Maryland's 3rd Congressional District election, 2018

General election

General election for U.S. House Maryland District 3

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Sarbanes (D)	69.1	202,407
		Charles Anthony (R)	28.3	82,774
		David Lashar (L)	2.6	7,476
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	223

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 292,880 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Elections in Maryland, 2018

• General election: Nov. 6
• Voter registration deadline: Oct. 16
• Early voting: Oct. 25 - Nov. 1
• Absentee voting deadline: Postmark Nov. 6

• Online registration: Yes
• Same-day registration: Only during early voting period
• Voter ID: No ID required generally
• Poll times: 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

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On the ballot: U.S. Senate • U.S. House • Governor • Attorney General • State executive offices • State Senate • State House • Supreme court • Appellate courts • Local judges • State ballot measures • Local ballot measures • School boards • Municipal • Democratic primaries • Republican primaries

2020 → ← 2016
Maryland's 3rd Congressional District
Democratic primary Republican primary General election
Election details
Filing deadline: February 27, 2018
Primary: June 26, 2018 General: November 6, 2018 Pre-election incumbent: John Sarbanes (Democrat)
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting in Maryland
Race ratings
Cook Partisan Voter Index (2018): D+13 Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic Inside Elections: Solid Democratic Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2018
See also
Maryland's 3rd Congressional District U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th Maryland elections, 2018 U.S. Congress elections, 2018 U.S. Senate elections, 2018 U.S. House elections, 2018 Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

All U.S. congressional districts, including the 3rd Congressional District of Maryland, held elections in 2018.

Heading into the election the incumbent was John Sarbanes (D), who was first elected in 2006.

Maryland's 3rd Congressional District winds through parts of Anne Arundel, Montgomery, Howard and Baltimore counties and includes parts of Baltimore city.

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for U.S. House Maryland District 3

Incumbent John Sarbanes defeated Charles Anthony and David Lashar in the general election for U.S. House Maryland District 3 on November 6, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Sarbanes (D)	69.1	202,407
		Charles Anthony (R)	28.3	82,774
		David Lashar (L)	2.6	7,476
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	223

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 292,880 (100.00% precincts reporting)
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Maryland District 3

Incumbent John Sarbanes defeated Adam DeMarco, Eduardo Rosas, and John Rea in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Maryland District 3 on June 26, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Sarbanes	82.3	64,567
		Adam DeMarco	8.6	6,778
		Eduardo Rosas	6.2	4,847
	Submit photo	John Rea	2.9	2,300

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 78,492
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Maryland District 3

Charles Anthony defeated Thomas Harris and Rob Seyfferth in the Republican primary for U.S. House Maryland District 3 on June 26, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Charles Anthony	43.6	6,935
	Submit photo	Thomas Harris	36.0	5,722
	Submit photo	Rob Seyfferth	20.5	3,254

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified.	Total votes: 15,911
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

District analysis

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

See also: FiveThirtyEight's elasticity scores

The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was D+13, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 13 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Maryland's 3rd Congressional District the 101st most Democratic nationally.

FiveThirtyEight's September 2018 elasticity score for states and congressional districts measured "how sensitive it is to changes in the national political environment." This district's elasticity score was 1.02. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 1.02 points toward that party.

Campaign contributions

The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
John Sarbanes	Democratic Party	$933,451	$718,482	$1,150,484	As of December 31, 2018
Charles Anthony	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
David Lashar	Libertarian Party	$27,302	$27,166	$136	As of December 31, 2018
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2018. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. *** Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

District history

2016

See also: Maryland's 3rd Congressional District election, 2016

Heading into the election, Ballotpedia rated this race as safely Democratic. In Maryland's 3rd Congressional District, incumbent John Sarbanes (D) defeated Mark Plaster (R), Nnabu Eze (G), and Ann Dalrymple (D write-in) in the general election on November 8, 2016. Sarbanes defeated challenger John Rea in the Democratic primary, while Plaster defeated Thomas Harris to win the Republican nomination. The primary elections took place on April 26, 2016.

U.S. House, Maryland District 3 General Election, 2016

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	John Sarbanes Incumbent	63.2%	214,640
	Republican	Mark Plaster	33.9%	115,048
	Green	Nnabu Eze	2.8%	9,461
	N/A	Write-in	0.2%	526
Total Votes				339,675
Source: Maryland State Board of Elections

U.S. House, Maryland District 3 Democratic Primary, 2016

Candidate	Vote %	Votes
John Sarbanes Incumbent	87.2%	101,355
John Rea	12.8%	14,917
Total Votes		116,272
Source: Maryland State Board of Elections

U.S. House, Maryland District 3 Republican Primary, 2016

Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Mark Plaster	63.6%	25,455
Thomas Harris	36.4%	14,564
Total Votes		40,019
Source: Maryland State Board of Elections

2014

See also: Maryland's 3rd Congressional District elections, 2014

The 3rd Congressional District of Maryland held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 4, 2014. John Sarbanes (D) defeated Charles Long (R) in the general election.

U.S. House, Maryland District 3 General Election, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	John Sarbanes Incumbent	59.6%	128,594
	Republican	Charles Long	40.4%	87,029
Total Votes				215,623
Source: Maryland Secretary of State Official Results

Pivot Counties

See also: Pivot Counties by state

There are no Pivot Counties in Maryland. Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.

In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton (D) won Maryland with 60.3 percent of the vote. Donald Trump (R) received 33.9 percent. In presidential elections between 1789 and 2016, Maryland voted Democratic 52 percent of the time and Republican 21 percent of the time. In the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, Maryland voted Democratic all five times.

State overview

Partisan control

This section details the partisan control of federal and state positions in Maryland heading into the 2018 elections.

Congressional delegation

• Following the 2016 elections, Democrats held both U.S. Senate seats in Maryland.
• Democrats held seven of eight of the U.S. House seats in Maryland.

State executives

• As of September 2018, Republicans held three of 12 state executive positions, Democrats held two, and the remaining positions were officially nonpartisan.
• The governor of Maryland was Republican Larry Hogan. The state held elections for governor and lieutenant governor on November 6, 2018.

State legislature

• Democrats controlled both chambers of the Maryland General Assembly. They had a 91-50 majority in the state House and a 33-14 majority in the state Senate.

Trifecta status

• Maryland was under divided government, meaning that the two parties shared control of the state government. Larry Hogan (R) served as governor, while Democrats controlled the state legislature.

2018 elections

See also: Maryland elections, 2018

Maryland held elections for the following positions in 2018:

• One U.S. Senate seat
• Eight U.S. House seats
• Governor and lieutenant governor
• Two lower state executive positions
• 47 state Senate seats
• 141 state House seats

Demographics

Demographic data for Maryland
	Maryland	U.S.
Total population:	5,994,983	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	9,707	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	57.6%	73.6%
Black/African American:	29.5%	12.6%
Asian:	6%	5.1%
Native American:	0.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	3%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	9%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	89.4%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	37.9%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$74,551	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	10.7%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Maryland. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

As of July 2016, Maryland's three largest cities were Baltimore (pop. est. 611,648), Columbia (pop. est. 103,439), and Germantown (pop. est. 90,494).

State election history

This section provides an overview of federal and state elections in Maryland from 2000 to 2016. All data comes from the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Historical elections

Presidential elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of the presidential election in Maryland every year from 2000 to 2016.

Election results (President of the United States), Maryland 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2016	Hillary Clinton	60.3%	Donald Trump	33.9%	26.4%
2012	Barack Obama	62.0%	Mitt Romney	35.9%	26.1%
2008	Barack Obama	61.9%	John McCain	36.5%	25.4%
2004	John Kerry	55.9%	George W. Bush	42.9%	13.0%
2000	Al Gore	56.6%	George W. Bush	40.2%	16.4%

U.S. Senate elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of U.S. Senate races in Maryland from 2000 to 2016. Every state has two Senate seats, and each seat goes up for election every six years. The terms of the seats are staggered so that roughly one-third of the seats are up every two years.

Election results (U.S. Senator), Maryland 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2016	Chris Van Hollen	60.9%	Kathy Szeliga	35.7%	25.2%
2012	Ben Cardin	56.0%	Dan Bongino	26.3%	29.7%
2010	Barbara Mikulski	62.2%	Eric Wargotz	35.8%	26.4%
2006	Ben Cardin	54.2%	Michael Steele	44.2%	10.0%
2004	Barbara Mikulski	64.8%	E. J. Pipkin	33.8%	31.0%
2000	Paul Sarbanes	63.2%	Paul Rappaport	36.7%	26.5%

Gubernatorial elections, 2000-2016

This chart shows the results of the four gubernatorial elections held between 2000 and 2016. Gubernatorial elections are held every four years in Maryland.

Election results (Governor), Maryland 2000-2016
Year	First-place candidate	First-place candidate votes (%)	Second-place candidate	Second-place candidate votes (%)	Margin of victory (%)
2014	Larry Hogan	51.0%	Anthony G. Brown	47.2%	3.8%
2010	Martin O'Malley	49.5%	Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.	41.8%	6.7%
2006	Martin O'Malley	52.7%	Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.	46.2%	6.5%
2002	Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.	51.6%	Kathleen Kennedy Townsend	47.7%	3.9%

Congressional delegation, 2000-2016

This chart shows the number of Democrats and Republicans who were elected to represent Maryland in the U.S. House from 2000 to 2016. Elections for U.S. House seats are held every two years.

Congressional delegation, Maryland 2000-2016
Year	Republicans	Republicans (%)	Democrats	Democrats (%)	Balance of power
2016	1	12.5%	7	87.5%	D+7
2014	1	12.5%	7	87.5%	D+7
2012	1	12.5%	7	87.5%	D+7
2010	2	25%	6	75%	D+4
2008	1	12.5%	7	87.5%	D+7
2006	2	25%	6	75%	D+4
2004	2	25%	6	75%	R+1
2002	2	25%	6	75%	R+1
2000	4	50.0%	4	50.0%	Even

Trifectas, 1992-2017

A state government trifecta occurs when one party controls both chambers of the state legislature and the governor's office.

Maryland Party Control: 1992-2025
Twenty-two years of Democratic trifectas  •  No Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
Governor	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D
Senate	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
House	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D

See also

• Maryland's 3rd Congressional District election (June 26, 2018 Democratic primary)
• Maryland's 3rd Congressional District election (June 26, 2018 Republican primary)
• United States House of Representatives elections in Maryland, 2018
• United States House of Representatives elections, 2018

Footnotes

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Maryland's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Angela Alsobrooks (D)

Chris Hollen (D)

Representatives

District 1

Andrew Harris (R)

District 2

John Olszewski (D)

District 3

Sarah Elfreth (D)

District 4

Glenn Ivey (D)

District 5

Steny Hoyer (D)

District 6

April McClain-Delaney (D)

District 7

Kweisi Mfume (D)

District 8

Jamie Raskin (D)

Democratic Party (9)

Republican Party (1)