Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) defeated colleague Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) Tuesday in what was one of the nastier senate primaries thus far this election year.
Van Hollen bested Edwards 53-39 for a chance to win the seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.). He had the support of many Democrats, demonstrated earlier this month by criticism from lawmakers and the White House in response to a pro-Edwards ad.
Edwards had also been attacked by Van Hollen supporters as unqualified and insensitive to the needs of her constituents, and said she staked out progressive positions that made her an uncompromising legislator.
“The choice in this election is very clear,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) had said in support of Van Hollen. “It is whether the people of Maryland want somebody who can be effective, or somebody who’s going to bask in her own feelings of moral superiority because of various and sundry factors, and effectiveness has nothing to do with it.”
A black single mother, Edwards accused the Democratic Party establishment of resorting to prejudiced, coded attacks in support of Van Hollen, who is white.
“I thought the Republican Party was full of dog whistles but the Democratic Party has a foghorn,” she told BuzzFeed late last week. “As a sitting member of the House as the Ranking Democrat on one of our committees in the House, as the co-chair of our steering and policy committee sitting at the leadership table with Leader Pelosi, as former chair of the bipartisan women’s caucus, a lawyer: How dare they describe me as unqualified?”
Edwards ran to the left of Van Hollen, noting, for example, his support for most free trade agreements that have come before him while in Congress. She has also been one of the few legislators in the past few years to openly criticize Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Although Edwards was endorsed by Emily’s List, the prominent organization that backs women running for Congress, she failed to get much support from both the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Edwards is a member of both.
“To hell with the aspirations of centuries of people in Maryland, a place where Harriet Tubman came from,” Edwards-backer and CBC member, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) had told the Associated Press. “To hell with that. I mean, he looks like a senator.”
