Maryland election results found Democrats making a clean sweep of statewide offices on the 2022 ballot. Wes Moore will be the first African-American governor of the state, as he and running mate Aruna Miller currently lead the Republican ticket of Dan Cox and Gordana Schifanelli 59.62% to 36.98%. With a stronger resume than Barack Obama had when he rose to national prominence, Moore is likely to figure into Democratic presidential discussions sooner rather than later.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) was quick to congratulate Moore on his victory, but has not yet said whether he voted for the Democrat. Hogan was out of the state pursuing his presidential ambitions in the final days before the July 2022 GOP primary, rather than stumping for his handpicked successor, Kelly Schulz. When Schulz lost to Cox, Hogan enraged many Republicans by declaring he would not support Cox in the November election. With the popular governor witholding his coattails, limited funds and Moore agreeing to only one televised debate, Cox faced an uphill battle to expand his base.
Cox's Trump endorsement didn't pay dividends in the general election, either, in a state where Trump is beloved by Republicans, but not so much by independents. His loss is likely to strengthen the hand of the Republican establishment in the 2026 gubernatorial race. Pat Sajak and Cal Ripken, Jr. remain dream candidates for the GOP. Closer to earth, Maryland State Senator Michael Hough - currently leading in the race for Frederick County Executive - is highly regarded by members of both parties in Annapolis, and has been mentioned as a likely statewide candidate in the future. Other names are sure to emerge from the party's county-level officials and activists around the state in the coming months.
It's also worth noting that no gubernatorial ticket since 1998 has won without an African-American on it. Republican Bob Ehrlich won with Michael Steele as his running mate in 2002, but later lost twice with white women running to be his lieutenant. Hogan won twice with Boyd Rutherford on his ticket. Note to future Republican candidates: black voters account for 32% of the Maryland electorate.
The Maryland comptroller race wasn't as close as some thought it would be. Democrat Brooke Lierman easily defeated Harford County Executive Barry Glassman to replace outgoing taxman Peter Franchot. Lierman, a state delegate, said she received a "gracious" concession call from Glassman shortly before midnight Tuesday.
Democrat Anthony Brown, who was upset in the governor's race by Hogan eight years ago, had a much better election night in 2022. The congressman defeated Republican Michael Peroutka by what current results show is a 20-point margin. Peroutka did beat Brown in 18 of the state's counties, however.
U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D) handily beat Republican challenger Chris Chaffee. The Democrat recently suffered a stroke, but appeared to have fully recovered well before Election Day. Many Republicans had hoped Hogan would run for the Senate, but the governor is focused on a 2024 presidential run.
The election results were not all bad news for Republicans.
Republicans may pick up an additional seat in Congress from Maryland. GOP nominee Neil Parrott is ahead of Democratic incumbent David Trone as of this hour by 51.07% to 48.81%. The 6th congressional district became more favorable to Republicans in the most recent redistricting, but is not as GOP-friendly as it was when Roscoe Bartlett was the last Republican to hold it. If Parrott holds on to win, he would join Dr. Andy Harris (R - 1st District) in the Maryland delegation.
Nicolee Ambrose nearly pulled off a GOP victory in the District 2 congressional race. She currently trails Democratic incumbent C. Dutch Ruppersberger 46.40% to 53.47%. Republicans had hopes of defeating Democrat John Sarbanes in District 3, which was nationally recognized as one of the most egregiously-gerrymandered districts in America. Sarbanes appears to have decisively won reelection, leading GOP challenger Yuripzy Morgan 54.98% to 44.92%. Morgan ran an energetic campaign, but the district remains gerrymandered despite its more-reasonable appearance on the redrawn congressional map.
On key statewide ballot questions, Marylanders voted to rename the Maryland Court of Special Appeals as the Maryland Supreme Court, and to legalize marijuana for recreational use by adults.
Looks like Trone won by 40 points?
ReplyDeleteParrott/Trone is decently close, but Parrott seems on track to lose. 43K mail-in ballots have been received in the 6th so far (mail-in ballots are accepted up until the 18th so long as they are postmarked on or before election day). Only 12K of those have been processed so far and they broke 3:1 for Trone. Parrott's 4K lead is likely to evaporate by the time mail-in canvassing resumes on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteElrich beat Blair in the Dem. Primary by 32 votes, which means a huge number of people didn't want Elrich in office again.
ReplyDeleteElrich then beat Sullivan (R), 71% to 28%, in the General.
Incredible that the people of MoCo wanted another four years of Elrich given his record.
4:52: Are you looking at just the Montgomery County part of the 6th? Parrott is still leading as of the last count for the entire district.
ReplyDeleteThat must be what happened
Delete6:40
ReplyDeleteYep the New York Times estimator which is amazingly accurate (and has the GA and NV senate races as Tossups) has estimated that Trone will win. What's more not only are the rest of the ballots mail-in ballots but the vast majority are from Frederick and Montgomery County's. The vote in Frederick County has been split relatively evenly, while Montgomery County has unsurprisingly heavily favored Trone.
Nationally, Trump-backed candidates and election deniers did poorly. I agree that Wes Moore looks like a potential presidential candidate somewhere down the line.
ReplyDeleteHow bad is the Republican Party's reputation in Montgomery County?
ReplyDeleteSo bad that Republican County Executive candidate Reardon Sullivan didn't even mention the party on his signs, which were all in Democratic blue.
The former president's backed candidates have mostly lost their races, making their supporter the BIGGEST LOSER, and a future albatross. Bye, bye big red wave, so much for that dominant takeover.
ReplyDeleteGovernor Moore has a nice ring to it. In addition, Governor Hogan called and congratulated the Governor-elect on his victory. YEAH DEMS!
ReplyDeleteCinco, Wes Moore will begin his presidential run very soon. Obama set the trend for that and he'll follow right along.
ReplyDelete7:58
ReplyDeleteThe right-wingers are already starting to bail on Trump and embrace DeSantis lol. Many have outright said that Trump is done.....especially after Trump insulted DeSantis twice this week since he correctly views DeSantis as a clear threat to supplant him.
Almost without fail when you look at votes across multiple states, a ton of voters had no problem voting a split ticket when one of the options was a religious nut-case, election denier with almost no understanding of how the world works and actually no plan to fix the problems they claimed to fix.
ReplyDeleteCox and Mastriano (PA) were disaster candidates. Oz lost, but at least he did not come across as a total nut job which is why he performed significantly better. In Michigan and Wisconsin, all the crazies lost, when if the republicans had run sane candidates they likely would have won easily.
Oregon is a great example where the Republicans may pull it out...and guess what, she is actually a reasonable person, not a complete nut job.
Here's hoping Trump's indicted this week, but can still pull the strings from prison to organize yet another failed election slate in '24. Maybe Republicans can nominate Kid Rock and Mike Tyson for senate next time.
ReplyDelete10:04 - People of faith are crazies. How nice. How about Michigan? The crazies lost? No, many of them won. Governor Whitmer, who may actually be insane, was reelected without that much trouble over a younger, more attractive and sensible candidate, Tudor Dixon. Michigan is a train wreck under Whitmer.There are others who are really nuts, like Jennifer Weston in Nova so not sure what you're talking about.
ReplyDeleteJAC @ 10:04:
ReplyDeleteYou vote based on who is "more attractive"?
5:14 - I don't live in Michigan.
ReplyDelete10:04: How is Cox a religous nutcase? People who actually believe in their religion versus
ReplyDeletebeing posers are "nutcases"? Are observant muslims and Jews nutcases or only CHristians?
Learning
@10:04AM
ReplyDeleteHe is a Christian Nationalist. Don't play coy and try to say otherwise. Are Muslims who want Sharia law for everyone in their country nutcases...uh yes. Are Orthodox Jews who refuse to educate their children in even the basics of reading or writing such that they cannot survive in the real world (see the NY Times articles on these schools) nutcases...uh yes.
Are Christians, Muslims and Jews that want to celebrate their religion, while at the same time appreciating that there are many people that don't believe what they do nutcases...uh no.
Of course, you don't dispute the fact that Cox and Mastriano were completely and utterly spanked. Go ahead, nominate someone like those two again.
@3:34 Let's put it this way, Gov. Hogan described his own parties candidate as "a “QAnon whack job,” described the GOP nominee as “a nut” during a recent radio interview and reiterated his prediction that Cox has “no chance whatsoever” of being elected as Maryland’s governor in November." Is that better for you.
ReplyDelete7:22 an 3:42
ReplyDeleteGOPe can't defend the woman's bathroom or prisons from pretenders or the library form child predators. It serves Wall Street not main street. GOPe has never seen a war it doesn't like. GOPe It is useless,
Limited government
Natural law
genuine debate
More power at the local level
Not of this is imposing a religion. But GOP e wants to impose it's religion of perpetual debt slavery and capital concentration.
I don't know any Christians who want to impose Christianity on other people. A lot of us are saying that enabling people to kill children in the womb cheapens human life everywhere.
Learning