Despite some challenges, most legislators appear headed to reelection

Listen to this article

Despite some aggressive challenges, an overwhelming majority of state lawmakers who were seeking reelection in Tuesday’s primaries skated through with relative ease.

Freshman Sen. Dalya Attar (D-Baltimore City) lost to Del. Malcolm Ruff on a margin of about 61% to 39%, The Associated Press reported, and longtime Sen. Nancy King (D-Montgomery) lost re-election with 35% of the vote, compared with Amar Mukunda’s 48%. And three delegates appeared to lose their primaries – while a few others endured close calls.

Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), meanwhile, withstood his toughest primary challenge yet, taking 56.6% of the primary vote over tour boat captain and social media influencer Bobby LaPin, who finished with 43.4%, with all 55 Election Day precincts reporting. Some mail-in and provisional ballots have yet to be counted.

“I’ve done this long enough to know that trust is earned, and never, ever owed,” Ferguson said at an election night party Tuesday at a fire department union hall in Baltimore. “I want to thank each and every one of you, and the voters of the 46th legislative District, for trusting me again.”

LaPin had not conceded as of midnight Tuesday.

“With the majority of votes still uncounted, the campaign is awaiting the fuller vote total count before making any statements,” LaPin said in a statement.

After his tightest race since upsetting an incumbent to claim his seat 16 years ago, Ferguson said this primary has taught him hard lessons.

“This campaign has humbled me. There are moments where I realized that people felt further away than I ever knew. Too few people knew what we had gotten done on their behalf,” said Ferguson, who spoke to the crowd with his wife and two children at his side.

In an interview Tuesday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) described Ferguson and the position he holds in Annapolis as vital to the city’s fortunes.

Major investments in the city don’t “happen if Bill isn’t the Senate president,” he said. “Why would we change that?”

In Baltimore’s 41st District, Del. Malcolm Ruff (D) held a commanding 61% to 39% lead over state Sen. Dalya Attar (D), after a grudge match in a tensely diverse district, which is majority-Black, but also has a large Orthodox Jewish community.

“I’m going to be someone that represents the entire district, despite its very awkward shape and large geographic space that it covers,” Ruff said during a campaign stop Tuesday.

Attar was appointed to the Senate in 2025 after six-plus years in the House of Delegates. She was indicted later that year on extortion charges related to her 2022 reelection campaign – a case that is still pending in federal court.

Ruff, who was appointed to his House seat in 2023, narrowly missed out on the Senate appointment when the Baltimore City Democratic Central Committee tabbed Attar, but wasted little time launching a campaign to defeat her. The district’s other delegates, Samuel “Sandy” Rosenberg (D), who was first elected in 1982, and Sean Stinnett (D), who won the appointment to replace Attar after she was elevated to the Senate, sided with Attar in the primary.

Outside the Forest Park Senior Center in the district on Tuesday afternoon, Ruff and Attar campaigned at the same time, pulling aside the small number of voters who trickled into the polling place on a rainy afternoon.

When Gov. Wes Moore (D) arrived to deliver a stump speech for Ruff, the Attar camp took to a loudspeaker, loudly playing a theme song for Attar, imploring voters to back the incumbent.

To Sandra Dobson, a 41st District Democratic voter, Attar’s indictment played a big role in her vote. “Dalya is a dishonest person, and we have enough of that in government,” she said.

Dobson, who said she’s a former reporter at the AFRO News in Baltimore, expressed frustration that she did not hear about Attar reaching out to voters in her neighborhood.

“She didn’t knock on doors in our community. She didn’t talk to people in our community,” Dobson said. “It’s almost as if she felt she was entitled to the position.”

Makunda made a generational argument against the 76-year-old incumbent, and also ran distinctly to her left.

Despite the ouster of King and Attar, 2026 stands in stark contrast to the Democratic primaries of 2018, when five senators were knocked off by younger – and more liberal – challengers.

In addition to seeking reelection, King and two of the delegates in District 39 attempted to knock off the third House member, Del. Gabriel Acevero (D) – an effort that created confusing political cross-currents, bad blood and also wound up falling short.

Moving up the ladder

Three Democratic delegates and one Republican delegate prevailed in their primaries as they attempt to move up to the state Senate:

• In Prince George’s County’s District 24, Del. Tiffany Alston defeated Kevin Ford Jr., 58.01% to 41.99%, in the race so succeed outgoing senator, Joanne C. Benson (D), whose career in the legislature dates back to 1991 and who had backed Ford.

• In Charles County’s District 28, Del. C.T. Wilson (D) trounced Aaron Corbin, a compliance manager for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, 75.89% to 24.11%. They were seeking to replace Sen. Arthur Ellis (D), one of many Democrats who ran unsuccessfully for the open 5th District seat in Congress.

• In Anne Arundel County’s 31st District, Del. Nic Kipke (R) was unopposed in the primary to replace departing Sen. Bryan Simonaire (R).

• In Anne Arundel’s 32nd District, Del. Mark Chang (D), with the blessing of outgoing Sen. Pam Beidle (D), beat Stephen Tillett, a pastor, 64.31% to 35.69%.

House incumbents lose

Two delegates lost their reelection bids, and a third appeared headed to defeat.

In Cecil County, three-term Del. Kevin Hornberger finished third in a three-way Republican primary for the lone seat in District 35B. With all 13 precincts reporting, attorney and retired police officer Derek Howell had 41.87% of the vote, community activist Erica Berge took 31.46% and Hornberger finished with 26.66%.

In Baltimore City’s 40th District, Del. Frank Conaway Jr., scion of a powerful political family, finished a weak fourth in the Democratic primary– after internet gaming interests spent tens of thousands of dollars in independent expenditures to defeat him.

Del. Marlon Amprey finished first in the district with 21.95%, Tiffany Welch – community activist and granddaughter of former Baltimore City Councilmember Agnes Welch – took 22.89%, while House Government, Labor and Elections Committee Chair Melissa Wells finished with 21.51%. Conaway, who has served in the House since 2007, took just 9.6%, while four other candidates split the rest of the vote.

In Baltimore City’s 45th District, two-term Del. Stephanie Smith appeared headed to defeat in the Democratic primary. With all 65 Election Day precincts reporting, Smith was in fourth place with 18.84%.

The six-candidate field was led by Del. Jackie Addison, with 22.65%. Del. Caylin Young took 21.79%, while former Del. Chanel Branch, who represented the district for three years as an appointed member of the legislature and then lost the 2022 primary, won 20.73%. Former City Councilmember Robert Stokes Sr. took 13.18%.

Two appointed delegates from Prince George’s County, were in primaries that were too close to call early Wednesday morning. Darrell C. Odom Sr., appointed to the District 27A seat last year, was trailing the woman he beat for that appointment, Yonelle Moore Lee, by six votes, 1,548 to 1,542. In District 24, Derrick Coley was leading Crystal Carpenter, 4,582 to 4,462, with 64 of 65 precincts reporting.

Maryland Matters founder Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. Christine Condon covers state politics with a focus on environmental and energy issues for Maryland Matters.