ABSTRACT
Maryland is one of the states that require voters to select a party affiliation when they register to vote. Despite the pessimism in some of the literature examining the plateau in the number of offices with black elected officials, Maryland voters elected two African Americans to statewide office in recent elections. This chapter shows that Republicans won the top two offices in 2002 by, having a candidate running for executive office who had the ability to attract swing votes by having an African American on the ticket. It argues that Robert Ehrlich and Michael Steele were able to win with this swing vote. A contributing factor was a number of Democrats staying home in 2002. In the case of the 2006 election, the Democrats won by mobilizing their core constituents. The party ran a candidate who had been mayor of the largest city in the state.
