The 2016 United States Senate election in Maryland took place on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Maryland, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Incumbent Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski decided to retire after five terms in the Senate. Primary elections were held on April 26, 2016, in which Chris Van Hollen and Kathy Szeliga were chosen as the Democratic and Republican party nominees, respectively. In addition, the Green Party chose Margaret Flowers and the Libertarian Party chose Arvin Vohra as their respective nominees.
Van Hollen was heavily favored to win the election. He ultimately won with over 60% of the vote. As typically occurs with the state's elections, most support for the Democratic nominee, Van Hollen, came from the densely populated Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area in central Maryland, while the Republican nominee, Szeliga, did well in the more sparsely populated areas in the eastern and western parts of the state.
Mikulski first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1974, losing to Republican incumbent Charles Mathias. Mikulski then served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, succeeding the retiring Mathias. She was re-elected by large margins in 1992, 1998, 2004 and 2010. Shortly after being sworn in for her fifth term in 2011, she succeeded Margaret Chase Smith as the longest-serving female Senator in U.S. history and on March 17, 2012, she became the longest-serving female member of Congress in U.S. history, surpassing Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts, who served from 1925 to 1960. On March 2, 2015, Mikulski announced that she would not run for re-election to a sixth term in office.
In August 2013, Abby Livingston of Roll Call had predicted that a potential retirement by Mikulski would create "chaos" and "blow open Maryland's political bottleneck" because "the state's teeming political Democratic Party talent is backed up in lower offices."
Donna Edwards, U.S. Representative
Freddy Donald Dickson, Jr.
Ralph Jaffe, perennial candidate
Theresa Scaldaferri
Charles U. Smith, perennial candidate
Violet Staley
Blaine Taylor
Ed Tinus, perennial candidate
Chris Van Hollen, U.S. Representative
Lih Young, perennial candidate
Rushern Baker, Prince George's County Executive (endorsed Chris Van Hollen)
Anthony G. Brown, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and nominee for Governor of Maryland in 2014 (running for MD-04)
Susan L. Burke, attorney
Elijah Cummings, U.S. Representative
John Delaney, U.S. Representative
Peter Franchot, Comptroller of Maryland
Doug Gansler, former Attorney General of Maryland and candidate for Governor of Maryland in 2014
Steny Hoyer, U.S. Representative and House Minority Whip
Kevin Kamenetz, Baltimore County Executive
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, nominee for Governor in 2002 and nominee for Maryland's 2nd congressional district in 1986
Barbara Mikulski, incumbent Senator
Heather Mizeur, former State Delegate and candidate for Governor in 2014
Martin O'Malley, former Governor of Maryland (ran for President)
Thomas Perez, United States Secretary of Labor and former Secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation
Jamie Raskin, State Senator (running for MD-08)
Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Mayor of Baltimore
Dutch Ruppersberger, U.S. Representative
John Sarbanes, U.S. Representative and son of former U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes
Kenneth Ulman, former Howard County Executive and nominee for Lieutenant Governor in 2014
Benjamin Jealous, former President and CEO of the NAACP
Frank Kratovil, former U.S. Representative
Kweisi Mfume, former U.S. Representative, former President and CEO of the NAACP and candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2006
* Internal poll for Elijah Cummings
** Internal poll for Donna Edwards
Van Hollen won the April 26, 2016 primary in each of Maryland's counties except Prince George's and Charles, where Donna Edwards received more votes. Democratic voters in Baltimore City also preferred Edwards.
Chris Chaffee, candidate for MD-05 in 2010 and nominee for MD-05 in 2014
Sean P. Connor
Richard Douglas, attorney, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2012
John Graziani, candidate for MD-04 in 2014
Greg Holmes, candidate for MD-04 in 2012 and 2014 and Democratic State Senate candidate in 2006
Joseph Hooe, small business owner
Chrys Kefalas, Vice President of Executive Communications for the National Association of Manufacturers and deputy legal counsel under Governor Bob Ehrlich
Mark McNicholas
Lynn Richardson
Anthony Seda
Richard Shawver, candidate for U.S. Senate in 2006
Kathy Szeliga, State Delegate and House Minority Whip
Dave Wallace, businessman and nominee for MD-08 in 2014
Garry Thomas Yarrington
Kendel Ehrlich, former First Lady of Maryland
Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, former State Delegate and candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 2014
Mary Kane, former Secretary of State of Maryland and nominee for Lieutenant Governor in 2010
Allan Kittleman, Howard County Executive
Connie Morella, former U.S. Representative and former United States Ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Laura Neuman, former Anne Arundel County Executive
Boyd Rutherford, Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
Michael Steele, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee and nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2006
Dan Bongino, former United States Secret Service agent, nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2012 and nominee for Maryland's 6th congressional district in 2014 (moved to Florida)
Ben Carson, author and retired Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital (running for President)
Robert Ehrlich, former Governor of Maryland
Barry Glassman, Harford County Executive
Andy Harris, U.S. Representative (running for re-election)
Larry Hogan, Governor of Maryland
Steve Schuh, Anne Arundel County Executive
Szeliga won the April 26, 2016 primary in Baltimore City and each of Maryland's counties except Calvert, St. Mary's, Charles, and Prince George's, in which Chris Chaffee received more votes.
Margaret Flowers, former pediatrician, healthcare activist and radio host
Greg Dorsey
Steve Gladstone
Edward Shlikas
Kay Young
Arvin Vohra, nominee for MD-05 in 2012 and for MD-04 in 2014
Candidates
Margaret Flowers, (G) former pediatrician, healthcare activist and radio host
Kathy Szeliga, (R) State Delegate and House Minority Whip
Chris Van Hollen, (D) U.S. Representative
Arvin Vohra, (L) nominee for MD-05 in 2012 and for MD-04 in 2014
* Only those in Maryland's 6th Congressional District were polled
