by Kate Shunney
Washington County voters weighed in on statewide, district and local races during early, mail-in and in-person voting during the June 23 gubernatorial primary election. County election officials continue to canvass the election results but preliminary election totals were available from the Maryland Board of Elections at press time.
County voters chose Pieter Bickford, Robin Merchant-Spickler and Linda Murray as the top three vote-getters in the 7-way race for the Washington County Board of Education. Bickford collected 9,504 votes countywide, Murray garnered 8,423 votes and Merchant-Spickler took in 7,821, narrowly outpacing the Mike Guessford, who fell short of the top three by just 56 votes.
In the race for Washington County Sheriff, Republican incumbent Brian Albert won the GOP primary race brought by challenger Chuckie Johnson. Albert won with 68.5% of the Republican vote. He will face off in November against Junior McLeod, Democrat who was unopposed in his party’s primary.
Lacy Flook, Register of Wills, emerged from the primary without any challenges in the GOP. There were no Democrats running for that office.
Kevin Tucker similarly sailed through an unopposed GOP primary in an effort to be re-elected to the Clerk of the Circuit Court post. He has no Democratic opponents in the general election.
Adam Grievell appeared to win a razor-thin Republican primary for State’s Attorney, topping longtime attorney Gina Cirincion by just 18 votes. Preliminary vote totals tallied 4,672 votes for Grievell and 4,654 for Cirincion.
John McElroy won the GOP primary seeking the party’s nomination for Treasurer. He topped Seth Wilson by a margin of 56 to 44 percent.
Crowded races for the Board of County Commissioners narrowed slightly during primary voting. Voters could select five choices for seats on the commission.
In the Democratic race, the top five vote-getters out of a field of eight candidates for County Commission were Lara Shepherd, Dave Williams, Teri Pailen, Les McIntosh, Sr. and Jonathan Fish.
In the Republican primary with nine candidates, the top five finishers in the primary were incumbents Randy Leatherman, John Barr, Charles Burkett and Jeff Cline and candidate Dan Young.
In the House of Delegates race to represent District 1C, incumbent Republican Terry Baker had no challenger from his party, nor did Democrat Seth Funk. Baker and Funk will face off on November’s general election ballot.
State Senator Mike McKay, Representing District 1 (Western Maryland) also sailed through the GOP primary without opposition, as did Democrat Ashley Emerick. McKay and Emerick will be on the November ballot seeking that State Senate seat.
Voters across Maryland’s 6th Congressional district backed incumbent Democrat April McClain Delaney in her bid for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, though she had a tough race challenged by David Trone, who narrowly missed taking the lead in a field of eight Democratic candidates. Delaney prevailed with 18,146 votes.
Republicans chose Robin Flicker as their party’s candidate to appear on the November ballot against Delaney. Flicker brought in 14,287 votes in the primary to win.
Maryland’s gubernatorial race in November will be between incumbent team Wes Moore and Lt. Governor Aruna Miller and Republicans Dan Cox and Rob Krop.
Cox and Krop had a solid win in a nine-candidate GOP primary, bringing in 78,398 votes.
Moore and Miller secured 362,470 votes in the Democratic primary.
Preliminary ballot totals continue to be canvassed by the Washington County Board of Elections through July 6.
