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| Turnout | 78.03%[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County results Congressional district results
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The2004 United States presidential election in Maryland took place on November 2, 2004, and was part of the2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose 10 representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
Maryland was won by Democratic nomineeJohn Kerry by a 12.98% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all twelve news organizations considered this a state Kerry would win, or otherwise considered as a safeblue state. The last Republican to carry the state in a presidential election was Bush's fatherGeorge H. W. Bush in1988. As of the2024 election, this is the last time a Republican presidential candidate won more than 40% of the vote in Maryland, the first time a Republican presidential candidate received more than a million votes in Maryland, and the last time a Democratic presidential nominee has failed to both break 60% of the vote and win by more than a 25% margin in Maryland. At the time, Bush's 1,024,703 votes were the most received by a Republican presidential candidate in the state's history, and would remain so untilDonald Trump exceeded this figure in2024.[2]
There were 12 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day.[3]
| Source | Ranking |
|---|---|
| D.C. Political Report | Solid D |
| Cook Political Report | Likely D |
| Research 2000 | Solid D |
| Zogby International | Likely D |
| Washington Post | Likely D |
| Washington Dispatch | Likely D |
| Washington Times | Solid D |
| The New York Times | Solid D |
| CNN | Likely D |
| Newsweek | Solid D |
| Associated Press | Solid D |
| Rasmussen Reports | Likely D |
Kerry won every pre-election poll. The final 3 poll average showed Kerry leading 52% to 42%.[4]
Bush raised $4,174,964.[5] Kerry raised $7,553,542, which was 4% of the total money raised by Kerry in 2004.[6]
Neither campaign advertised or visited this state during the fall election.[7][8]
Bush did win most of the counties in Maryland, but he lost the central part of the state (Washington DC suburbs andBaltimore), where most of the population is. The middle section is veryurban and includes a large number ofAfrican Americans, many of whom areaffluent (specifically in the Democratic stronghold ofPrince George's County). Bush dominated Western Maryland and the state'sEastern Shore, which are veryrural, but he carried only two congressional districts (see below). However, Kerry's margin of victory was slightly less than in2000, when Gore won by 16.39%.[9] This also marks the first time since1880 in which Maryland gave a majority of its vote to a candidate that lost both the popular and electoral vote. This was the first time since 1980 that the state voted for the popular vote loser.[10]
| 2004 United States presidential election in Maryland | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic Party | John Kerry | John Edwards | 1,334,493 | 55.91% | 10 | |
| Republican Party | George W. Bush (incumbent) | Dick Cheney (incumbent) | 1,024,703 | 42.93% | 0 | |
| Populist Party[11] | Ralph Nader | Peter Camejo | 11,854 | 0.50% | 0 | |
| Libertarian Party | Michael Badnarik | Richard Campagna | 6,094 | 0.26% | 0 | |
| Green Party | David Cobb | Patricia LaMarche | 3,632 | 0.15% | 0 | |
| Constitution Party | Michael Peroutka | Chuck Baldwin | 3,421 | 0.14% | 0 | |
| Write Ins | 2,481 | 0.11% | 0 | |||
| Totals | 2,386,678 | 100.00% | 10 | |||
| Voter turnout (Voting Age population) | 59% | |||||
| County | John Kerry Democratic | George W. Bush Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast[12] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Allegany | 10,576 | 35.42% | 18,980 | 63.57% | 299 | 1.01% | -8,404 | -28.15% | 29,855 |
| Anne Arundel | 103,324 | 43.11% | 133,231 | 55.59% | 3,112 | 1.30% | -29,907 | -12.48% | 239,667 |
| Baltimore | 182,474 | 51.62% | 166,051 | 46.98% | 4,954 | 1.40% | 16,423 | 4.64% | 353,479 |
| Baltimore City | 175,022 | 81.95% | 36,230 | 16.96% | 2,311 | 1.09% | 138,792 | 64.99% | 213,563 |
| Calvert | 15,967 | 40.58% | 23,017 | 58.49% | 367 | 0.93% | -7,050 | -17.91% | 39,351 |
| Caroline | 3,810 | 33.55% | 7,396 | 65.13% | 150 | 1.32% | -3,586 | -31.58% | 11,356 |
| Carroll | 22,974 | 28.95% | 55,275 | 69.66% | 1,100 | 1.39% | -32,301 | -40.71% | 79,349 |
| Cecil | 14,680 | 38.97% | 22,556 | 59.87% | 438 | 1.16% | -7,876 | -20.90% | 37,674 |
| Charles | 29,354 | 50.40% | 28,442 | 48.84% | 445 | 0.76% | 912 | 1.56% | 58,241 |
| Dorchester | 5,411 | 40.57% | 7,801 | 58.48% | 127 | 0.95% | -2,390 | -17.91% | 13,339 |
| Frederick | 39,503 | 39.27% | 59,934 | 59.58% | 1,157 | 1.15% | -20,431 | -20.31% | 100,594 |
| Garrett | 3,291 | 26.36% | 9,085 | 72.77% | 108 | 0.87% | -5,794 | -46.41% | 12,484 |
| Harford | 39,685 | 35.20% | 71,565 | 63.48% | 1,478 | 1.32% | -31,880 | -28.28% | 112,728 |
| Howard | 72,257 | 54.00% | 59,724 | 44.63% | 1,829 | 1.37% | 12,533 | 9.37% | 133,810 |
| Kent | 4,278 | 46.07% | 4,900 | 52.77% | 107 | 1.16% | -622 | -6.70% | 9,285 |
| Montgomery | 273,936 | 65.97% | 136,334 | 32.83% | 4,955 | 1.20% | 137,602 | 33.14% | 415,225 |
| Prince George's | 260,532 | 81.81% | 55,532 | 17.44% | 2,410 | 0.75% | 205,000 | 64.37% | 318,474 |
| Queen Anne's | 7,070 | 32.44% | 14,489 | 66.48% | 235 | 1.08% | -7,419 | -34.04% | 21,794 |
| Somerset | 4,034 | 44.85% | 4,884 | 54.30% | 76 | 0.85% | -850 | -9.45% | 8,994 |
| St. Mary's | 13,776 | 36.33% | 23,725 | 62.57% | 415 | 1.10% | -9,949 | -26.24% | 37,916 |
| Talbot | 7,367 | 39.05% | 11,288 | 59.84% | 12 | 1.11% | -3,921 | -20.79% | 18,864 |
| Washington | 20,387 | 35.21% | 36,917 | 63.76% | 600 | 1.03% | -16,530 | -28.55% | 57,904 |
| Wicomico | 15,137 | 40.36% | 21,998 | 58.66% | 368 | 0.98% | -6,861 | -18.30% | 37,503 |
| Worcester | 9,648 | 38.24% | 15,349 | 60.84% | 232 | 0.92% | -5,701 | -22.60% | 25,229 |
| Totals | 1,334,493 | 55.91% | 1,024,703 | 42.93% | 27,482 | 1.16% | 309,790 | 12.98% | 2,386,678 |
| Democratic Hold | Republican Hold Gain from Democratic |
Kerry won six of eight congressional districts.[13]
| District | Kerry | Bush | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 36% | 62% | Wayne Gilchrest |
| 2nd | 54% | 45% | Dutch Ruppersberger |
| 3rd | 54% | 45% | Ben Cardin |
| 4th | 78% | 21% | Albert Wynn |
| 5th | 57% | 42% | Steny Hoyer |
| 6th | 34% | 65% | Roscoe Bartlett |
| 7th | 73% | 26% | Elijah Cummings |
| 8th | 69% | 30% | Chris Van Hollen |
Technically the voters of Maryland cast their ballots for electors: representatives to theElectoral College. Maryland is allocated 10 electors because it has 8congressional districts and 2senators. 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 afaithless elector.
The electors of each state and theDistrict 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:[14]
State and district results of the2004 United States presidential election | ||
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See also:Political party strength in Maryland | |||||||||||||||||||
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