Dorchester County School Board races set for November

CAMBRIDGE - The pool of Dorchester County School Board candidates vying to represent Districts One and Five in November was narrowed to two after Tuesday’s primary election.

The unofficial vote results in District One were: current Board President Mike D. Diaz, Sr. 40.59%, Brandy Dawson Cumberland, 36.79%, and Lucas A. Thorpe, 22.62%.

Results in District Five were: Christopher M. Wheedleton, 60.17%, Michael Hartford, 20.64%, and Jerome J. Harris, 19.19%.

The two top vote getters, Diaz and Cumberland in District One, and Wheedleton and Hartford in District Five, meet in the November general election.

In District Three, current Board Vice President and Past President Susan V. Morgan will run in November against her only primary challenger, Christine LaMonica.

In the contested primary race to fill the open seat of Maryland’s retiring Senator Ben Cardin, the state’s Democrats selected Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks while Republicans chose former Gov. Larry Hogan.

But in Dorchester County, Democrat David Trone and Republican Robin Ficker were the victors.

Trone received 604 votes to 394 for Alsobrooks. Ficker’s 982 total topped Hogan’s 687.

Incumbent District One Congressman, Republican Andy Harris, defeated Chris Bruneau, Sr., 1,514 to 259 votes.

District One’s Democratic results were closer, with winner Blane H. Miller, III receiving 352 votes to 309 for Blessing T. Oluwadare.

In the presidential contest, local Democrats cast 938 votes for President Joe Biden, 107 for Uncommitted, with 23 for Dean Phillips, and 36 for Marianne Williamson, both of whom had dropped out of the race.

Republicans gave former President Donald Trump 2,079 votes and 214 for former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who had suspended her campaign.

According to Dorchester County Board of Elections Director Gwendolyn Dales, local primary voter turnout was among the lowest she could remember, with only a fraction of the county's 24,000 registered voters casting ballots.

There were 2,400 applications for mail-in ballots with 1,500 of those returned by election day, Dales said.