Voters in Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia head to the polls Tuesday in several competitive and contentious Democratic and Republican primaries. These primaries will, in some cases, be the start of important general election showdowns that will determine majorities in the House and Senate.
The most-watched May 14 primary will be Maryland, where Republicans hope to flip a long-held Democratic Senate seat in one of the nation’s healthiest states.
With at least six Republican candidates, popular former two-term governor Larry Hogan is considered the overwhelming front-runner for the Republican Senate nomination.
“We like Larry’s position,” Sen. Steve Daines (Montana), the Senate Republican campaign chairman, told Fox News Digital last week. “I know it’s going to be a tough race because Maryland is a blue state, but it’s first and foremost a Hogan state.”
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Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks to patrons at a pub in Frederick, Maryland, on April 6, 2024. (Fox News/Matthew Reddy)
Democrats had hoped to protect their fragile 51-49 Senate majority, but Mr. Hogan’s late entry into the Maryland Senate race in February led to unexpected surprises in the state, which had been considered a safe haven. It gave me a huge headache.
As Hogan advances towards the Republican nomination, the Democratic Senate primary race to replace long-retired Sen. Ben Cardin is in the spotlight. It’s a battle between big money and high-profile endorsements between the two leading candidates vying for 10 candidates, and it’s also a battle over whether electability outweighs diversity. .
Three-term Rep. David Trone, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, said in a commercial late in the election, “If Larry Hogan wins, we will lose more than a majority. We will lose women’s right to choose and society will lose their right to choose.” You could lose your coverage.” And with Trump knocking on the door, democracy itself will be lost. ”
The Senate candidate can be seen on camera shouting at reporters.
Trone, co-founder and co-owner of Total Wine and More, has poured more than $50 million of his own personal funds into his campaign.
“According to the polls, I’m the only candidate who can beat Larry Hogan, and I’m going to do everything in my power to do that. The stakes are too high,” he said in one of his final ads. .
Tron is significantly ahead of Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a Black woman who takes the helm of Maryland’s second most populous county outside Washington, D.C., but she also He also caused controversy due to some incorrect words.
Congressman David Trone (D-Md.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Allsbrooks has the support of much of the state’s Democratic establishment, including support from Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Chris Van Hollen and five members of the House.
In a recent ad, Allbrooks disputed Tron’s insinuations that he didn’t have enough experience to run the Senate, saying, “I’m going to work for you while my opponent focuses on the fight.” “I’ll concentrate,” he said.
On the eve of the primary, Hogan told Fox News’ Mark Meredith, citing Allsbrooks and Trone by name, “I don’t know who’s going to limp out of the primary. But we’re ready. “There is,” he said.
While the Democratic Party is in power, senate Republicans are currently predicting an advantage in this year’s election, with Democrats holding 23 of the 34 seats at stake.
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Three of those seats are in Ohio and Montana, red states won by former President Trump in 2020, and West Virginia, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is not running for re-election.
“The first state we know we’re going to win right now is West Virginia,” Daines said. “There’s one pick-up seat there.”
Term-limited Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is the favorite to win Tuesday’s Republican Senate primary.
Mr. Justice, a billionaire businessman who owns the state’s famous Greenbrier Resort and a Democrat who became a Republican seven years ago, is facing conservative U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney as his main competitor. He is part of a crowded field of Republican candidates.
Republican Congressman Alex Mooney (R-Va., left) and Republican West Virginia Governor Jim Justice (Getty | AP Photo/Chris Jackson)
The Republican candidate is considered the overwhelming favorite to flip the Democratic-held seat in November. Don Blankenship, the former coal company CEO who was convicted of conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards, is backed by Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, who has the backing of Manchin; Zach Shrewsberry, a Marine Corps veteran, is also running for office. progressive group.
Republicans aim to regain the Senate majority for the first time in four years, while Democrats aim to regain the House majority they narrowly lost in the 2022 midterm elections.
And one of the Republican seats they’re eyeing is Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which is anchored by Omaha and its surrounding suburbs.
Four-term Republican Rep. Don Bacon, a former Air Force brigadier general, is one of 16 Republicans to represent President Biden’s district in the 2020 election.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, via Getty Images/File)
He faces a challenge from the party’s right wing from Nebraska Republican-backed candidate Dan Frye. Mr. Frey’s primary victory will be seen as a political gift for Democrats as they aim to flip the district in November.
In a highly unusual turn of events, two Republican senators from Nebraska are running for office this year, and both face nomination opposition in Tuesday’s primary.
Sen. Deb Fischer is seeking her third six-year term in the Senate. Former Governor Pete Ricketts is running to finish out the remaining two-year term of former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, who will retire in 2023 to become University of Florida president.
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In West Virginia, judges are running for the U.S. Senate due to their term limits, and the Republican gubernatorial primary is attracting attention.
2018 Republican Senate candidate State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, former state Rep. Moore Capito (son of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and grandson of the late Gov. Arch Moore Jr.), and car dealer Chris Miller. (Congressman Carroll’s son) Miller) and West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner are among the candidates.
Huntington Mayor Steve Williams is not opposed to the Democratic nomination for governor.
President Biden and former President Trump (AP Photo/Alex Brandon | Curtis Means/DailyMail.com via AP/Pool)
All three states are scheduled to hold presidential primaries, and Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, who have long fielded Democratic and Republican candidates, respectively, are aiming to increase their delegate numbers.
But Tuesday’s primary could cause further headaches for both candidates, with more “irresponsible” votes in the Democratic primary protesting the president’s support for Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza. There is a possibility that it will increase. In the Republican race, Nikki Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina, is expected to continue to receive a small number of supporters. Haley was Trump’s last challenger for the Republican nomination before ending his bid for the White House more than two months ago.
Fox News’ Mark Meredith, Matthew Reidy, Jamie Vera, Deirdre Heavey and James Levinson contributed to this report.
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