The latest on the 2024 campaign and primary elections

One House Republican incumbent in Utah is projected to defeat his challenger who had bested him at a nominating convention earlier this spring.  

Party conventions tend to be dominated by party hard-liners while primaries attract a broader swath of the GOP electorate.  

Here’s a look at how the incumbent fared Tuesday: 

Utah’s 1st District 

Rep. Blake Moore, a member of House Republican leadership, will easily turn back a primary challenger in his northern Utah district, CNN projects.  

Moore, who serves as vice chair of the House GOP Conference, is projected to defeat electrician Paul Miller, who won his spot on the ballot by defeating Moore at a party nominating convention in April.  

Moore had already qualified for the ballot by turning in enough signatures.  

Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Temple University in Philadelphia on June 22.

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has been preparing for the upcoming CNN presidential debate “for my whole life.”

Trump said he has a great bench to choose his running mate from and said he’d be making a decision “fairly soon.” 

Trump again said he’d like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be on the debate stage but said he thought Kennedy “seems to be fading fast.”  

Westchester County Executive George Latimer told CNN’s Abby Phillip in an interview Tuesday night that he defeated Rep. Jamaal Bowman because his opponent was more concerned about his national profile and lost touch with his district. 

“I won because I worked hard and I have a record of delivering for the people who live in this area, in this community. I may not be a national figure in the years to come, I just want to be a good representative of this district and I think that’s what they voted for tonight,” he added.

Latimer was asked what his victory over a member of the House “squad” says about the power of the progressive left and New York politics.

Utah Rep. John Curtis will win the state’s Republican Senate primary, CNN projects, overcoming a challenger backed by Donald Trump in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Mitt Romney.  

Curtis, 64, is projected to win a four-way primary that included Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs, who had the backing of the former president and the state Republican Party. Curtis will be heavily favored in the November general election in the deep-red state that last elected a Democrat to the US Senate in 1970.  

Jamaal Bowman speaks during a primary election night watch party on Tuesday.

New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman thanked his supporters after losing the state’s 16th Congressional District primary to Westchester County Executive George Latimer on Tuesday evening. 

Bowman’s loss marks the first defeat for a member of the House “squad” of progressive lawmakers. He was first elected in 2020. 

Bowman said he will continue to fight “the evils of capitalism, militarism and racism.”

Bowman also thanked the power of the Muslim community Tuesday for helping with his campaign, “surrounding me this entire race, with protection, with love, with gratitude and they helped us raise more money than ever before.”

“We will continue to fight for a free Palestine,” Bowman added. “And god help us, god help us build a better world where everyone understands when we say free Palestine, it is not antisemitic.”

More context: The result in New York’s 16th Congressional District is also a victory for pro-Israel groups, which backed Latimer with historic levels of spending during the campaign. According to ad tracking firm AdImpact, the race was the most expensive House primary on record.

Bowman, 48, a former middle school principal in the Bronx, was first elected in 2020 after unseating longtime Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, a pro-Israel hawk, in the primary. That race, much like this one, centered on accusations that the incumbent had lost touch with the diverse, but heavily segregated district, which spans parts of Bronx and Westchester counties.

CNN’s Gregory Krieg contributed reporting to this post. 

Former President Donald Trump walks offstage after speaking at a campaign rally at the Liacouras Center on June 22 in Philadelphia.

Former President Donald Trump launched his bid to reclaim the White House in November 2022, aiming to become only the second commander in chief to win two nonconsecutive terms. Trump continues to deny the outcome of the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden and promotes baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud.

He was twice impeached by the US House of Representatives, including for his role in inciting the deadly January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol following his electoral defeat.

In May 2024, Trump was found guilty of all charges at his New York hush money criminal trial. He also faces charges in three other cases, including over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office.

Here are some more key facts about Trump:

Age: 77, born in Queens, New York

Party: Republican

Past experience: Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Before launching his successful 2016 presidential bid, Trump was a real estate developer, businessman and a reality television star as host of “The Apprentice.” He has five children and is married to Melania Trump.

Key campaign promises: If he wins another term, Trump has said he would overhaul key factions of the federal government and slash social safety net programs. He has also vowed retribution against his political opponents and has said he would appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Biden and his family.

See Trump’s campaign promises so far.

With Republicans clinging to a narrow majority in the US House, control of the chamber next year could come down to just a handful of races in November’s elections.  

Several of those races are taking place in New York – a decidedly Democratic state where Republicans flipped four House seats in the 2022 midterms, helping them secure their slim majority.  

Here’s a look at some of Tuesday’s primary results in New York that either Democrats or Republicans are targeting this fall: 

New York’s 22nd District: 

State Sen. John Mannion will win the Democratic nomination in New York’s 22nd Congressional District, CNN projects, setting up what is likely to be a closely watched fall battle with Republican incumbent Brandon Williams.  

The lines for the Central New York district became more favorable to Democrats following the adoption of a new congressional map earlier this year – Joe Biden would have carried it by 11 points in 2020. 

New York’s 1st District: 

Former CNN political analyst John Avlon will win the Democratic nomination, CNN projects, setting up a November contest with freshman GOP Rep. Nick LaLota.  

Avlon, a veteran pundit and columnist who previously ran The Daily Beast, benefited from nearly $1.7 million in outside spending — all of it delivered by the centrist Welcome PAC. His opponent, retired chemistry professor Nancy Goroff, was the losing nominee for the seat in 2020.  

LaLota was unopposed for the Republican nomination. Former GOP Rep. George Santos briefly joined the race to challenge LaLota, a harsh and frequent critic of the scandal-tarred ex-lawmaker.

Westchester County Executive George Latimer stressed the importance of inclusion and unity in a speech to his supporters Tuesday night, a short time after CNN projected he would win the fiercely contested Democratic primary against House “squad” member, Rep. Jamaal Bowman.

“We have tried to govern inclusively in this district, “ Latimer said, adding it’s a template he wants to bring to Washington, DC, if he wins in November.

“The only way this country rises is if we all rise, all of us, together,” he said.

Just two days away from CNN’s presidential debate, House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Tuesday night that former President Donald Trump is “in a great mood and a great place” and that he’s “looking forward to the vision that he’s going to cast for the country on Thursday night.” 

When asked whether he’s worried Republicans have set the bar low for Biden, Johnson noted that he didn’t have any “personal animus” towards the president and said, ”I’ve just acknowledged what everyone sees.” 

“We expect that he’ll do what he did at the State of the Union. He had a lot of energy that night. So that’s the Joe Biden I expect to see. The question is: can he stay for 90 minutes on that stage and go toe to toe with President Trump, who, you know, goes to rallies and talks for two hours on end without any break and any notes,” the Republican said.

Voting is wrapping up in Utah.

We are watching GOP primary challengers to 2nd district Rep. Celeste Maloy, who is seeking her first full term after winning a special election last year, and to Gov. Spencer Cox.

In the GOP Senate primary to replace retiring incumbent Mitt Romney, Trent Staggs will hope an endorsement from Donald Trump can help him upset Rep. John Curtis.

The battlefield for control of the US House is dotted with competitive districts across the country.  But the overwhelming majority of House seats lean decisively in one party’s favor and are not expected to be competitive in November.  

Several of them are open seats, with the incumbents either retiring or seeking higher office. One such race took place in Colorado’s 4th District, where the resignation of Rep. Ken Buck led to Rep. Lauren Boebert opting to succeed him in a seat that is more Republican than the one she currently represents. 

Here’s a look at the outcomes of other open races for safe seats that were on the ballot Tuesday: 

South Carolina’s 3rd District: Sheri Biggs, a nurse practitioner and lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, will win the Republican nomination, CNN projects, defeating an opponent who had the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.  

Biggs, who was backed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, moves on to the general election as the heavy favorite to succeed retiring Rep. Jeff Duncan in the deep-red seat. 

Biggs finished second to Trump-backed pastor Mark Burns in the first round of the primary two weeks ago. But the result triggered a runoff after neither candidate took more than 50% of the vote.

Colorado’s 5th District: Jeff Crank, a real estate investor and former talk radio host, will win the Republican nomination, CNN projects, defeating state GOP chair Dave Williams, who had the backing of Trump.   

Crank, who benefited heavily from outside spending, had the endorsement of House Speaker Mike Johnson and the outgoing 5th District congressman, Doug Lamborn, in his bid for the deep-red seat anchored in Colorado Springs.  

Since launching his campaign for Congress, Williams has faced calls to step down from his post as chairman of the Colorado GOP, including after the state party sent out emails and social media posts attacking Pride Month, Colorado Politics reported.  

Utah’s 3rd District 

State Sen. Mike Kennedy will win the Republican nomination, CNN projects, putting him on track to succeed GOP Rep. John Curtis next year.

Curtis is vacating the deep-red seat in Eastern Utah to run for Senate.

Kennedy, who is projected to win a five-way primary, had the endorsement of Utah’s senior senator, Mike Lee. He won his spot on the ballot by winning a party nominating convention in April. Kennedy ran for US Senate in 2018, when he defeated Mitt Romney at the state nominating convention before getting trounced in the Republican primary.   

With Republicans clinging to a narrow majority in the US House, control of the chamber next year could come down to just a handful of races in this November’s elections.  

One of them is the fight over a swing district in the Denver area that was decided by less than a point in 2022. Democrats are also targeting a seat in Colorado’s Western Slope, which the Republican incumbent Lauren Boebert is vacating in favor of a safer district in the eastern part of the state. 

Here’s a look at Tuesday’s primary results in the two districts: 

Colorado’s 8th District: State Rep. Gabe Evans will win the Republican nomination, CNN projects, setting up a fall battle against Democratic incumbent Yadira Caraveo.  

Evans had the backing of former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, and benefited from spending by Americans for Prosperity Action, the influential network associated with billionaire Charles Koch.  

Caraveo, a freshman lawmaker, was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.  

Colorado’s 3rd District: Grand Junction attorney Jeff Hurd will win the Republican nomination, CNN projects, in a blow to Democratic efforts to elevate a more conservative opponent in the primary.  

Hurd will next take on former Aspen City Council Member Adam Frisch in the race to succeed Boebert, who is running in the more conservative 4th District this year. Frisch, who was unopposed for the Democratic nomination, lost to Boebert in 2022 by less than 600 votes.  

Frisch and his Democratic allies ran ads tying former state Rep. Ron Hanks, who marched with protesters to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, to Trump. The ads were meant to boost Hanks, who was dwarfed by Hurd in fundraising and whom Democrats saw as a potentially weaker general election opponent. 

The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC that backs House Republicans, criticized Democrats for meddling and attacked Hanks, accusing him of abandoning Trump for saying the former president wasn’t his first choice in 2016. Hanks said that he ran for the state legislature as a “warrior” for Trump.  

President Joe Biden takes the stage at a campaign rally at Girard College on May 29, in Philadelphia.

President Joe Biden launched his reelection campaign in April 2023, describing the contest between him and former President Donald Trump as a stark choice for voters between the continuation of democracy in America and its possible destruction.

He is the oldest president to ever hold office and would be 86 at the end of a second term. He is married to Jill Biden and has two living children, Hunter and Ashley. His first wife and a daughter died in a car crash in 1972 and his son Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015.

Here are some more key facts about Biden:

Age: 81, born in Scranton, Pennsylvania

Party: Democrat

Past experience: Biden earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware and a law degree from Syracuse University. He had a brief career in law and local public office before being elected to the US Senate in 1972, a position he held until being sworn in as vice president under President Barack Obama in 2009.

Key campaign promises: Biden has pitched his second term as a continuation of his first - “let’s finish this job” was a common refrain in his reelection announcement and in subsequent speeches — and is vowing to defend rights such as abortion protections that some Republicans have threatened to erode. If reelected, Biden has said he would also protect America’s image on the world stage, preserve democracy at home and deliver on climate benchmarks.

See Biden’s campaign promises so far.

New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman will lose his Democratic primary to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, CNN projects, marking the first defeat for a member of the House “Squad” of progressive lawmakers.   

The result in New York’s 16th Congressional District is also a victory for pro-Israel groups, which backed Latimer with historic levels of spending during the campaign. According to ad tracking firm AdImpact, the race was the most expensive House primary on record.   

Bowman, 48, a former middle school principal in the Bronx, was first elected in 2020 after unseating longtime Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, a pro-Israel hawk, in the primary. That race, much like this one, centered on accusations that the incumbent had lost touch with the diverse, but heavily segregated district, which spans parts of Bronx and Westchester counties.  

Latimer, 70, a Democratic political fixture for decades, argued that Bowman’s vocal opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and his combative political style were out of step with the electorate, which includes a significant Jewish population in Westchester. 

The primary drew more ad spending than any other House race so far this cycle.  

Rep. Lauren Boebert will win the Republican primary in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, CNN projects, after fleeing a stiff challenge in the district she has represented for two terms. 

Boebert, a MAGA firebrand who barely won reelection to the 3rd District in Colorado’s Western Slope in 2022, announced in January that she would run for the open 4th District seat being vacated by Republican Ken Buck in the eastern part of the state.  

Buck, a fifth-term lawmaker and House Freedom Caucus member, resigned in March after lambasting his fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill for parroting former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread fraud in the 2020 election.  

His resignation triggered a special election to fill the remaining months of his term – though Boebert opted not to run in that election, which also took place Tuesday.

Republican Greg Lopez, the former mayor of Parker, will defeat Democrat Trisha Calvarese in the special election, CNN projects, and will serve through January. Lopez did not run in the regular primary, which drew six Republicans, including Boebert.  

New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman was not the only House incumbent facing a primary challenge Tuesday in a seat seen as safe for either party.  

Several of his Empire State colleagues, including fellow “squad” member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, drew primary opponents.  

Here’s a look at how these incumbents fared: 

New York’s 14th District: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will win the Democratic nomination, CNN projects, putting the popular progressive on track to win reelection in the deep-blue Bronx and Queens district.  

Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the so-called squad of House progressives, is projected to defeat retired Wall Street executive Marty Dolan, a moderate who campaigned heavily on immigration and crime in New York City. But unlike other challengers to squad members, Dolan drew little outside support and was dwarfed in fundraising by the congresswoman.  

Ocasio-Cortez entered the political stratosphere in 2018 when she stunned longtime Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary. Since then, she has leveraged her popularity with younger voters and on social media to advocate for progressive issues. 

New York’s 10th District: Rep. Dan Goldman will win the Democratic nomination, CNN projects, dispatching a pair of challengers in his bid for a second term. 

Goldman’s victory Tuesday is a decidedly easier one than his last primary win two years ago, when he scraped through a crowded Democratic contest for the newly drawn Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn district.  

Goldman, an heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune, first entered the national spotlight during Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial when he served as Democrats’ lead counsel.

New York’s 24th District 

Rep. Claudia Tenney will survive her Republican primary, CNN projects, defeating a challenger who argued she was too moderate for the district.  

Attorney and businessman Mario Fratto was challenging Tenney for her upstate New York seat for the second time after taking 40% against her in the 2022 primary.  

Tenney ran as a conservative and pointed to her endorsement from former President Donald Trump. She asked Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon Trump earlier this month, after the former president was found guilty of 34 felony counts for falsified business records in his hush money case. 

Tenney will be heavily favored to win a fourth nonconsecutive term in November in a district that Trump would have carried by 20 points in 2020.  

##Primaries## 

Polls in Colorado and New York are closing, marking the end of voting in today’s non-presidential primaries as well as a special election in Colorado’s 4th congressional district to fill the seat vacated by former GOP Rep. Ken Buck in March.

In New York: The headline race is in New York’s 16th district, where progressive Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman is facing a serious challenge from Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

This will be the first primary the state holds under its new congressional map, which was enacted in February and could give Democrats a modest advantage in a couple key House races this fall.The Empire State held its presidential primaries on April 2. Both primaries had already concluded by that point and Donald Trump and Joe Biden won the contests overwhelmingly. 

In Colorado: Buck’s resignation kicked off two separate elections: one to elect who will serve the rest of Buck’s term in Congress, and the other for the full next term. The Republican nominee in the special general election is Greg Lopez, a businessman and former mayor of Parker, Colorado. He is facing off against Trisha Calvarese, a former AFL- CIO speechwriter and political operative, who is also running for the full term. The 4th district, which covers the eastern portion of Colorado, is solidly Republican and is expected to remain the GOP column come November. Lopez isn’t running in the Republican primary for the next term. That’s where we see fierce competition.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, who won reelection in 2022 by 546 votes in the 3rd district, was facing another close race. After Buck announced that he would resign, Boebert decided to pack up and run in the 4th district, which is much friendlier territory for Republicans. The controversial conservative is the highest profile candidate in the race to replace Buck, but she has had to weather allegations of carpetbagging from her opponents. However, she did secure the top ballot line in the GOP nominating convention with 41% of the vote and has Donald Trump’s endorsement. 

The state held its presidential primaries on Super Tuesday. President Joe Biden won about 83% of the Democratic vote, while former president Donald Trump won about 64% on the Republican side. 

Just two days away from facing off against Donald Trump at Thursday night’s presidential debate, President Joe Biden is trying to be prepared on every front — including knowing exactly what he will see once he takes the podium inside CNN’s Atlanta studio. 

Biden watched a video that was taken by a staff member during a walkthrough of the studio, which allowed him to see the view from his position behind the podium, one senior adviser involved in debate prep tells CNN. 

After winning a coin flip, the Biden campaign chose to select the right podium position, which means the president will be on the right side of the television screen for viewers; Trump will be on the left side.

As CNN reported earlier, formal mock debates also began yesterday at Camp David for the Biden team, with the goal of giving Biden the full experience of facing off against Trump on Thursday night.

There were some developments in two of Donald Trump’s four federal cases this week.

Here’s the latest:

Hush money case: The judge in the hush money trial has lifted portions of the gag order restricting what the former president can say about witnesses in the trial, such as Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, two days before Trump will square off against President Joe Biden at the CNN presidential debate.

Trump, however, cannot discuss any prosecutor, court staffer or their family members, according to a court order on Tuesday from Judge Juan Merchan that rolls back parts of the gag order imposed before the trial began. That aspect of the gag order remains in effect at least until his sentencing on July 11. The new order also lifts the bar on public statements about jurors but notes disclosure of any personally identifying information of any juror is still prohibited.

At Thursday’s debate, where Trump’s conviction is sure to be raised, the former president will now be able to discuss the witnesses who testified against him as well as the makeup of the Democratic-leaning jury pool in Manhattan.

Trump said it’s “unfair” that he’s still under a gag order. “The whole thing is ridiculous. And now they lift just a piece of the gag order, not all of it. No, the gag order has to be lifted in its entirety,” Trump said on Newsmax

Mar-a-Lago documents case: Federal Judge Aileen Cannon said Tuesday she had “a hard time seeing” any problems with the warrant the FBI obtained to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in the summer of 2022.

Trump’s attorney Emil Bove argued the warrant was overly broad and unjustly allowed agents to search the entire Mar-a-Lago premises. Cannon, however, said the language in the warrant, which a magistrate judge signed off on, seems to have been sufficient.

Trump and his co-defendants, personal aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, are facing charges of mishandling sensitive or classified materials and of obstruction in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. All three have pleaded not guilty.

The post was updated with Trump’s reaction to the gag order.

CNN’s Holmes Lybrand, Katelyn Polantz, Denise Royal, Hannah Rabinowitz, Lauren del Valle and Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman watches Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speak during a Get Out the Vote campaign event at Hartley Park on June 24, in Mount Vernon, New York.

The bid to unseat Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York’s 16th District is one of the most expensive races on record, according to an updated spending numbers from ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Polls are set to close in the state at 9 p.m. ET.

The race has drawn a total of more than $25 million in ad spending as of Tuesday morning, driven primarily by a super PAC aligned with the American Israel Public Affairs committee that is aiming to unseat incumbent Bowman and boost his challenger, Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

The super PAC, United Democracy Project, has blitzed the race with nearly $15 million worth of ad spending — more than half the total spent on ads in the race, and more than the super PAC has spent on any other race so far this cycle.

And the competitive primary has exposed deep fissures in the Democratic party, highlighting divisions between establishment and progressive wings on a range of issues, including the ongoing war in Gaza.

Bowman, a member of the progressive “Squad” of House Democrats, has been an outspoken critic of Israel and sought to push the Biden administration left on key legislative efforts. That friction has been the impetus behind a wave of attack ads from United Democracy Project.

The high-profile race has also drawn millions in ad spending from several other outside groups and both candidates, and flooded New York airwaves with waves of sharp attack ads.