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Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke, who was seen as the likely Democratic frontrunner in the race,^[7][8] announced in September 1993 that he would not run for governor, instead opting for a third term as mayor in 1995.^[9]

Prince George's County Executive Parris Glendening, Lieutenant Governor Melvin Steinberg, and state senator Mary Boergers were among the first candidates to enter the race for governor. Governor William Donald Schaefer, unimpressed with the early candidates, who were distancing themselves from Schaefer, encouraged state senator American Joe Miedusiewski and U.S. representatives Steny Hoyer and Ben Cardin to enter the race.^[10][11] Although Miedusiewski entered the race a few weeks later,^[12] Schaefer declined to endorse him, saying that he didn't do endorsements, but urged voters to support him.^[13]

Steinberg was initially viewed as the frontrunner of the Democratic primary, but his campaign suffered from poor fundraising and gaffes that contributed to his dwindling lead in polling.^[14] Glendening receiving the endorsements of both Schmoke^[15] and Montgomery County Executive Neal Potter^[16] established him as the new frontrunner in the race^[17] and gave him an overwhelming lead in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and Baltimore City, which led to his resounding victory in the Democratic primary in September 1994.^[18]

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Ahead of the election, Republicans expressed optimism in their ability to retake the governor's office,^[46] with party nominees receiving about 40 percent of the vote in recent elections^[47] and polls showing voters strongly disapproving of Governor William Donald Schaefer as a result of his support for a $800 million tax restructuring package and media coverage of his "style" problems, including his "shithouse" gaffe.^[48][49] Potential Republican candidates predicted a crowded Democratic field to succeed Schaefer in 1994 and a resulting fratricide that would make coalescing around a single candidate following the primary elections challenging for the Democratic Party. Republicans also believed that the party was likely to nominate an urban-oriented nominee, which they saw as an ideal general election opponent.^[47]

1990 gubernatorial nominee William Shepard became the first candidate to enter the race, followed shortly afterwards by House of Delegates minority leader Ellen Sauerbrey in April 1993.^[50] Anne Arundel County Executive Robert R. Neall, who was viewed as the early Republican frontrunner,^[51] announced in October 1993 that he would not run for governor, clearing a path for U.S. representative Helen Delich Bentley,^[52] who announced her candidacy for governor a month later.^[53]

Sauerbrey steadily rose in polling during the Republican primary election, bringing the gap between her and Bentley within 13 points five days before the primary.^[14] She also criticized Bentley as a "big-spending liberal", citing her voting record in Congress; Bentley did not respond to Sauerbrey's attacks and chose to keep a low profile at debates, opting to instead focus on the general election. Sauerbrey won the Republican nomination in an upset in September 1994, defeating Bentley by a margin of 52 percent to 38 percent. Sauerbrey's surprise win marked a rightward shift in the Maryland Republican Party's politics and was one of many defeats for the Republican establishment, as voters rejected two of the state's three members on the Republican National Committee and defeated establishment candidate Richard Taylor in the Comptroller primary election.^[54]

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In the general election, Glendening sought to position himself as a prudent fiscal manager, citing his record as county executive, and on a platform supporting education, public safety, and environmental protection. Sauerbrey continued to campaign on lowering taxes and deregulation.^[60][61]

In the final eight weeks of the election, Glendening spent $2.5 million on campaign ads portraying Sauerbrey as a right-wing extremist who would roll back protections on gun control and abortion rights, and associating her with televangelist Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition, who distributed campaign literature in churches spotlighting certain political positions of Glendening and Sauerbrey.^[62][63] He also criticized her pledge to cut taxes, calling her a "millionairess" and arguing that it would curtail essential state services and force local jurisdictions to compensate by raising property taxes. As a result of the ad blitz, Sauerbrey's approval ratings fell into the 30 percent range within the final days of the election.^[60]

Glendening's narrow win in the general election against Sauerbrey led Governor Schaefer to call for a "rebuilding" of the Maryland Democratic Party led by U.S. senator Barbara Mikulski.^[64]

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Dispute over results

On November 12, 1994, Sauerbrey's campaign said that it had hired sixteen professional investigators, led by attorney George Beall and party counsel Chris West, to probe complaints of voter fraud and irregularities in the gubernatorial general election.^[76][77] The investigation claimed that voting machines in Prince George's and Montgomery counties and the city of Baltimore had been tampered with to record votes from 4,774 incarcerated individuals, 37 dead voters, 71 individuals who provided elections officials with addresses of vacant buildings, 20 unregistered voters, and 84 voters who had voted twice. Sauerbrey filed an unprecedented^[78] lawsuit seeking to overturn the general election results, citing the findings of her investigation and earlier claims that about 2,000 absentee ballots were cast without a required affidavit or processed early by election officials.^[79][80] Lawyers for the Glendening campaign sought to dismiss Sauerbrey's lawsuit, saying that the alleged voting irregularities were "the result of [at worst] excusable neglect, or do not involve intentially wrongful acts or acts of fraud by voters, election officials, or others" and that Sauerbrey could not prove that such voters cast ballots for Glendening or voted in the governor's race at all. Maryland attorney general J. Joseph Curran Jr. also sought the dismissal of the lawsuit, saying that the Constitution of Maryland gave the Maryland House of Delegates exclusive jurisdiciton over deciding the outcome of a disputed gubernatorial election.^[81]

On January 14, 1995, Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Raymond G. Thieme Jr. rejected Sauerbrey's claims, saying that while the Maryland Republican Party's investigation of the election presented "serious problems in Baltimore City", Sauerbrey presented no "clear and convicing" proof of election fraud.^[4] Sauerbrey initially planned to appeal Judge Thieme's decision, but withdrew her appeal on January 16, 1995.^[82]

In November 2020, in an interview with Maryland Matters after President Donald Trump made false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Sauerbrey expressed no regrets about challenging her 1994 election outcome.^[83]