Romney Wins Maryland Primary

UPDATED (11:15 p.m.)— Mitt Romney has won the Maryland Republican presidential primary, according to multiple news outlets.

At 11 p.m., Romney leads Rick Santorum 91,402 (48 percent) to 57,299 (30 percent) with 1,281 of 1,851 precincts reporting.

"I voted for Romney, he's the lesser of the evils," said Lisa Watts of Darnestown, MD.

Chuck Duvall also of Darnestown, said he voted for Ron Paul, but expected Romney to win the Maryland primary. Both he and his wife, Ruth, said they planned to support Romney against Democratic incumbent President Barack Obama even though he wasn't their primary selection.

A Romney win in Maryland was not unexpected. CNN declared Romney the winner at 8 p.m. when polls in Maryland and Washington closed.

“Maryland’s role is to ratify the decision the Republican leadership has already made around the country,” said Matthew Crenson, professor emeritus of political science at Johns Hopkins University. “The endorsements are all lining up behind Romney”

There are 37 delegates up for grabs in Maryland apportioned by congressional district. The winner of each district earns three delegates who are committed to that respective candidate. The balance goes to the candidate who wins the state.

Entering tonight, Romney was nearly half way to the 1,211 delegates needed to secure his party’s nomination. Santorum had less than 300 total delegates.

At 11 p.m., Romney leads all Republican candidates in every congressional district, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. He also was ahead in 22 of Maryland’s 24 jurisdictions except rural Garrett and Somerset Counties where Santorum holds leads.

Obama is running unopposed in Maryland and has nearly 87 percent of the vote in the Democratic Primary.

Congressional District 1 candidates John LaFerla and Wendy Rosen—of Kent and Baltimore Counties, respectively—will likely have to wait until absentee ballots are counted to determine a winner. 

Less than 100 votes separate the two in the race to challenge incumbent Republican Andy Harris. With 42,648 votes counted just before 11 p.m., Harris received more votes than any other candidate on Tuesday's ballot. 

In the Democratic race, Rosen has a narrow lead of 10,391 votes to LaFerla's 10,257. Kim Letke scored 3,323 votes. 

State Sen. Nancy Jacobs declared victory in the 2 nd Congressional District Republican primary around 10 p.m. The Harford County Republican beat out five other candidates.

Jacobs said if elected, her primary goals in Congress would be to work to repeal "Obamacare" and push for a balanced budget amendment.

"It's time to ditch Dutch (Ruppersberger)," Jacobs said. "We know there are a lot more Democrats than Republicans in the district, but we know that we have a lot of crossover support. There were plenty of people who came up to our workers and told us 'we're Democrats that can't vote for you in the primary, but come the general election, you will have our support."

Around 10:48 p.m. Jacobs had 60.9 percent of the vote with 8,525 votes in the primary for Republican candidacy in the second state congressional district race.

Trailing Jacobs with 3,212 votes, 22.9 percent of the vote, was Del. Rick Impallaria, who represents Baltimore and Harford Counties.. Larry Smith had 1,526 votes making up 10.9 percent of the votes, according to unofficial state board of elections results.

Howard H. Norton, Ray Bly and Vlad Degan had 291, 246 and 205 votes respectively.

Ruppersberger received 17,547 votes.

Incumbent Rep. John Sarbanes has a dominating lead over democratic challenger David H. Lockwood in the Democratic 3rd District congressional race—the candidates have 19,094 and 2,832 votes respectively.

On the Republican side of the race, Eric Delano Knowles (3,884 votes) continues to lead and Thomas E. "Pinkston" Harris ( 3,386 votes) trails close behind. Other contenders in the Republican race for the Third District are Armand F. Girard who currently has 2,648 votes and Draper S. Phelps who trails the pack with 1,595 votes.

Rep. Elijah Cummings has a large lead in the Democratic primary for House of Delegates in the 7th District with 94.5 percent of the vote. Charles U. Smith and Ty Glen Busch are both running against Cummings.

Frank C. Mirabile leads with 71.4 percent of the votes in the 7th Distirict Republican primary. He is running against M. Justin Kinsey.

The district encompasses a large portion of Baltimore City, western Baltimore County and parts of Howard County.  

In the , Ken Timmerman leads a field of four with almost 46 percent of the votes and Dave Wallace has captured around 36 percent of the votes.

Reporters Adam Bedar, Greg Cohen, Nick DiMarco, Kirsten Dize, Nick Gestido,  Ryan McDermott, and Ron Snyder contributed to this story.