Voters across Maryland and West Virginia made their choices in key primary elections Tuesday, with big implications in the fight for the Senate majority this fall.
At the same time, Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican rival Donald Trump hoped to project strength in low-stakes presidential primaries, while further down the ballot, two congressional candidates on opposite sides of the 2021 Capitol attack served as a stark reminder that the nation remains deeply divided over the deadly insurrection.
In all, three states held statewide primary elections on Tuesday — Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia — as Republicans and Democrats picked their nominees for a slate of fall elections. None are more consequential than Senate primaries in Maryland and West Virginia, where Republicans were eyeing pickup opportunities that could flip control of Congress' upper chamber for at least two years.
In Maryland, Republican former Gov. Larry Hogan was projected to win the state's GOP Senate primary, NBC News said Tuesday evening. The apparent win came despite Hogan's years-long criticism of Trump, whom Hogan describes as a threat to democracy. The former two-term governor would be the blue state's first Republican senator in more than four decades.
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On the Democratic side, Rep. David Trone has been locked in a contentious — and expensive — battle with Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. Their contest was still too close to call as of Tuesday at 9:30 p.m.
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Trone, the co-founder of the Total Wine & More national liquor store chain, put more than $61 million of his own money into the race. That's just shy of the national record for self-funding a Senate campaign, with much of it going to a months-long TV ad blitz. The three-term congressman says he’s better positioned to beat Hogan in November as a progressive Democrat not beholden to special interests.
Race has been an issue in the primary, with Alsobrooks working to become Maryland’s first Black U.S. senator. Trone apologized in March for what he said was the inadvertent use of a racial slur during a budget hearing.
Alsobrooks, who serves as chief executive of Maryland’s second-largest jurisdiction with the state’s largest number of registered Democrats, was endorsed by many of the state’s top officials, including Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Rep. Steny Hoyer and a long list of state lawmakers.
She campaigned on growing economic opportunity, investing in education and protecting abortion rights.
Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Republican Gov. Jim Justice will win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, NBC News is projecting.
The Republican Senate primary is likely to determine retiring Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's replacement, given the state's overwhelming Republican tilt. With Manchin gone, the seat is almost guaranteed to turn red come November.
The Trump-endorsed Justice, a former billionaire with a folksy personality that’s made him wildly popular in the state, was the front-runner against U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney and five other lesser-known Republicans. A former Democrat, Justice switched to the Republican Party in 2017. He announced the change at a Trump rally.
Mooney tried to win over conservatives by labeling Justice a “RINO” — which stands for “Republican in name only” — who would support Democratic policies. Justice did support Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, saying West Virginia couldn't afford to turn away the money offered in the bill. Mooney voted against it.
On the other side, Democrats were choosing between Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, who has Manchin’s endorsement, and Marine Corps veteran Zach Shrewsbury, who has support from the Progressive Democrats of America. Also in the Democratic primary: former Republican Don Blankenship, who was convicted of violating safety standards after 29 people died in a 2010 coal mine explosion.
West Virginia is also deciding its candidates for governor.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the Republican nominee in the 2018 Senate race against Manchin, was running for the Republican nomination. He went up against the sons of two members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation: car dealer Chris Miller, whose mother is Rep. Carol Miller, and former state Rep. Moore Capito, whose mother is Sen. Shelley Moore Capito. West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner was also in the GOP race.
On the Democratic side, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams ran unopposed.
There was far less drama in Tuesday's presidential primaries.
Before 9 p.m., NBC News was projecting both Biden and Trump to win their parties' nominations in Maryland and West Virginia. And even before Tuesday, both candidates had already amassed enough delegates to claim the presidential nominations at their respective national conventions this summer.
Yet voters on both sides had hoped to register a significant protest vote Tuesday to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the Biden-Trump rematch.
Maryland progressives especially unhappy with the Biden administration’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas are encouraging voters to select “uncommitted to any presidential candidate” instead of Biden. There was no "uncommitted" option in West Virginia or Nebraska.
Everett Bellamy, a Democrat who voted early in Annapolis, said he voted “uncommitted” instead of for Biden as a protest against the killing of women and children and noncombatants in Gaza.
“I’ve got to make a decision come November, but for now while the violence is raging in Gaza and people are being killed every day and starving to death, I wanted to send a message,” Bellamy, 74, said after leaving an early voting center. “Hopefully, I have a better choice come November.”
Meanwhile, Trump's Republican critics could not choose “uncommitted,” but they could choose his former GOP rival Nikki Haley, who appeared on the ballot in Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia despite formally suspending her campaign more than two months ago. Last week in Indiana, Haley earned nearly 22% of the Republican primary vote.
Trump has shrugged off his Republican critics, yet his weakness with the party's moderate wing could threaten him in the general election.
Tuesday's elections also included two candidates who were intimately involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In West Virginia, a former member of the House of Delegates, Derrick Evans, ran for the Republican nomination in the 1st Congressional District. The 39-year-old Trump loyalist served a three-month jail sentence after livestreaming himself participating in the storming of the U.S. Capitol. He calls himself the only elected official who “had the courage” to stand behind efforts to temporarily halt certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Evans was trying to oust incumbent Republican Rep. Carol Miller.
In Maryland, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn was among nearly two dozen Democrats running in the state's 3rd Congressional District. The 40-year-old Democrat was in the Capitol working to repel the violent mob on Jan. 6.
This story has deleted an incorrect reference to a California election being Tuesday. The California election is next week.
Willingham reported from Charleston, West Virginia. Peoples reported from Washington.
Follow the AP's coverage of the 2024 election online here.
