This story, originally published at 10:38 p.m. Nov. 5, 2024, was updated at 11:52 a.m. Nove,. 6, 2024 to include the latest results.
While Republican Donald Trump has been declared the winner of the 2024 presidential race, solidly blue Maryland voted in favor of the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the state, Harris won nearly 60% of the vote –a showing comparable to what the Democratic presidential nominees captured against former President Donald Trump in Maryland during the last two campaigns. Trump captured 37% this time around.
In predominantly Democratic Montgomery County, Harris won 73%, outdistancing Trump by more than 3-1. Trump garnered about 23% of the vote.
Maryland, with a Democratic registration edge that currently stands at 2-1, has long been a reliably blue state in presidential elections.
Over the past half-century, Republican presidential candidates have won only twice in 13 presidential elections starting in 1976 and including Tuesday’s vote. The last time the state voted for a Republican for president was in 1988, when George H.W. Bush captured a narrow majority –51%–of Maryland’s vote on his way to the White House.
In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden took a near-record 65.36% of the Maryland vote in denying re-election to Trump, who received just 32.2% of the votes in the state. Biden’s margin was just short of the 65.47% of the state electorate that Democratic incumbent Lyndon Johnson won in 1964 in a nationwide landslide victory over the Republican nominee, Barry Goldwater.
Trump didn’t fare much better in 2016, when he first won the presidency by defeating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton nationally. But in Maryland, he lost to Clinton by 60.3% to 33.9%.
How Montgomery County has voted
In overwhelmingly blue Montgomery County, with a Democratic registration advantage that is currently 4-1, Trump struggled to capture 20% of the vote in his first two runs for president in 2016 and 2020.
In 2020, Biden took 78.3% of the Montgomery County vote to 19% for Trump. Four years earlier, Trump captured 19.3% locally to 74.7% for Clinton.
Given its solidly blue status, Maryland received scant attention this year from the presidential candidates, as Harris and Trump focused most of their efforts in seven swing states key to producing a majority in the Electoral College.
Trump had no Maryland visits during the campaign, while Harris made an appearance in June – a month before Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and Harris ascended to the top of the ticket.
Harris’ visit was to attend an abortion rights rally in College Park in conjunction with the second anniversary of the Supreme Court overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Harris’ appearance also was designed to boost the candidacy of Maryland Democratic Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks: The two women have been close for a decade and a half, since Harris was running for California attorney general and Alsobrooks was seeking her first term as Prince George’s County state’s attorney.
