Once again, it's the day after the primary. This time, it's the one that I and the blog diva voted in - Maryland. Our state has been a solid blue for quite a while, despite having a popular Republican governor. This is likely because we have the large city of Baltimore, as well as the border areas with DC. Those who live in the western, northern, or eastern shore areas are definitely more Republican, but much more sparsely populated.

The results show this. It appears that about 350K people voted in the Democratic primary, and about 250K voted in the Republican primary. This doesn't include the mail-in votes, which (by law) are counted tomorrow. That, of course, should widen the gap even more, since mail-in voting is shunned by the TFG followers.

On the Democratic side, we had an embarrassment of riches. Currently leading in the governor race, Wes Moore checks all the boxes for what a well-rounded, smart, driven, and compassionate governor should be. In a close race, Tom Perez is the former head of the DNC. Both would do well.

For the U.S. Senate, Chris van Hollen easily re-won his seat against a newcomer with limited governmental experience. In our U.S. House district, Gleny Ivey is beating incumbent Donna Edwards, although part of that is likely due to redistricting. With only 2/3 of the precincts reporting (and the absentee ballots still to be counted), it's too early to call.

On the Republican side, the TFG-backed Governor candidate Dan Cox appears to be the winner. There is some talk that Democrats "crossed over" and voted in the Republican primary to ensure he won, assuming that he would be the easiest one to beat in the general election this fall. I think that's a sketchy approach, considering that MD voters chose the Republican governor candidate in 2014 over the former Lt. Gov Anthony Brown (under then-governor Martin O'Malley). It was a fairly tight race, with 1.7M votes cast, considerably more than the total cast in this year's primaries. Mid-term elections can be seen as a referendum on the current president, and with inflation and high gas prices, there will be an awful lot of middle-of-the-roaders who didn't vote in the primaries that might want to try something "new".

Here's hoping that the economy settles down, and voters don't forget that their abortion rights are in the sights of any candidate who courts TFG's voters.