By Sophie Foster
News Co-Editor
Major political shifts transpired nationwide on Tuesday, Nov. 8 as this 2022 term’s gubernatorial election results were tallied and made public, including the results of several contentious battles for office in Maryland and the Eastern Shore.
Montgomery County, Md. native and Baltimore resident Democrat Wes Moore secured a place in national headlines when he made Maryland history as the first Black person elected governor of the state. Author of journalistic memoir The Other Wes Moore, Moore ran a campaign on premises of “equal opportunity,” according to his campaign website, wesmoore.com.
Moore and running mate Democrat Aruna Miller won with 62.2 percent of the ballots cast in their favor, almost doubling the percentage of votes cast for opponent Republican Dan Cox and his running mate Gordana Schifanelli, who garnered 34.7 percent of the state’s votes. Moore earned over one million votes, juxtaposed by Cox’s nearly 600,000.
Other significant poll results in Maryland include the election of Democrat Comptroller-Elect Brooke Elizabeth Lierman, Democrat Attorney General-Elect Anthony J. Brown, and incumbent Democrat Senator-Elect Chris Van Hollen. Lierman and Brown will become the first female Comptroller and first Black Attorney General of Maryland, respectively.
In the first congressional district, encompassing the entirety of the Eastern Shore, including Kent County, Md., election patterns erred contrastingly in favor of Republican candidates.
Incumbent Republican Andy Harris was elected to represent the first district of Maryland in the House of Representatives over Democrat Heather Mizeur with a difference of around 40,000 votes.
Mizeur, who visited Washington College on Feb. 22 and again on Oct. 26, ran a campaign against the seated Harris, but did earn the majority of votes from Kent County, Md., where she was ultimately up by 11 points over Harris, according to the New York Times.
Harris formerly served as a physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a medical officer in the Naval Reserve, and a state senator, according to his website, harris.house.gov.
The sole Republican elected to represent Maryland in the House of Representatives, Harris ran a reelection campaign centered around agricultural protections, military bolstering, private sector economic development, decentering the federal government in local education, Chesapeake Bay preservation, heightened healthcare accessibility, and the prevention of illegal immigration.
In Maryland’s District 36, encompassing Kent, Caroline, Cecil, and Queen Anne’s Counties, Republican Stephen S. Hershey, Jr. ran unopposed and was elected as state senator.
Republican Jay A. Jacobs of Kent County, Md. was elected alongside Republicans Steve Arentz and Jeff Ghrist to the House of Delegates.
The Kent County Commissioners will be Republicans John F. Price, Ron Fithian, and Albert Nickerson.
Stuart R. Berger and Terrence M.R. Zic will retain their offices as judges of the Court of Special Appeals at Large.
The State’s Attorney will be the unopposed Democrat Bryan DiGregory, the Clerk of the Circuit Court will be Democrat Sherise L. Kennard, and the Register of Wills will be Democrat Kristi Osborn. Unopposed Republican Dennis W. Hickman, Jr. was elected Sheriff.
In a close race, the judges of the Orphans’ Court will be Republican Elizabeth Carroll and Democrats Elroy G. Boyer, Jr. and Allan W. Schauber.
The new members of the Board of Education are still being determined due to the tightness of the race; presently, Trish McGee, Frank B. Rhodes, and Aretha L. Dorsey have the largest number of votes cast in their favor, though the margins are slim.
The state also voted on several consequential ballot measures, leading to the renaming of the state’s appeals courts, the reframing of rules for running for legislature, the allowance for limitations of the right to jury trials in some civil cases, and the legalization of recreational marijuana, among others.
Full coverage of the Maryland elections, including information from other counties, can be found at elections.maryland.gov.
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Photo Caption: Outgoing Governor Larry Hogan (left) met with Governor-Elect Wes Moore (right) following Moore’s election to discuss the transitioning of the administrations.