MD‑05 Democratic Primary:
MD‑05 Democratic Primary: What Worked, What Didn’t, and What the Results Tell Us
When the dust settled in Maryland’s Fifth Congressional District, we ended up with a result that wasn’t particularly surprising — but the path to that result tells us a great deal about how campaigns succeed or stumble in this district. With the race now officially over and Adrian Boafo the Democratic nominee, I want to walk through what I saw, what voters reacted to, and what these campaigns revealed about themselves.
This isn’t about relitigating the race. It’s about understanding it.
From the beginning, Boafo ran the kind of campaign that wins in MD‑05: disciplined, steady, and relentlessly focused on his own message. He didn’t take the bait from critics, didn’t wander off into side issues, and didn’t try to reinvent himself every week. He stayed on the rails.
He also had something no one else had — Steny Hoyer’s blessing. And in this district, that matters. Hoyer didn’t deliver Boafo a win through tric…