These five Maryland counties voted differently in this election than they did in 2012

By Jessica Campisi and Carly Kempler

Senior staff writers

Donald Trump clinched the presidency Wednesday morning in a nail-biting election, but there was little suspense about the race in the state of Maryland.

The Senate and presidential races were called at about 8 p.m. on Tuesday night, almost immediately after polls closed in the consistently blue state.

Hillary Clinton claimed this state’s 10 electoral votes, carrying 60.5 percent of votes in the state, compared to 35.3 percent for Trump. The remaining votes went to third-party candidates — Libertarian Gary Johnson and Jill Stein of the Green Party, according to a Politico report.

Democratic candidates have carried Maryland in every presidential election since 1992. Clinton’s victory in the state was fairly consistent with President Barack Obama’s during the 2012 general election. Obama won 61.7 percent of Maryland voters in 2012, while Mitt Romney earned 36.6 percent, according to Politico.

All of this state’s counties voted for the same party as they did during the 2012 general election, with the exception of Anne Arundel County, which went blue in this year’s election. Prince George’s County remained safely Democratic this year, with 89.3 percent of votes going to Clinton and 8.3 percent to Trump. These results are fairly consistent with results from 2012, when Obama won 90.1 percent of this county and Mitt Romney won 9.2 percent of Prince George’s voters.

Baltimore City and Howard, Baltimore and Montgomery counties also remained blue in this election. Anne Arundel County’s numbers were tight, but Clinton won 47.8 percent of votes, while Trump won 47.1 percent, according to Politico’s polling numbers. During the 2012 election, Anne Arundel County swung Republican, as Romney won 49.4 percent of the vote and Obama trailed him with 48.5 percent.

There were other races, such as the one in Somerset County, located in Southern Maryland, that were tighter this year than in 2012, according to Politico’s polling numbers. In 2012, Romney won 50.8 percent of votes in the county, with Obama trailing at 48.3 percent. However, this year Trump pulled ahead in the county to win 57.7 percent, leaving Clinton with 39.7 percent — almost 10 percent less than Obama received in 2012.

This state also elected Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen on Tuesday to serve in the U.S. Senate. The state had an open Senate seat in wake of Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s retirement for the first time since 2006. Van Hollen easily defeated Republican Maryland Delegate Kathy Szeliga, winning 60 percent of the vote to Szeliga’s 36 percent, according to Associated Press reports. Green Party candidate Margaret Flowers won 3 percent of the vote for the Senate seat.

The percentage of blue votes increased compared to the 2012 Senate election, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. In the 2016 general election, 60.4 percent of Maryland voters cast their ballots for Van Hollen, up from 55 percent who voted for Democrat Ben Cardin four years ago.

Republicans also received significantly more votes in the 2016 Senate race compared to 2012, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. Szeliga took 36.4 percent of the vote, up from 26.6 percent of this state’s Republican vote in 2012, which went toward Republican candidate Daniel John Bongino.

This state saw several counties change from blue to red between the 2012 and 2016 Senate races, according to Politico. Five counties — Anne Arundel, Somerset, Dorchester, Kent and Wicomico — all went toward Cardin in 2012 but pledged their support to Szeliga in 2016.

Prince George’s County remained steadily Democratic in both Senate election cycles. About 88 percent of the county’s voters cast their ballots for Van Hollen Tuesday, while about 9 percent voted for Szeliga. The county maintained a huge margin between Democrats and Republicans — about 81 percent to 11 percent, respectively — in 2012.