Maryland’s 2026 primary election is almost in the books, so it’s time to recognize the –ests among the results — best, worst and weirdest.

Hear me roar

Tie: Vanessa Atterbeary, Aisha Braveboy, Allison Pickard

If these Democrats win in November — almost a sure thing given the weakness of their opponents — women will be the executives of Howard, Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties. That’s a first.

If incumbents Julie Giordano in Wicomico and Jessica Fitzwater in Frederick also win in November, at least five of the nine county executives will be women. That’s another first.

The results also put Black women and men — Braveboy, Atterbeary, Will Jawando in Montgomery County and Julian Jones in Baltimore County — in four of the executive offices, one more first.

The results set up an interesting tier of possible candidates for governor in 2030, the highest office in the state that’s still male-only territory.

Runner-up: Pam Beidle. The retiring state senator funded a slate of candidates that almost swept the Anne Arundel primary.

Small fortune

David Trone

Ever hear the one about the best way to make a small fortune? Start with a big one and then run for office.

Trone, the liquor store magnate, loaned himself $25 million for his Democratic campaign to win back the 6th Congressional District seat. He lost to his successor, Rep. April McClain-Delaney.

That’s on top of $57 million he loaned to his campaign for the U.S Senate seat in 2024. He lost that one to U.S. Sen Angela Alsobrooks.

It’s proof of many things. Most notably, the liquor business is very profitable.

Runner-up: Quincy Bareebe. The business owner loaned her 5th Congressional District campaign $8 million.

Clout and about

Wes Moore

The governor’s campaign says 93% of the candidates he endorsed won, and this election solidifies his leadership of the Maryland Democratic Party.

In an email titled “Wes Moore is Maryland’s Kingmaker,” spokesman Carter Elliott said the governor pushed candidates over the top across the state. In some cases, he wrote, the winners were lagging in polls until Moore’s boost.

Among the 200 endorsements, the campaign highlighted Del. Adrian Boafo in the 5th Congressional District primary, McClain-Delaney in the 6th, and Atterbeary, Jawando and Jones in county executive races.

Others he mentioned include Sarah David’s win for the Baltimore County prosecutor’s office, Malcolm Ruff in a Baltimore state Senate race and Tara Jackson in the Democratic primary for Prince George’s state’s attorney

Runners up: Cryptocurrency and pro-Israel super PACS. They spent $8.8 million to elect Boafo.

Nonliving candidate

Nancy Jane Taylor

The Republican candidate for governor was one of nine in the primary that 2022 candidate Dan Cox won.

Taylor passed away May 23, but her family used her obituary for one final pitch, asking friends and loved ones to remember her by voting for her.

The Hagerstown woman and her running mate, daughter Rachel Hannah “Mohawk” Swift, earned 2,618 votes. That was good enough to beat one other candidate.

Runner-up: Ralph Jaffe. The Baltimore County perennial candidate died in February.

Best for everyone

Dalya Attar

Whatever the outcome of salacious charges involving alleged sex tapes and blackmail facing the state senator from Baltimore, voters shouldn’t be dragged into it.

Ruff defeated Attar in a contentious Democratic primary that included accusations of antisemitism.

Now she can focus on her defense.

Runner-up: Marc Knapp. Removed from the Anne Arundel Orphans Court for misconduct, voters rejected his bid to regain his seat.

Public financing

Will Jawando

Jawando won the Montgomery County executive Democratic primary, tantamount to taking the office, on a publicly financed campaign. It’s the biggest victory this year for a candidate using the system.

The state and five counties now offer this option.

Runner-up: Gavin Buckley. The former Annapolis mayor was one of two candidates in Anne Arundel’s new system, and the only one to win.

Stuntastic

Bobby LaPin

The social media phenom’s campaign was in some ways a stunt, although one good enough to make Senate President Bill Ferguson change his approach to the election and, maybe, his job.

Runner-up: Mark Conway. The Baltimore councilman used guerrilla tactics in his unsuccessful challenge to Rep. Kweisi Mfume, notably an April debate challenge at the congressman’s office.

See you in court

Gabriel Acevero

The Montgomery County delegate won likely reelection to the General Assembly, but he’s got to go to court first.

The delegate exchanged punches with local union leader Gino Renne at an early voting site in Gaithersburg. Both men say the other started it, and both said they would file assault charges.

Runner-up: Jared DeMarinis. The state elections director blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to seize Maryland voter rolls, but now faces a Republican lawsuit to block certification of primary results.

Political toast

Ed Hale

Party switching, delusions of grandeur and ethically gray AI ads do not a statesman make. The former banker should take his Republican primary loss to Cox in the governor’s race as an invitation to exit stage right.

Runner-up: Nancy King. The 76-year-old Senate majority leader from Montgomery County lost a surprise squeaker to Amar Mukunda, 33.

Runner-runner-up: Harry Dunn. A hero of Jan. 6 to be sure, but twice defeated in runs for Congress is a sign that maybe it’s time to move on.

Biggest loser

Independent voters

Many winners in the Democratic primaries now go on to almost certain election in November.

Maryland has closed primaries, so all taxpayers fund elections that only party members decide. In races where one party has an unbreakable majority, primaries serve as the general election.

So when turnout sinks to an anemic 20% as it did in this primary, a teensy portion of the electorate is calling the shots. If you’re an unaffiliated voter, you’re silenced.

If it sounds like taxation without representation, it’s not. It just sounds like it.

Runner-up: Republicans. Maryland’s perennial runner-up is on a path to finish second, again.

Did I miss something? Absolutely.

Now it’s your turn. Look forward to your comments below.

“If” has often been the refrain for many Mississippi Democrats after losing statewide elections, as they have done with regularity since 2003.

“If we only had a candidate who could energize true Democrats to the polls, we could win those statewide elections,” is a paraphrase of the full refrain.

That “if” has to be in the back of Lowndes County District Attorney Scott Colom’s mind as the Democrat campaigns to upend incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the November midterm election.

In short, what Colom has to ponder is some people’s belief that a lot of Mississippians support many of the principles of national Democrats but are not voting because Mississippi candidates generally avoid those issues or campaign with a more conservative bent.

Colom’s already herculean task is made even more difficult by the fact that independent Ty Pinkins, a former Democrat, is also in the race and could possibly siphon votes from him.

Colom, obviously, needs every Democratic vote in his bid to upset Hyde-Smith and become the first Democratic senator from Mississippi since the 1980s and the first Black Mississippi senator since the 1800s.

Recent Democratic campaigns

Former Attorney General Jim Hood, the last Mississippi Democrat to win a statewide election, was accused of not embracing his party as he campaigned with his hunting dog, rifle and pickup truck in his 2019 loss to Republican Tate Reeves in the governor’s race.

After the 2023 election, former Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley faced much of the same criticism after his unsuccessful attempt to defeat Reeves. Most would concede that Presley ran closer to the national Democratic Party than did Hood.

The results, though, were close to the same.

In his 2020 campaign against Hyde-Smith, former U.S. Rep. Mike Espy came closer to running as a national Democrat than both Presley and Hood. For that effort, Espy garnered more votes than any Democrat in a statewide campaign since Bill Waller in his victorious 1971 gubernatorial race.

But Espy garnered a lower percentage of votes in a higher-turnout election than did Hood or Moore.

In 2019, Reeves defeated Hood 52% to 47%, or by a little more than 45,000 votes. In a lower-turnout election four years later, Reeves beat Presley 51% to 48%, or by fewer than 27,000 votes.

In the 2020 Senate election, Hyde-Smith won 54% to 44%, or by fewer than 131,000 votes in the highest turnout election in the state’s history. Remember, Espy garnered more votes than any Democrat since Waller in the 1971 gubernatorial election.

What the numbers mean for midterm election

Based on the numbers, can the argument be confirmed that some Mississippians are sitting at home on election day who could sway the election to a Democrat if they could be inspired to go to the polls?

In considering that question, it is important to keep in mind that Mississippi is generally near the bottom each election cycle in terms of voter participation.

According to the University of Florida Election Lab, nationally 66.4% of eligible voters cast a ballot in 2020. That year 60.6% of eligible Mississippians did so.

If Mississippians had equaled that national participation in 2020, an additional 126,500 people would have voted.

If that had occurred and all the additional voters had cast Espy ballots, which of course would not have happened, he still would have lost to Hyde-Smith by about 5,000 votes.

But that was a presidential election, and by happenstance an election that set both a national and Mississippi record for the number of voters. A midterm election, such as the upcoming Colom vs. Hyde-Smith contest, is a different story. The turnout will be much lower – perhaps closer to a Mississippi gubernatorial turnout.

In that instance, new voters perhaps could make a difference for Colom if – there is that word again –  he could equal Presley’s or even Hood’s performance.

Colom, though, must walk that fine line of attracting those mysterious hard-to-find Mississippi progressives while not scaring away moderate voters who might be considering him in the current political environment where Trump and the Republicans have lost some of their luster nationally and perhaps even in true-red Mississippi.

If – if – Colom could accomplish those goals, perhaps he could give Mississippi Democrats something to cheer about for the first time in a long time.

Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today’s senior capitol reporter, covers politics, government and the Mississippi State Legislature. He can be reached at [email protected]

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — North Carolina lawmakers are nearing agreement on a new state budget that Rep. Zack Hawkins says could bring long-awaited stability to agencies and employees who have been operating under 2023 spending levels.

Hawkins, a Democrat representing Durham, said Monday that legislators are close to finalizing the budget after waiting 1,000 days since the last budget passed

“We’re going to potentially meet the June 30, July 1 deadline, so that there’s stability for all the agencies and all the entities that depend on the state budget,” Hawkins said.

Hawkins said the prospect of a finalized budget offers needed certainty.

“The opportunity for them to have a budget means stability,” he said.

The expected spending plan centers on pay increases for educators and state employees. State workers could receive an average 3% raise and a $1,700 bonus for those earning under $75,000. Hawkins said the goal is to ensure workers have a “strong and respectable pay scale.”

“State employees know that they’re not going to get rich, but we need to make sure that they have a strong and respectable pay scale, bonuses that keep up with inflation, and the benefits, of course, that the state of North Carolina brings, and so we’re hoping that we value them in this budget,” he said.

Teachers could see an average 8% raise. Hawkins, a former educator, said he hopes North Carolina can lead the South in teacher pay.

“And eventually beating the national average. But alongside that, we really want to make sure that there’s an opportunity to keep and retain teachers who’ve been teaching for 10, 15 and 25 years,” he said.

The budget is also expected to include a 13% pay raise for law enforcement, according to a post from Rep. Brenden Jones, who celebrated the finalization of the budget.

The budget could come with a plan to reduce the personal income tax rate and a higher tax rate for sports gambling operators. The rate would increase from 18% to as high as 23%, a change Hawkins supports.

“We can bring in even more revenue, because it’s going to some really good places, it’s going to universities, athletic departments, it’s going to support youth sports, it’s going to support outdoor opportunities and grants,” he said.

One proposal not included in the budget is funding for a Major League Baseball stadium in Raleigh. Hawkins said the Senate-led idea was not the right fit this year.

“Because we have to make sure that we’re taking care of our basic obligations, our people,” he said.

Hawkins said agencies have been operating under the 2023 budget, affecting hiring and pay raises. Many are waiting for Tuesday’s release of the new spending plan.

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