As Baltimore continues to heal from the turmoil of last year’s rioting, the city has become a key battleground in Maryland’s Democratic Senate primary where a black woman and a white man are competing for the nomination.
Top Democrats in Washington and even the White House have taken the unusual step of weighing in on the election contest, in which crime and gun control have been a hot issue.
U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards is attempting to become the nation’s second black female senator and successor to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the nation’s longest-serving female senator who is retiring after her fifth term. Edwards and Rep. Chris Van Hollen are expected to win their respective districts that include the suburbs of the nation’s capital.
The other big chunk of Maryland’s Democratic voters lives in and around Baltimore, where neither candidate is very well known. The overwhelmingly Democratic city has a black population of about 63 percent.
The city and its suburbs are an essential election prize in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1. Both candidates have campaigned extensively there.
Statewide, Maryland’s black population is about 30 percent, the highest of any state outside the Deep South.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Brian Witte over at the ABC News