Election 2024: Hogan will face Alsobrooks, and other takeaways from Tuesday's primaries

The presidential primary may be decided, but election season marches on.

Voters in several states, including Maryland and West Virginia, chose nominees Tuesday in critical races that could decide the balance of power on Capitol Hill next year.

Here are some takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries:

HOGAN: GAME-CHANGER OR SACRIFICIAL LAMB?

Maryland’s former Republican governor, Larry Hogan, easily won his party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate seat opened by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin’s retirement. The Senate race in the solidly Democratic state would normally be a snoozer, but Hogan is a candidate unlike any other Republican.

Over his two terms as governor, Hogan won a significant number of Democratic votes and remained popular among a wide swath of the left-leaning state. He’s been a sharp Trump critic, which endears him to a segment of the Democratic electorate and can blunt attacks from the left. That’s why Senate Republicans wooed him relentlessly to run for the newly open seat, as part of their plan to flip control of the chamber from Democrats, who currently have a two-seat majority.