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Pugh won with 36.8 percent of the tally, edging out her closest rival, former Mayor Sheila Dixon, who received 34.5 percent of the vote.

“I am the Democratic nominee,” Pugh said, smiling as she greeted a couple hundred enthusiastic supporters at the downtown Baltimore Harbor Hotel, only a few blocks from City Hall, as the race was being called by the Associated Press. “My message is about inclusion, about lifting up the least of us.”

“Having been through a lot, we are now in the process of transformation,” Rep. Elijah Cummings said in introducing Pugh to her election night campaign party at about 11 p.m..

In last week’s early voting—in which 9 percent of eligible residents voted—Pugh garnered 44.5 percent of the tally. Former Mayor Sheila Dixon won received 33.2 percent, followed by attorney Elizabeth Embry at 8.4 percent, businessman David Warnock at 7.1 percent and City Councilman Carl Stokes at 3.4 percent. Although the final percentages of Embry, Warnock and Stokes’ totals changed slightly after the final count, the order of their finish remained the same. DeRay Mckesson, an activist with a large social media following, received 2.5 percent of the overall vote.

On the Republican side, former WBAL radio host Alan Walden won the GOP mayoral nomination with 41 percent of the vote. In heavily Democratic Baltimore City, however, Walden’s raw vote total was smaller than Mckesson’s.

“If the early results show that Sen. Pugh has a significant lead, I think that means we will have a very good night,” Pugh spokesman Anthony McCarthy said earlier in the day. “If they show that Sheila Dixon has a substantial lead, well, we’ll still hold out hope,” McCarthy added with a chuckle.

McCarthy’s take proved prophetic as Dixon led Pugh by a small margin in votes actually cast on election day, but not by enough to overtake Pugh’s substantial lead among early voters.

Pugh touched on several themes in her brief acceptance speech, including helping ex-offenders, promoting small business and city tourism, and supporting community policing initiatives.

“This is an exciting time for the Democratic Party. I extend my deepest congratulations to Senator Pugh, Congressman Van Hollen, and all of the other winners of today’s Democratic primary,” said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who decided not to seek re-election after last April’s unrest, in a statement. “I look forward to a spirited summer and fall as we work toward a Democratic victory in Maryland and across our nation this November.”

Pugh’s campaign received endorsements from much of city Democratic party establishment and elected officials in recent weeks, including from Cummings. She also received the endorsement of former NAACP head and Baltimorean Ben Jealous, West Baltimore pastor Jamal Bryant, and prominent local attorney Billy Murphy.

The Baltimore Sun also endorsed Pugh. The Afro-American newspaper endorsed her top rival, former Mayor Sheila Dixon.

In the state’s presidential primaries, CNN projected Donald Trump as the Republican winner and Hillary Clinton as the Democratic winner—both had maintained large margins in polls leading up to election—before any of precincts had officially reported.

In the state’s U.S. Senate Democratic primary, Montgomery County Rep. Chris Van Hollen defeated Prince George’s County Rep. Donna Edwards and will be vying in November’s general election to fill the shoes of retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

In the state’s U.S. Senate Republican primary, Baltimore County Del. Kathy Szeliga captured the GOP’s nomination.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore City Council is also getting a shake-up this election cycle.

Six of the current 15 City Council members declined this year to seek re-election, including longtime legislators Robert Curran, Helen Holton, and Rochelle “Ricki” Spector, all whom are retiring. First District Councilman Jim Kraft gave up his seat to run for judge, and fellow members Carl Stokes and Nick Mosby gave up their seats to campaign for mayor, although Mosby recently dropped out of the race and endorsed Pugh.

Two other incumbent City Council legislators, District 9 member William “Pete” Welch and District 13 member Warren Branch, lost their seats, to challengers John Bullock and Shannon Sneed, respectively.

Finally, some questionable tactics during the election season continued on election day. One example was the slashing of 3rd District City Council candidate Ryan Dorsey’s tires, which he discovered at 4:30 a.m. as he was starting his day.

“Thankfully, I have some great neighbors who were willing to help me with transportation,” Dorsey said while greeting voters outside Northwood Elementary. “I have had signs slashed and stolen as well during this entire campaign. Big signs, too. Not just the small yard signs that are easily pulled up.”

In Bolton Hill, windshield fliers headed “Press Release,” with no address or name attached, claimed that former Mayor Dixon, who was forced to resign during her term because of theft and perjury charges, was “set up” by political opponents.

And at Catherine Pugh’s campaign headquarters, the windshield of a van that belonged to her campaign was smashed and its tires slashed, and another van was damaged after part-time campaign workers, expecting to be paid, were told they wouldn’t be needed today,according to reporting by The Sun.

There were also reports of campaign polling places opening late Tuesday, struggles at some venues with the return to paper but scanned ballots, and also a shortage of “I Voted” stickers.

*This story will be updated.

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Conducted by OpinionWorks, an Annapolis-based firm, for The Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore, the survey shows Pugh as the top choice of 31 percent of the 400 likely voters surveyed. Dixon came in second, earning the support of 25 percent of likely Democratic primary voters.

Elizabeth Embry, who served as chief of the criminal division in the Maryland state’s attorney general’s office before running for office, came in third with 9 percent of the tally. She was followed by investor and philanthropist David Warnock at 7 percent. City Councilmen Carl Stokes and Nick Mosby each received the support of 5 percent of those polled. DeRay Mckesson, a national Black Lives Matter activist with Baltimore roots recently endorsed by John Waters, and the rest of the field received less than 1 percent support. Fourteen percent of likely Democratic voters remain undecided.

“Senator Pugh is clearly the one in command now in this race,” Steve Raabe, president of OpinionWorks, told The Sun. “She is leading and widening her lead.”

Dixon campaign manager Anthony Jones pushed back against the poll results, saying that the survey failed to include 20,000 ex-offenders, who had recently received the right to vote. He also noted that the same pollster had been wrong about the most Maryland governor’s race three weeks before that election.

“When The Sun poll was taken over last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, we had just begun our advertising campaign, whereas our opponents had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars driving their message on the airwaves in the previous six weeks before the poll,” Jones said in an email release. “We are confident that Sheila Dixon’s proven track record of reducing crime and her deep connection to the community will be at the forefront of voters’ minds as they head to the polls starting a week from today.”

Embry’s campaign manager, on the other hand, noting the poll showed his candidate moving several others into third place, said in an email that time still remains in the race for more changes.

“Thirty-eight percent of voters are still soft in their support for other candidates and might change their vote,” Coon said. “The race is still very fluid and Elizabeth has room to grow.”

Pugh, however, was also the leading “second choice” among likely voters with 23 percent of that tally, followed by Dixon at 12 percent.

For the first time ever, the mayor’s race is coinciding with the presidential election, which is expected to boost turnout at the primary. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an unexpectedly competitive race with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, announced today that she will be making a campaign stop in Maryland Sunday.

Also coinciding with the mayor’s race is a very competitive U.S. Senate race between U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards and U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen.

Early primary voting in Maryland begins April 14 with same-day registration offered during the early voting period—which continues through April 21— for the first time ever this year. Early voting centers in the state can be found here.

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