Politics

No, Maryland is not about to flip from blue to red. Vice President Kamala Harris carried the state by more than 20 points, and Democrats held the open U.S. Senate seat and were on the way to retaining their 7-1 advantage in the state’s U.S. House delegation — their top political priorities this year. They also waded into local school board elections for the first time in recent memory and fared pretty well.

Abortion-rights activists celebrated the overwhelming approval Tuesday of a ballot measure that adds reproductive rights to the state constitution, but woke up Wednesday to President-elect Donald Trump and fears that a Republican-controlled Congress could undermine Tuesday’s win. Even though Trump backed away from previous anti-abortion positions during this campaign, reproductive-freedom activists fear that abortion protections under the state’s new constitutional amendment would be undermined by a federal abortion ban, if one is enacted, and are working out next steps to take.

The largest Maryland county, Montgomery County, also has the biggest federal government workforce in the state. With about 95,980 federal employees calling the county their home, local officials are looking into how President-elect Donald Trump’s second term could impact the economy. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich told reporters Wednesday that while it’s no longer considered a “company town,” the county will be conducting an assessment to weigh the potential economic impacts of Trump’s plan to move government jobs out of the D.C. area.

As Henry Shippey walked to his job at a bar in Fells Point the day after the election the fact that everyone and everything seemed the same as always came in stark contrast to what was swirling inside his head. “I was filled with existential thoughts and dread,” the 22-year-old Bolton Hill resident said. He took Thursday off.

Though she voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and hoped the Democrat would come out on top, 20-year-old Morgan State University student Raegan Green said she “wasn’t at all surprised” by the outcome of Tuesday’s presidential election. “I checked my phone, saw the results and continued to eat my breakfast,” she said. “It didn’t faze me. I had tests to study for and a 9 a.m. class to get to.”

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks will become a member of the United States Senate in January. If she waits to give up her current job until right before then, her successor would be chosen from among the county council members eyeing a promotion. Her successor might come from the county council, but it’s likely that whoever finishes out her term will do so by winning another special election next year.

Baltimore County residents will have a chance to weigh in on the council’s choice for a new county executive, replacing newly minted Democratic Congressman-elect Johnny Olszewski Jr. in January. A public hearing is being planned for the first week of December, said Council Chairman Izzy Patoka, in order “to hear from the public, our stakeholders, what they believe the qualities are that an interim county executive ought to have.”