A ninth Maryland jurisdiction is slipping into the Democratic column in the presidential race, and Eastern Shore Democrats are rejoicing.
Former vice president Joe Biden took the lead in Talbot County late last week, and if that trend holds he’d become the first Democratic White House contender to win there since 1964.
As of Monday evening, Biden had 11,062 votes in Talbot County, or 50.4%, to 10,496 for President Trump, or 47.8%. But mail-in ballots across the state are still being counted.
President-elect Joe Biden
“We made history in Talbot County,” county Democratic Chairman Patrick Firth said in a triumphal email to party stalwarts. “…We are absolutely thrilled by the progress we have made together over the past few years.”
While Democrats have carried the last eight presidential elections in Maryland, those margins were largely racked up in the center of the state: Baltimore City, and Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties.
But in recent elections, Democratic presidential contenders started carrying Charles County. In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first Democratic White House nominee to carry Anne Arundel County since 1960 ― and this year Biden increased the Democratic margin there. This year, Biden also carried Frederick County, and now Talbot may have fallen into the Democratic column.
“This is a movement,” Firth wrote. “We are building a strong Democratic community in Talbot County.”
Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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