It took a week after Election Day before Democrat Steuart Pittman could claim victory in his reelection bid for Anne Arundel County Executive against GOP opponent Jessica Haire. Out of 176,174 votes in the county race, Haire garnered 49.8% while Pittman had 49.9% of the votes, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections. It was one of three races in the county where Democrats who trailed after Election Day benefitted from mail-in ballots.
Pittman was down by nearly 11,000 votes after Election Day but began gaining ground as mail in ballots were counted, eventually pulling ahead at the end of counting Tuesday.
Pittman will serve his second term starting on Dec. 5.
In the race for the State Senate in District 33, which stretches across the center of the county, Democrat Dawn Gile trailed two-term Republican Del. Sid Saab last week, but took an 850-vote lead Tuesday.
And Del. Heather Bagnall, a Democrat who broke through the red wall to win a House seat in that district four years ago, was a little more than 1,000 votes behind Republican Keith Gillespie at the close of election day. She has pulled within 100 votes.
Should Gile and Bagnall hang on to win, it would be the first time ever that district would have a majority Democratic delegation to the General Assembly.
Pittman had said repeatedly that he was confident the mail in ballots, which were heavily weighted to Democrats, would give him the victory. When he took a lead of a little less than 200 votes Tuesday evening, his opponent, Republican County Councilwoman Jessica Haire, called to concede.
Pittman thanked her for her “very gracious” concession call in a news conference Wednesday and said he projects his margin will be a “comfortable” six or seven points after the remaining 35,000 or so ballots are counted.
“Which, to me, means it's time to get to work,” he said in front of a crowd of supporters that included union firefighters. “And we have a lot of promises to keep just like we did four years ago. And I will be working with the people behind me and all of the residents of this county to deliver on those promises.”
And he noted the lack of rancor over the election, as opposed to other races nationally where charges of corruption flew.
“Maybe there are a few people out there who have concerns, but I just have a real sense of gratitude that in this county, we participate, we engage, and at the end of the day, we shake hands, and that's what we've done,” he said.
