Ben Jealous beat County Executive Rushern Baker by an 11 percent margin statewide, even though Greenbelters voted for Baker to be the Democratic candidate for Maryland governor over Jealous by a 7 percent margin. Baker did even better in the rest of P.G. County with a 12 percent margin of support but this winning margin in his home county was not enough to offset Jealous’s strong support in Baltimore City and other parts of the state. Greenbelt Center voters, however, bucked the overall Greenbelt and county trend by backing Jealous, with Baker losing to him by 17 and 29 votes at the Precinct 3 Community Center and Precinct 6 Greenbelt Elementary School polling places, respectively. This was not the only election where Greenbelters differed with the state or county as to who should be nominated. Greenbelt Republicans, although few in number, voted for incumbent Larry Hogan for Governor and expressed equal preference for two candidates for U.S. Senate not chosen statewide. They gave 25 votes each to Chris Chafee and Cristina Gregorian, while Tony Campbell won the Republican nomination for senator statewide with 29 percent of the vote. Campbell, while placing third here, lost by only one vote and did win the Greenbelt Elementary and Trinity Assembly of God precincts by a margin of one vote each. Also, Greenbelters differed with the county as to who should be the Democratic nominees for the two new at-large seats on the Prince George’s County Council.
Countywide, Calvin Hawkins and Karen Toles were nominated and, without Republican opposition, should be elected in November.
In Greenbelt, Juanita CulbreathMiller led Toles by 77 votes and was the vote-leader in all city precincts except at the Greenbelt Elementary polls where she lost to Toles by 30 votes.
Vote Leader
In this primary, honors go to State Senator Paul Pinsky for earning the most votes of any
candidate in his unopposed bid to be re-elected to office. He obtained 1,888 expressions of support. State Comptroller Brian Frosh, also unopposed in his bid seeking the Democratic nomination, received the second most Greenbelt votes: 1,835. Also popular with Greenbelt Democrats were U.S. Senator Ben Cardin and Fifth District U.S.Congressman Steny Hoyer. They each overwhelmed their opposition in their quest for nomination for another term of office. Cardin will be opposed by Campbell and Hoyer by Republican William Devine, III, in November’s congressional election. Greenbelters will be represented by the same delegation to the Maryland General Assembly: Alonzo Washington, who received 79 percent of Greenbelt votes cast, Tawanna Gaines and Anne Healey. Nicole Williams placed fourth, having 10 percent fewer votes than Healey. Other easy winners were Angela Alsobrooks, who beat Donna Edwards by a margin of 41 percent in Greenbelt for the Democratic nomination for Prince George’s County Executive and Lupi Grady, who was re-elected to the District 2 seat on the county Board of Education, beating Joshua Thomas by a 14 percent margin, although Thomas was the winner at Greenbelt Elementary School.
Turnout
Although almost 1,300 more Greenbelters were registered for this primary than for the Presidential Primary two years ago, voter turnout was significantly less as this year’s election stirred little voter interest. Citywide, 21 percent of persons registered to vote actually did vote, with the highest turnout being at Greenbelt Elementary at 27 percent. Theturnout for registered Democratswas 23 percent, for Republicans, 12 percent, and for other registrants, 4 percent. Only one Republican voted at the Springhill Lake Elementary School polls.
In 2016, the Greenbelt News Review reported a turnout of 37 percent for Greenbelt.
