Tue. Nov 26th, 2024

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, left, the Democratic Senate nominee, with Vice President Kamala Harris during a June visit to Maryland. Harris’ coattails were expected to help Alsobrooks campaign. Photo by William J. Ford.

The biggest question of the presidential race in Maryland may have been solved this summer, when President Joe Biden bowed out and Vice President Kamala Harris quickly consolidated support to replace him as the Democratic nominee. After that, it was all over but the counting.

With just under half of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Harris was on her way to an easy victory over former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee. Harris had 971,923 votes to Trump’s 422,080, with the top three other candidates accounting for just over 35,000 of the almost 1.5 million votes tallied by 10 p.m.

But Maryland accounts for just 10 of the 270 Electoral College votes that Trump or Harris will need to win and counting in other states, particularly crucial battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, is expected to take days. And could be challenged after that.

Harris’ victory in Maryland is hardly a surprise. The state last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1988, when then-Vice President George H.W. Bush was the party’s nominee and eventual winner of the White House. Democrats have cleared 60% of the vote in Maryland in every presidential election here dating back to 2008.

Biden defeated Trump 65% to 32% four years ago. Harris was holding the same margin in early returns Tuesday.

The reliability of the Democratic vote in Maryland has made the state an afterthought in recent presidential campaigns, and 2024 was no different. While Trump and Harris, their running mates and their proxies all but inhabited the battleground states, spending the past weekend campaigning in Pennsylvania, Michigan and other swing states, Maryland became the political version of fly-over country. Prominent Democrats from Maryland were more likely to go to other states to campaign for Harris than have a candidate come here.

Biden managed to carry 10 of the state’s 24 jurisdictions in 2020. But Democratic presidential nominees have traditionally won in Maryland by racking up big vote totals in the central part of the state, from Baltimore City along the Interstate 95 corridor down to Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.

That was the case Tuesday, where early returns showed Harris dominating in the big Central Maryland counties, while most rural counties were going for Trump.

While the presidential result was never in doubt in Maryland, Democrats were hoping Harris’ strength here would benefit Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D), a friend and protégé of the vice president’s who is running for Senate. Alsobrooks made their relationship a key selling point in her bid for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, where she faced an unexpectedly tough challenge from former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican with high approval ratings going into the race, who twice won statewide in the Democratic state.

Democrats were also hoping that Harris’ coattails would boost former U.S. Commerce Department official April McClain Delaney, the Democratic nominee for the 6th District in the House. The Western Maryland district is the most competitive in the state, and Delaney was running against a Republican, former Del. Neil C. Parrott, who came into the race with high name recognition, as he was also the GOP nominee in each of the past two races.

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