Maryland and Republican Conventions

By Marc Korman.

Last week I took a look back at Maryland and the Democratic National Convention. This week, in honor of the Republicans gathering in Minnesota (in whatever form it ends up taking), here’s a review of Maryland’s involvement in Republican conventions.

Conventions

The Republican Party was born in the mid-1850s. It was a collection of members of small and failed political parties, including Whigs, Northern Democrats, Free Soilers, and Know Nothings. Baltimore was home to one Republican Party Convention. In 1864, Republicans convened in Baltimore and renominated Abraham Lincoln. The Republicans also removed Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, a former Maine Senator, from the ticket and replaced him with Andrew Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee. Republicans never again met in Maryland.

Nominees

As with the Democratic Party, there has never been a Marylander on the top of the Republican ticket. But a Marylander was elected Vice President as a Republican, Spiro Agnew. Governor Agnew was tapped as Nixon’s running mate in 1968, partly because of his firm response to the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Agnew’s actions during and after the riots complimented Nixon’s emerging Southern strategy, in which he sought to break the Democrats’ hold on the South by exploiting the contentious issue of civil rights.

No other Marylanders were nominated to a Republican ticket.

Speakers

Due to the Democrats’ dominance in Maryland, speakers from the state at Republican conventions are quite rare. This year, former Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele is scheduled to speak on the convention’s second night (subject to change due to Hurricane Gustav). Steele also spoke at the Republican Convention in 2004. The Washington Post reported last week that another of the state’s prominent Republicans, Bob Ehrlich, would not be attending.