In Baltimore County, Republican General Assembly candidates battle – in court

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Maryland State Sen. Johnny Ray Salling has fought off several challengers since he was first elected in 2014 to his District 6 seat in Baltimore County.

But the competition with his Republican primary opponent this year, Dundalk resident and children’s dentist Daniel Eisenhart, has moved to the courts ahead of the June 23 primary election.

Salling filed for a peace order against Eisenhart on April 17. “For months now he has threatened to go to my + my wife [sic] house, go at my throat, harass on social media everyday, and said that he will stalk me + my wifes [sic] home and work?” Salling wrote in his request for a peace order.

A peace order is similar to what other states call a protective order, in that it aims to bar a person from contacting or harassing another. Capital News Service discovered the request for a peace order through a review of the court records of all 235 General Assembly candidates who face a competitive primary on June 23.

Eisenhart said in an email to Capital News Service he believed the peace order was an effort to bar him from attending political events. In the court filing obtained by Capital News Service, Salling requested Eisenhart be forbidden from going to the incumbent’s workplace, the James Senate Office Building in Annapolis.

A prewritten box requesting Eisenhart “remove or reposition a device being used for visual surveillance and refrain from further visual surveillance” was also marked. The request for the peace order was denied three days after it was submitted.

Salling did not respond to eight requests for comment from Capital News Service, but Eisenhart commented in a statement.

“Senator Salling attempted to silence me by lying under oath that I harassed, stalked, made violent threats, surveilled and went after his and his wife’s throat,” Eisenhart wrote. “He tried to convince the courts that I for months have been threatening him at his home and work. It was thrown out immediately. Why? Thrown out for a complete lack of supporting evidence.”

On May 13, less than a month after Salling’s peace order filing, Eisenhart filed against Salling in small claims court — but unlike Salling, he provided multiple shreds of evidence. According to court records, Eisenhart is seeking $5,000 and a “retraction and public apology” of the claims that were made in the first request that he said had since been repeated on social media as truth.

Eisenhart provided screenshots of multiple accounts posting that he was stalking the state senator and under investigation.

“Salling has stained my reputation I have spent two and a half decades to restore, the false allegations and the failed attempt are now public information,” Eisenhart said. “So, as I have stated… I will have my day in court and will fight for justice and accountability.”

Eisenhart’s day in court was originally scheduled for Aug. 8, but on May 29, he requested to postpone the hearing. In court papers, he wrote that his family had a planned “vaycaytion” — spelled that way twice — that overlapped with the original court date.

In his statement to Capital News Service, delivered via email, Eisenhart wrote his name as “Danielo.”

While social media claims about Eisenhart’s stalking couldn’t be confirmed, an indirect reference to Salling’s opponent having a prior criminal record was correct.

In 2000, when he was 22 years old, Eisenhart nearly hit police officers as he drove out of a parking lot while drunk, the candidate said. Maryland courts had no documents providing details of the incident available.

Public records show Eisenhart was charged with three counts of first-degree assault, driving under the influence and evading police before entering into an Alford plea, which allowed him to maintain innocence while accepting a plea deal akin to a guilty verdict.

He was officially sentenced with a DUI and one charge of second-degree assault, going on probation and spending what he called “a very short amount of time” in jail. Court records spelling out Eisenhart’s exact sentence were not available through the state’s online case search system.

Eisenhart said that since the incident, he has turned his life around since renouncing alcohol. He said accountability and oversight are critical to his campaign and fighting for that in his community includes the “corruption withing [sic]” his own Senate race.

His campaign has also focused on whether Salling is part of the same community. As The Baltimore Informer wrote in April 2026, claims that Salling does not live within the borders of District 6 — comprising Dundalk, Essex and Rosedale — have resurfaced from Eisenhart supporters. In 2022, reporting by The Peake tracked the state senator’s locations to a house in Timonium.

The campaign paperwork Salling submitted to the State Board of Elections in October 2025 listed his address in Essex, but records show that house was sold in March 2026. In his filing against Eisenhart, Salling wrote in another address in Dundalk as his home. That house was last sold in 1978.

Maryland political analyst John Dedie said he believes Salling still has a slight advantage in the race, with what he called a “Trump-like” campaign from Eisenhart potentially repelling voters.

“Eisenhart’s going on this strategy of basically accusing him of any little thing he can think of to diminish him, and ironically Salling really hasn’t brought up the stuff about Eisenhart’s past,” said Dedie, a professor of political science at Community College of Baltimore County. “I think when you hear about stuff like [the residency issue] it gets into the silly season, and that’s what hurts Eisenhart.”

Nolan Rogalski is a reporter working out of the Annapolis Bureau for Capital News Service covering civil rights.