The 2010 Maryland gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 2010.[2] The date included the election of the governor, lieutenant governor, and all members of the Maryland General Assembly. Incumbent Democratic governor Martin O'Malley and lieutenant governor Anthony Brown won re-election to a second term in office, defeating Republican former governor Bob Ehrlich and his running mate Mary Kane.
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Turnout | 54.02% 3.51%[1] | |||||||||||||||||||
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County results O'Malley: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 80–90% Ehrlich: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Ehrlich had previously lost re-election to O'Malley in 2006. O'Malley and Brown became the first gubernatorial ticket in Maryland history to receive more than one million votes.[3][4]
While Ehrlich won a clear majority of Maryland’s counties, he lost in the area between Baltimore and Washington, which accounts for more than 90% of the state’s population. This allowed O’Malley to win by a relatively large margin of 14.4%.
As of 2024, this is the most recent gubernatorial election in which the Democratic nominee was not an African American.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Martin O'Malley (incumbent) | 414,595 | 86.28 | |
Democratic | J. P. Cusick | 46,411 | 9.66 | |
Democratic | Ralph Jaffe | 19,517 | 4.06 | |
Total votes | 480,523 | 100 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Bob Ehrlich | 211,428 | 75.84 | |
Republican | Brian Murphy | 67,364 | 24.16 | |
Total votes | 278,792 | 100 |
Source | Ranking | As of |
---|---|---|
Cook Political Report[10] | Tossup | October 14, 2010 |
Rothenberg[11] | Likely D | October 28, 2010 |
RealClearPolitics[12] | Likely D | November 1, 2010 |
Sabato's Crystal Ball[13] | Likely D | October 28, 2010 |
CQ Politics[14] | Lean D | October 28, 2010 |
Poll source | Dates administered | Bob Ehrlich (R) |
Martin O'Malley (D) |
---|---|---|---|
Rasmussen Reports | October 24, 2010 | 42% | 52% |
Rasmussen Reports | October 5, 2010 | 41% | 49% |
Washington Post | September 22–26, 2010 | 41% | 52% |
Rasmussen Reports | September 15, 2010 | 47% | 50% |
Center Maryland/Opinion Works Archived 2010-09-06 at the Wayback Machine | August 13–18, 2010 | 41% | 47% |
Rasmussen Reports | August 17, 2010 | 44% | 45% |
Gonzales poll | July 13–21, 2010 | 42% | 45% |
Public Policy Polling | July 10–12, 2010 | 42% | 45% |
Rasmussen Reports | July 12, 2010 | 47% | 46% |
Magellan Strategies | June 29, 2010 | 46% | 43% |
The Polling Company | June 8–10, 2010 | 43% | 44% |
Rasmussen Reports | June 8, 2010 | 45% | 45% |
Washington Post | May 3–6, 2010 | 41% | 49% |
Rasmussen Reports | April 20, 2010 | 44% | 47% |
Rasmussen Reports | February 23, 2010 | 43% | 49% |
Gonzales poll | September 17, 2009 | 38% | 49% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Martin O'Malley (incumbent) | 1,044,961 | 56.24% | +3.54% | |
Republican | Bob Ehrlich | 776,319 | 41.79% | -4.41% | |
Libertarian | Susan Gaztanaga | 14,137 | 0.76% | ||
Green | Maria Allwine | 11,825 | 0.64% | -0.26% | |
Constitution | Eric Knowles | 8,612 | 0.46% | ||
Write-ins | 2,026 | 0.11% | |||
Majority | 268,642 | 14.45% | +7.92% | ||
Turnout | 1,857,880 | ||||
Democratic hold | Swing |
In the summer before the election, Ehrlich's campaign hired a consultant who advised that "the first and most desired outcome is voter suppression", in the form of having "African-American voters stay home."[16] To that end, the Republicans placed thousands of Election Day robocalls to Democratic voters, telling them that O'Malley had won, although in fact the polls were still open for some two more hours.[17] The Republicans' call, worded to seem as if it came from Democrats, told the voters, "Relax. Everything's fine. The only thing left is to watch it on TV tonight."[16] The calls reached 112,000 voters in majority-African American areas.[17] In 2011, Ehrlich's campaign manager, Paul Schurick, was convicted of fraud and other charges because of the calls.[16] Ehrlich denied knowing about the calls.[16]