Maryland voters made history Tuesday, electing Angela Alsobrooks as the first Black woman to represent the state in the U.S. Senate.
She’s not the only woman joining Maryland’s formerly all-male Congressional delegation, with voters in Anne Arundel and Howard counties sending Sarah Elfreth to the U.S. House.
And in Baltimore, voters sent a ballot question to reduce the size of City Council to a surprising defeat.
Here’s four things we learned from election results so far.
Being popular doesn’t guarantee victory
When former Gov. Larry Hogan left office in 2023, he had approval ratings that regularly exceeded 60% – an impressive feat for a Republican in a state dominated by Democrats. But Hogan could not translate that personal appeal into a third statewide victory, losing handily to Democrat Angela Alsobrooks in the U.S. Senate race.
What was working against Hogan? For starters, he was on the ballot at the same time as presidential candidate Donald Trump, who remains deeply unpopular in Maryland. He also left voters confused about his position on abortion. And though he was the beneficiary of tens of millions’ of dollars of attack ads funded by a super PAC, the sheer number of them and the over-the-top nature — one had a rat scurrying across the screen while calling Alsobrooks a “slum lord” — may have turned off voters.
And Hogan was up against a formidable candidate in Alsobrooks, who leveraged a talented campaign team and a coordinated Democratic Party effort to turn out voters. And in the opposite case from Hogan, she was boosted with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.
Alsobrooks seemed to find one area of agreement with Hogan, who made much of his campaign about criticizing divisiveness in Washington.”As divided as we may feel in America,” Alsobrooks said, “We still believe there is no ‘us against them.’ There is only us.”
Baltimore ballot questions are not inevitable
The prominent Sinclair, Inc chairman and Baltimore Sun Media Group owner saw success in 2022 with the passage of a ballot initiative establishing a two-term limit for city government offices.
David Smith threw in more than $400,000 to fuel Question H, the 2024 ballot question asking voters if they were in favor of shrinking the size of the City Council from 14 members to 8. Baltimore leaders chose not to put forth a counter-measure on the ballot, gambling instead to fight Smith at the polls, despite knowing that ballot questions historically tend to pass.
But the results show voters rejected the Smith-backed proposal, especially those who voted early and on Election Day. Almost all voters Banner reporters spoke with on Tuesday at polling sites across Baltimore disapproved of the measure, some due to Smith’s affiliation with it and others who said it just didn’t seem right to them.
Whether it was Smith influence or voters’ own instincts, voters proved again for another time this cycle that they don’t want to feel a Baltimore County finger on the scale of their politics.
Few problems at the polls in Maryland
Voting in Maryland ran largely smoothly on Election Day, according to a top election official who briefed reporters in the afternoon.
”Civility has reigned supreme in Maryland so far,” said Maryland State Election Administrator Jared DeMarinis.
DeMarinis said that as of the briefing there had been no reports of voter or election judge intimidation. Apart from long lines in College Park, DeMarinis said nothing appeared to be amiss. Those long lines later delayed the release of election results. But that’s not necessarily a problem in the eyes of an election administrator who said it’s his mission to reach 100% voter participation.
While it is too early to say just how many people voted, DeMarinis said, “I think the enthusiasm level is very high among Marylanders for this election.”
Baltimore leaders are feeling chippy
Members of the council gathered at the victory party for Zeke Cohen, the Democratic nominee for City Council president, in Canton, and were celebrating a victory over Question H. While Mayor Brandon Scott has antagonized Smith directly for months, members on the City Council have tended to keep a lower profile, criticizing the policy while often shying away from attacks on its chief financier.
That changed Tuesday night, though, as council members freely touted that the result sent a clear message to Smith: don’t mess with Baltimore.
“You can buy a building. You can even buy a newspaper. But you can’t buy us,” Cohen said triumphantly in his victory speech. Had Question H passed, it would have thrown a major wrench into Cohen’s plans for a more unified City Council. Instead, members said Tuesday night, they now have the wind at their backs.
Baltimore’s political leadership, whether it’s Scott, Cohen or someone else, seems to have figured out how to fend off big Republican money in the city despite a shoestring budget, a relatively late start campaigning and a track record of near unanimous voter approval of ballot questions.
This is Smith’s second electoral loss this year — he also backed former-Mayor Sheila Dixon in the mayoral primary against Scott.
He just bought The Baltimore Sun in January, and he controls WBFF Fox45 Baltimore, making it unlikely he quits his influence campaign. But Scott, Cohen and company have made it clear they’re not scared to fight him. And now they’ve established they can win.
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