Morning Headlines
- It’s almost a week after Election Day in Maryland, and the majority of races are now decided. Ballot counting in Maryland is delayed because of new election laws regarding mail-in ballots. While the vast majority of early and election day in-person votes are counted by late Tuesday evening, election workers are not allowed to start counting mail-in ballots until the Thursday after Election Day. Although GOP Governor Larry Hogan allowed main-in ballots to be counted before Election Day so results could be released in a more timely manner in 2020, he did not extend this privilege through 2022. He vetoed a bill that would allow this (passed by the Democratic-controlled State Legislature) because it did not “address election security concerns” regarding mail-in voting.
- In the most high-profile race of the night, Trump endorsed Maryland GOP State Delegate Dan Cox comfortably defeated Hogan endorsed former Maryland Department of Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz. Given that Maryland is a very Democratic state (Biden won by 33% in 2020) and Hogan is the only Republican who has recently won an election statewide, many analysts felt that the more moderate Schulz could be a better fit for the voters in a general election. But Republican voters did not prioritize electability, meaning that Maryland will join Massachusetts as an easy flip for Democrats this November. Schulz only won one county (Howard) by more than 200 votes, losing all demographics of voters across the state. Far-right Republican Michael Peroutka also won his primary for Maryland Attorney General. Peroutka, a neo-confederate and Christian Nationalist, has been condemned by many Maryland Republicans and will struggle to win a state like in Maryland this November.
- On the Democratic side, businessman and author Wes Moore won his party’s nomination for Governor over progressive former Chair of the DNC Tom Perez and moderate Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot. Moore, who will become the first African-American Governor of Maryland if he is elected, dominated with African-American voters in Prince George’s County and within the Baltimore metropolitan area. Perez ran well in the affluent Northwest suburbs of Washington DC and Franchot won rural areas in Maryland, which tend to back Republicans. Moore will have an easy race, running against a Republican candidate who even GOP Governor Larry Hogan has dismissed as a “QAnon whack job.” In MD-04, moderate Glenn Ivey dominated progressive Donna Edwards in the heavily African-American district’s primary and will be a lock to win the general election in the deep blue district this November. Ivey’s win is another victory for AIPAC, a traditionally conservative pro-Israel group that has spent millions of dollars backing pro-Israel candidates in Democratic primaries this election cycle.
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