City Council President Brandon Scott claimed victory Tuesday night in the Democratic primary for Baltimore’s mayor, as the latest batch of election results brought the gap between him and former mayor Sheila Dixon to 1.7%.
“Tonight, we celebrate a hard-fought victory for the future of Baltimore,” Scott said in a statement. “From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank my family, my team, our volunteers, those who voted for a new way forward for Baltimore, and everyone who believes change is not just possible, but long overdue.”
Scott leads Dixon by 2,358 votes. The city council president has 29.4% of the preliminary votes counted, while Dixon has 27.7%. There are about 2,000 uncounted ballots remaining.
“Our city stands at a crossroads,” Scott’s statement continued. “We will only move forward as a city united. It will take all of us to build a city that is safe, equitable and accountable. As a son of Baltimore, I could not be more honored to lead our great city in this critical moment and carry the work forward.”
The Tuesday update was the latest boost in Scott’s lead over Dixon since he first surpassed her vote count on Sunday — the Baltimore City Elections board is still counting mail-in ballots a full week into the protracted race, the first statewide election that Maryland conducted by mail.
Election workers counted 2,589 ballots on Tuesday — one full week after primary day — bringing the total amount canvassed to 153,568 votes. The preliminary figure has exceeded the 2016 Baltimore Democratic primary turnout, which saw 135,588 voters cast ballots.
Baltimore City Elections Director Armstead Jones said that elections workers will sort through about 1,000 provisional ballots on Wednesday, some of which will be rejected. The election is scheduled to be certified by Friday.
The Dixon campaign declined a request to comment on Tuesday night.
Scott is the final citywide candidate to declare victory in the primary race that has resulted in a drastic sea change -- none of the three Democratic citywide winners are incumbents.
On Monday night, Councilman Bill Henry declared victory in the primary for city comptroller after leading longtime incumbent Joan Pratt by more than 11,000 votes. Tuesday numbers show him with a 9% lead over Pratt.
Del. Nick Mosby declared victory in the City Council President’s race on Tuesday afternoon after maintaining a double digit lead over Councilwoman Shannon Sneed.
This story will be updated.
