Harris holds on against spirited challenge from Schwartz; other House members cruise to wins

Dan Schwartz, the Democrat challenging Republican Rep. Andy Harris, opposed the question on congressional redistricting that was on this year’s ballot, arguing that the best way for Democrats to take back the 1st District is not through redistricting but to win it “fair and square.”

That win did not come Tuesday.

In unofficial returns, Harris had 150,615 votes to 119,088 for Schwartz. That’s a 55% to 44% advantage over Schwartz, a first-time candidate who quit his job to run full time in the deep-red district that covers the Eastern Shore and spills over into eastern Baltimore County.

As of 11:15 pm, Schwartz had not conceded, waiting for official outlets to call the race. But when he addressed supporters shortly after 10 p.m., he acknowledged that the numbers weren’t “looking great.”

But with early projections indicated Democratic control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Schwartz said Republicans like Harris will have less influence in Congress.

“Big wins all over this country and in some places we didn’t expect,” he said at Cult Classic Brewery on Kent Island. “We don’t know what’s going to happen here — numbers aren’t looking great — but if Andy Harris pulls this thing, he’s going to run a diminished Freedom Caucus that will have no power in Washington.”

The Associated Press called the race for Harris shortly before midnight.

In a state where Democrats have a 2-1 registration advantage over Republicans, District 1 is a GOP stronghold. Republicans account for 42% of registered voters in the district to 32% for Democrats and the remaining 26% unaffiliated or members of smaller parties, according to state data from mid-October.

Harris, running for his ninth term, has been unbeatable in the district, with his closest challenge coming in 2022, when he won by 11 percentage points. Because of that, Democrats have been pushing Question 3, a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove most restrictions on drawing congressional maps — and make it easier to target Harris.

Question 3 was widely unpopular on the Eastern Shore, with Schwartz saying he would vote against it. But it was winning by a comfortable 60%-40% margin in early returns Tuesday.

Because it is a safe seat, the 1st District is usually an afterthought in Maryland elections. But it got unusual attention because of the focus on Question 3 — easily the highest profile issue on the ballot this year — and a viral video of Harris berating a student reporter after the only debate in the campaign last month.

For other members of Maryland’s congressional delegation, the election was essentially settled in the Democratic primary, which chose nominees to run in districts that are largely safe for Democrats.

Maryland Del. Adrian Boafo, D-Prince George’s, emerged from a field of 24 Democrats in the 5th District Democratic primary in June to win the nomination to succeed longtime Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Democrat who’s held the seat for more than 40 years. Boafo, a former aide to Hoyer, was helped enormously by an endorsement from the retiring Hoyer.

Boafo had a comfortable 68%-31% lead Republican nominee Chris Chaffee in unofficial results in the 5th District.

The other high-profile primary race was in the 6th District, where freshman Rep. April McClain Delaney held off a multimillion-dollar challenge from businessman David Trone, who held the seat before making an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate nomination in 2024. Trone, who has a history of self-funding, poured at least $25 million into the primary, and McClain Delaney loaned her campaign at least $7.2 million on her way to a 44% to 37% primary win over Trone.

On Tuesday, McClain Delaney held a 56%-41% lead over Republican nominee Robin Ficker, a perennial candidate. Green Party nominee Moshe Y. Landman had just under 3% of the vote in the unofficial results.

In other House races:

District 2: Freshman Rep. Johnny “Johnny O” Olszewski Jr., D-2nd District, the former Baltimore County executive, was leading with 62% of the vote over Republican nominee Dave Wallace, a businessman.

District 3: Rep. Sarah Elfreth, D-3rd District, the third freshman in the Maryland delegation, also appeared headed to reelection, grabbing 65% of the vote over the GOP nominee, Air Force veteran Berney Flowers.

District 4: Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-4th District, appears headed to a third term, with 89% of the vote to 6% for perennial Republican candidate George McDermott and 4.5% for Green Party nominee Sam Husseini.

District 7: Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-7th District, who served five terms in the House in the last century, appears on his way to reelection to a fifth term again, with 83% of votes to Republican Scott M. Collier’s 17% votes with all precincts reporting.

District 8: Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-8th District, appears to be heading for a sixth term in the Democrat-safe Montgomery County seat. In a rematch from 2024 against Republican Cheryl Riley and Green Party candidate Nancy Wallace, Raskin had 83% of the vote to Riley’s 16% and Wallace’s 1% .