The 2018 United States Senate election in Maryland took place on November 6, 2018, in order to elect a member of the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

to represent the State of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. It was held concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate,

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, and various

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

and

local elections Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator

Ben Cardin Benjamin Louis Cardin (born October 5, 1943) is an American lawyer and former politician who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Maryland from 2007 until 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic ...

was re-elected to a third and ultimately final term by a landslide margin of almost 35 points, the largest margin in any election for this seat since Maryland began holding direct elections for Senate in 1913. The primary election for the Senate race was held on June 26, 2018. The incumbent,

, won the Democratic Party primary. In the general election, Cardin was reelected to a third term. Tony Campbell, a professor of political science at

Towson University Towson University (TU or Towson) is a public university in Towson, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1866 as Maryland's first training school for teachers, Towson University is a part of the University System of Maryland. Since its foundin ...

and former Army Chaplain, won the Republican Party primary. If elected, Campbell would have become Maryland's first African-American U.S. Senator. Businessman Neal Simon ran as an independent and Arvin Vohra was the Libertarian Party nominee in the general election. There were also several official write-in candidates. With Republican governor

Larry Hogan Lawrence Joseph Hogan Jr. (born May 25, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 62nd governor of Maryland from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party and son of three-term U.S. representative Lawrence Hogan, he served as co-ch ...

winning re-election in the same year, this was the first election since 1974 in which Maryland simultaneously voted for a gubernatorial nominee and a U.S. Senate nominee of opposite parties.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Declared

, incumbent U.S. senator *Erik Jetmir *

Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage ...

, whistleblower, convicted of Espionage Act crimes, former U.S. Army soldier * Marcia H. Morgan, of Montgomery County * Jerome Segal, political activist and philosopher * Richard "Rikki" Vaughn, of Baltimore * Debbie "Rica" Wilson, candidate for MD-05 in 2016, of White Plains * Lih Young,

perennial candidate A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates are most common where there is no limit on the number of times that a person can run for office and little cost ...

, of Montgomery County

Declined

Elijah Cummings Elijah Eugene Cummings (January 18, 1951October 17, 2019) was an American politician and civil rights advocate who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1996 until his death in 2019, when he was succeeded by his predecess ...

, U.S. representative * John Delaney, U.S. representative (running for President in 2020) *

Donna Edwards Donna Fern Edwards (born June 28, 1958) is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2008 to 2017. The district included most of Prince George's County, as well as part of Anne Arundel County. She is a member of the ...

, former U.S. representative and candidate for the U.S. Senate in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

(running for Prince George's County Executive) * Heather Mizeur, former state delegate *

John Sarbanes John Peter Spyros Sarbanes ( ; born May 22, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2007 to 2025. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes Annapolis, the entirety of Howard ...

, U.S. representative

Endorsements

Polling

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Declared

* Tony Campbell, of Baltimore County,

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

faculty member at

* Chris Chaffee, candidate for the U.S. Senate in

* Evan M. Cronhardt, of Anne Arundel County * Nnabu Eze, of Baltimore County,

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

nominee for MD-03 in 2016 * John Graziani, candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2016 and candidate for MD-04 in 2014 * Christina J. Grigorian, attorney * Albert Howard * Bill Krehnbrink, perennial candidate * Gerald I. Smith, Jr., conspiracy theorist, of Cecil County * Blaine Taylor, perennial candidate, of Baltimore County * Brian Charles Vaeth, perennial candidate

Withdrew

* Sam Faddis, former

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

officer and candidate for MD-05 in

Declined

, governor of Maryland since 2015 ( running for reelection)

Endorsements

Results

Libertarian Party

Candidates

Declared

* Arvin Vohra, vice chair of the

Libertarian National Committee The Libertarian National Committee (LNC) controls and manages the affairs, properties, and funds of the United States Libertarian Party. It is composed of the party officers, five at-large representatives elected every two years at the national co ...

and perennial candidate, of Montgomery County

Independents

Candidates

Declared

* Michael B Puskar, property manager * Edward Shlikas, home care compliance manager * Neal Simon, businessman

General election

Candidates

* Tony Campbell, professor at

(R) *

, incumbent (D) * Michael B Puskar, property manager (I) * Neal Simon, businessman (I) * Arvin Vohra, vice chair of the

(L)

Endorsements

Debates

On October 7, 2018, Cardin, independent candidate Neal Simon and Republican candidate Tony Campbell participated in the sole televised debate of the campaign.

Predictions

Polling

Results

By county

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic *

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Given name Nobility = Anhalt-Harzgerode = * Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) = Austria = * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria fro ...

(largest municipality:

) * Talbot (largest municipality: Easton) Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican * Calvert (largest municipality: Chesapeake Beach) *

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

(largest municipality:

Princess Anne Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950) is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of King ...

)

By congressional district

Cardin won seven of eight congressional districts.

References

External links

Candidates
at

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Candidates
at

Ballotpedia Ballotpedia is a nonprofit and nonpartisan online political encyclopedia that covers federal, state, and local politics, elections, and public policy in the United States. The website was founded in 2007. Ballotpedia is sponsored by the Lucy Bur ...

Campaign finance
at FEC
Campaign finance
at

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Official campaign websites
Tony Campbell (R) for U.S. Senate

Ben Cardin (D) for U.S. Senate

Neal Simon (I) for U.S. Senate

Arvin Vohra (L) for U.S. Senate

Michael B. Puskar (I) for U.S. Senate
{{Elections in Maryland footer

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Democratic primary

Candidates

Declared

Declined

Endorsements

Polling

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Declared

Withdrew

Declined

Endorsements

Results

Libertarian Party

Candidates

Declared

Independents

Candidates

Declared

General election

Candidates

Endorsements

Debates

Predictions

Polling

Results

By county

By congressional district

See also

References

External links