After Election Day, Md. Republicans feel relevant again

For Maryland Republicans, the meaning of Tuesday’s elections could be summed up in three words: “We’re relevant again.”

That assessment by Joe Cluster, the state party’s executive director, followed a decisive win by Republican Gov.-elect Larry Hogan and gains for Republican members of the General Assembly. Come January, a party that many had dismissed as unlikely to ever win another statewide contest in heavily Democratic Maryland will all of a sudden have a real say in Annapolis.

Some giddy party members already are talking about a second term for Hogan and wondering whether his victory — the second election of a Republican governor in the past 12 years — might be a signal that a state long perceived as liberal could become more purple than blue.

There was talk of using Hogan’s laserlike focus on tax relief to rebrand the GOP in Maryland in a way that could broaden the party’s base and cut into the Democrats’ enormous advantage in registered voters.

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