidates by our definition.

With the first batch of about 12 percent of the votes in, incumbent Miller is comfortably leading her challenger, Evans, in West Virginia's 1st congressional district. The current leader in the 2nd District is Moore, with 48 percent of the vote share (27 points ahead of his closest rival) and 21 percent of the expected vote reporting. Three candidates for West Virginia governor are also anti-abortion, including the current leader, Morrisey.

—Monica Potts, 538


West Virginia polls seem to have been ... mostly ... on target

So far, it looks like the polls in West Virginia's GOP Senate and gubernatorial primaries did a pretty solid job, even with the four-way pileup for governor.

However, there is one race looks to be a bit of a polling miss in the state: the GOP primary for attorney general. So far, with about 20 percent of the expected vote reporting, state Auditor John McCuskey leads state Senator Mike Stuart by 22 points, a far cry from the 1-point race we saw in recent preelection polling from Research America/WV Metro News. McCuskey significantly outspent Stuart throughout the race, and it looks like that investment might be paying off.

—Mary Radcliffe, 538


Blankenship bears a striking resemblance to another oddball figure in politics

Every time I see a picture of him, I have to remind myself he's not Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy. They have an uncanny resemblance.

—Mary Radcliffe, 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