WHY THE 2024 PRIMARY MATTERS

March 18, 2024

By Greg Decker

There are actually a few reasons that the primary election in MoCo matters this year. We will talk about just one of those reasons here and then follow-up in future installments.

As you probably know, Maryland sends 8 representatives to Congress. In recent years the only one who is a Republican is Andy Harris from District 1. Previously, we had another Republican representative but severe gerrymandering effectively eliminated Republican Roscoe Bartlett from representing District 6. After the 2020 census and much judicial and legislative wrangling District 6 has been returned to a demographic make-up which as far as major party registration is fairly equal.

An election district analysis at the non-partisan website “FiveThirtyEight” indicates that Maryland’s 6^th District is now what they call “Highly Competitive” as opposed to how it used to be, D+double-digits. Democrat David Trone has purchased this district for the last few terms but he has set his sights on the US Senate so there is now no incumbent running.

Here are a couple of images, from the “FiveThirtyEight” site, which describe the demographic make-up of Maryland’s Congressional Districts:

You could further explore the “FiveThirtyEight” web site here: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/redistricting-2022-maps/maryland/

Maryland’s 6^th Congressional District is a must-win district if we are to have a chance to turn this ship around. And it’s something we here in Montgomery County can do something about. About a quarter of the voters in District 6 reside in the northern part of our county.

Here is a map of the Congressional Districts in Montgomery County:

If you would like to confirm exactly which Congressional District you now live in, you can follow this link at the Maryland Board of Elections site.

https://voterservices.elections.maryland.gov/VoterSearch

But even if you don’t live in District 6, you can still become involved in getting a Republican elected. Start with getting to know the Republican candidates listed below alphabetically with their web site links.

The Maryland 2024 Primary election day is May 14^th, but the election really begins at the end of this month when mail-in ballots start being mailed out. Please consider “Banking Your Vote” via the mail-in ballot system. Here is the link to learn more about signing up for the permanent mail-in ballot list.

https://www.mcgop.com/bankyourvote

So you don’t have to go to Wisconsin or Michigan or even Pennsylvania. (Although I would not discourage that if you have the inclination.) All you have to do to make a difference is help get Republican voters to vote right here in Northern Montgomery County.

In our next installment, we will talk about the upcoming Board of Education races for which this primary election is critically important if we are to move that body in the right direction.