The 2002 Maryland gubernatorial election was held on November 5, 2002. Democratic Governor
Parris Glendening was term-limited and could not seek a third term. Republican
Bob Ehrlich defeated Democrat
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, making him the first Republican governor of Maryland since
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew (; November 9, 1918 – September 17, 1996) was the 39th vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973. He is the second of two vice presidents to resign, the first being John C. ...
, who served from 1967 to 1969. As of , this is the last time
Charles County voted Republican in a statewide election.
This election marked the first time since the
1934 gubernatorial election that a Republican won Maryland without
Baltimore City or
Montgomery County.
Democratic primary
Candidates
*Robert Fustero,
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 ...
*
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend,
lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...
Results
Republican primary
Candidates
*
Bob Ehrlich,
U.S. Representative
*Ross Z. Pierpont, perennial candidate
*James J. Sheridan
Results
General election
Lieutenant Governor
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend won the Democratic nomination, and Congressman
Bob Ehrlich won the Republican nomination, both over token opposition.
Ehrlich chose
Maryland Republican Party Chairman
Michael Steele as his running mate, while Townsend chose Admiral
Charles R. Larson as her running mate. Larson switched to the Democratic Party just a few weeks before the election.
Kennedy's selection of Larson as her running mate proved to be an unpopular move, seeing as he was a white former Republican and had been selected without consultation with black Democratic leaders. Ehrlich ran advertisements assailing incumbent Governor
Parris Glendening for the increasingly dismal fiscal situation in Maryland, an issue that resonated with Maryland voters. Glendening's unpopularity did little to help his Lieutenant Governor's flailing campaign.
Predictions
Polling
Results
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
*
Alleghany (largest municipality:
Cumberland
Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...
)
*
Howard
Howard is a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for ...
(largest municipality:
Columbia)
Notes
References
External links
Official election website of Bob EhrlichOfficial election website of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
{{2002 United States elections
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 ...
2002
The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...
Gubernatorial
Michael Steele