What to Watch in Primaries in Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia

Will Democrats in Maryland back a former Capitol Police officer? Can a moderate congressman fend off a conservative challenge in Nebraska? We look at the key races in Tuesday’s primaries.

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Gail Holm, 78, a campaign volunteer for Angela Alsobrooks, a Senate candidate, in Columbia, Md., last week.

Voters in Maryland, West Virginia and Nebraska go to the polls on Tuesday for primaries that will test the political resonance of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the hold on the Republican Party by former President Donald J. Trump and the power of money in the Democratic Party.

Here is what to watch:

Maryland’s unexpectedly important Senate choice

Deep blue Maryland was not on anyone’s list of hot contests when Senator Ben Cardin, a Democrat, announced he would retire at the end of his third term this January. Representative David Trone, the deep-pocketed owner of Total Wine & More, an alcohol retailer, was ready to spend big on securing the Democratic nomination, and that should have been enough to secure himself a seat in the Senate.

ImageRepresentative David Trone speaking at a campaign event last week in Cardin, Md.Credit…Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

Two things happened to upset that: Larry Hogan, a moderate and popular former Republican governor, decided to run for the Senate as an anti-Trump voice in the G.O.P., and Angela Alsobrooks, the executive of Prince George’s County, a diverse suburb of Washington, D.C., put together a potent campaign for the Democratic nomination.

Mr. Trone has already spent an astounding $54 million of his own money on the Democratic nomination, and some Democratic leaders still like the idea of a self-funding candidate to take on Mr. Hogan in November. But Ms. Alsobrooks, who would be the third Black woman elected to the Senate in history, has held her own in the polls and secured the backing of a majority of the state’s most prominent Democratic politicians. Maryland Democrats must make their choice between the man blanketing the airwaves and the woman who would make history.

‘Save democracy’ versus government experience

More than 20 Democrats are vying for Maryland’s heavily Democratic Third Congressional District, where Representative John Sarbanes, a Democratic stalwart from a Democratic dynasty, is retiring.

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