2018 Maryland Senate election

2018 Maryland Senate election

← 2014 November 6, 2018 2022 →

All 47 seats in the Maryland Senate
24 seats needed for a majority
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Mike Miller J.B. Jennings
Party Democratic Republican
Leader since January 21, 1987 November 12, 2014
Leader's seat 27th District 7th District
Last election 33 seats 14 seats
Seats before 33 14
Seats won 32 15
Seat change Decrease 1 Increase 1
Popular vote 1,446,326 742,827
Percentage 64.9% 33.3%
Swing Increase 6.12% Decrease 7.51%

The 2018 Maryland Senate election
Results:
     Democratic gain      Republican gain
     Democratic hold      Republican hold

President before election

Mike Miller
Democratic

Elected President

Mike Miller
Democratic

Elections for the Maryland Senate were held on November 6, 2018, with all 47 seats being contested. Republicans had initially hoped to break the Democrats' supermajority in the upper chamber by knocking off five incumbents, known as their "Drive for Five" plan.[1] Though they did make a net gain of one seat, they came short of their goal. Three seats switched hands: District 9 in Carroll and Howard Counties flipped from Republican to Democratic while District 38 in Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties and District 42 in Baltimore County both flipped from Democrats to Republicans.

The Maryland Senate has been in Democratic hands since the elections of 1900. Despite Governor Larry Hogan's success in his gubernatorial race at the top of the ticket, nobody expected Republicans to come close to recapturing the majority. In terms of popular vote, Maryland's Republican Senate candidates performed significantly worse than they previously had in 2014.

  1. ^ Kurtz, Josh (November 7, 2018). "GOP's 'Drive for Five' Stalls". Maryland Matters. Retrieved July 2, 2020.