Howard County went to the dark side well before that. It hasn’t voted Republican for President since 1988. Given that it’s wedged between the Baltimore/DC morass, it’s amazing it lasted that long. I’d probably say the most horrific example of decline is Prince Georges County. It went from 41% Republican in 1984 to 9% (!) in 2012. Even more Democrat than the city of Baltimore.
Maryland has always been a difficult state for the GOP. Some statewide offices have been continuously Democrat since the 19th century. Since after 1958, it has only elected a Republican twice (1966 with Agnew, and that was because the Democrats split the vote in a 3-way race and Agnew ran to the left of the Dem nominee, George Mahoney; and 2002 with Bob Ehrlich) — or three times if you count Glendening’s pretty glaring theft in 1994 of Ellen Sauerbrey’s victory.
It also hasn’t voted for a centrist Republican for Senator since 1970 (Glenn Beall, Jr.) or for a bonafide Conservative since John Marshall Butler in 1956 (note I don’t count the execrable leftist Chuck Mathias, who was all but planning to switch parties if he ran again in 1986). My former Senator from TN, Bill Brock, even ran in 1994 against Sarbanes, and fared about as well as could be expected.
Add to that the very weak presence of the GOP in the legislature, even in decades past when the party was carrying the Presidency. It just simply has never been a competitive two-party state below the federal level, and even that is gone. It’s also curious that Black Democrats in MD have gone along with Whites in keeping them from winning more offices (with more racially-drawn lines, the GOP would up the number of wins, especially in Congressional seats). It will be curious to see if MD Dems give the Gubernatorial nod to Anthony Brown, seeing how hesitant they’ve been towards Black candidates statewide.
You are right. I didn't remember it that way because GOP won midterms later than that, and it was pretty white in the 1990s and I saw the real changes in that in the 2000s.
I still remember in early 1990s when Howard county passed a law making illegal rental discrimination against those with section 8. The apartments filled up with welfare basket cases in the 1990s.
Speaking if Maryland, that establishment RINO Bob Erhlich really got me with his lame challenge to O Malley in 2010 as governor. It was pathetic. It was like he was paid to take a dive.
A long story about those two, Michael Steele was Erhlich’s Lt Governor, then ran for Senate and lost, then Hannity pushed him as RNC chairman I assume because he was black.
Erhlich was on CNN Crossfire today, just annoying. It makes me skeptical of Maryland Republicans.