Thompson: Where did Maryland’s George Wallace voters go?

Fifty years ago, the day before the 1972 Maryland presidential primary, then-Alabama governor and Democratic presidential candidate George C. Wallace was shot at the Laurel Shopping Center in Prince George’s County. Wallace won Maryland — and Michigan, held the same day — but he was permanently paralyzed by the shooting. Despite winning two more terms as Alabama’s governor, he never again was a serious presidential contender. Wallace was never nominated for president, but his influence on the politics of the 1960s and 1970s was important, and his popularity in Maryland was significant.