2004 United States presidential election in Maryland


The 2004 United States presidential election in Maryland took place on November 2, 2004, and was part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose 10 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Maryland was won by Democratic nominee John Kerry by a 12.98% margin. Prior to the election, all twelve news organizations considered this a state Kerry would win, or otherwise considered as a safe blue state. The last Republican to carry the state in a presidential election was George H.W. Bush in 1988. As of 2019, this is the last time a Republican presidential candidate won more than 40% of the vote in Maryland or received more than a million votes.

Primaries

Predictions

There were 12 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day.
  1. D.C. Political Report: Solid Democratic
  2. Associated Press: Solid Kerry
  3. CNN: Kerry
  4. Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic
  5. Newsweek: Solid Kerry
  6. New York Times: Solid Kerry
  7. Rasmussen Reports: Kerry
  8. Research 2000: Solid Kerry
  9. Washington Post: Kerry
  10. Washington Times: Solid Kerry
  11. Zogby International: Kerry
  12. Washington Dispatch: Kerry

    Polling

Kerry won every pre-election poll. The final 3 poll average showed Kerry leading 52% to 42%.

Fundraising

Bush raised $4,174,964. Kerry raised $7,553,542, which was 4% of the total money raised by Kerry in 2004.

Advertising and visits

Neither campaign advertised or visited this state during the fall election.

Analysis

Bush did win most of the counties in Maryland, but he lost the central part of the state, where most of the population is. The middle section is very urban and includes a large number of African Americans, many of whom are affluent. Bush dominated Western Maryland and the state's Eastern Shore, which are very rural, but he carried only two congressional districts. However, Kerry's margin of victory was slightly less than in 2000, when Gore won by 16.39%.

Results

Results by county

By congressional district

Kerry won 6 of 8 congressional districts.
DistrictKerryBushRepresentative
36%62%Wayne Gilchrest
54%45%Dutch Ruppersberger
54%45%Ben Cardin
78%21%Albert Wynn
57%42%Steny Hoyer
34%65%Roscoe Bartlett
73%26%Elijah Cummings
69%30%Chris Van Hollen

Electors

Technically the voters of Maryland cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Maryland is allocated 10 electors because it has 8 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 10 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 10 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.
The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 13, 2004, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.
The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 10 were pledged for Kerry/Edwards:
  1. Norman Conway
  2. Delores Kelley
  3. Lainey Lebow Sachs
  4. Pam Jackson
  5. Dorothy Chaney
  6. John Riley
  7. Wendy Fielde
  8. Daphne Bloomberg
  9. Tom Perez
  10. Gary Gensler