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Maryland state Sen. Sarah K. Elfreth was projected to win the Democratic primary to succeed retiring Rep. John Sarbanes in the 3rd Congressional District race on Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press.

In the Republican primary, Robert Steinberger was projected to win out of the field of nine candidates, but the deep-blue district is considered solidly Democratic.

Elfreth and former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn were the leading contenders in the 22-candidate Democratic race that was shaped less by policy differences than name recognition and an influx of millions of dollars in outside spending that escalated in recent weeks.

Dunn told Elfreth that he would be an asset in “any way he can be” to defeat her challenger in November.

While their paths to becoming congressional candidates were different, there was little daylight between Dunn’s and Elfreth’s positions on most issues. Both said they would work to protect abortion rights, tackle gun violence, expand health care, fund Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts and ensure voting rights.

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Elfreth, 35, became the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maryland Senate when she began her term in 2019. She quickly established herself as a workhorse legislator known for responding to her Anne Arundel County constituents, passing bills and scaling partisan divides on more contentious issues. She received endorsements from powerful unions including the Maryland State Education Association, which represents about 70,000 teachers. She also received support from U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin and former senator Barbara A. Mikulski.

A 15-year Capitol Police veteran, Dunn was one of four officers who testified before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. In an interview when he announced his candidacy in January, Dunn told The Washington Post, “It’s no exaggeration to say that we are one election away from the extinction of democracy.”

He said he was motivated to run because so many Republican members of Congress, members he protected as a police officer, had misrepresented the events of Jan. 6 and had not been supportive of Capitol and D.C. police officers. The attack, he said, “was a stain on our nation.”

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The 3rd District, which spans Howard County and parts of Anne Arundel and Carroll counties, is one of three open House seats in Maryland.

The crowded ballot presented a challenge for many voters, including Stephanie Ceruolo of Cape St. Claire, who said she had to scan all the names just to find ones she recognized.

After casting her ballot at Broadneck High School in Annapolis, Ceruolo, 55, said she had to dig to find any differences between the candidates on the issues. For her, the race came down to two things: “She’s elected and she’s a woman. She has experience and we typically don’t give women the same benefit of the doubt.”

Phyllis Birckhead, 46, needed only to look at her two daughters to explain why Elfreth had earned her vote. Several years ago, their day care abruptly closed, leaving Birckhead — a single mother and financial analyst who commutes from Anne Arundel County to D.C. — with few options and plenty of frustration. Birckhead contacted Elfreth’s office to explore what help might be available.

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“She was really helpful,” Birckhead said. “Most people don’t really care, but I feel like she really cared. … She’s relatable and she seems honest.”

Chelsea Phillips, 51, made what she thought was an obvious decision Tuesday: a vote for Dunn. She hadn’t heard of the name until a few months ago, when fliers and TV ads inundated her daily routine. Then she learned of the police officer who she said valiantly defended the nation from election deniers who stormed the Capitol.

“I felt better that he was there” at the Capitol, said Phillips, of Annapolis. “He’s for safety, for everybody.”

A voter at the Atholton High School polling location in Columbia said she supported Dunn because she had received a mailer endorsing him from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). “That was good enough for me,” said the woman, who declined to give her name.

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At a polling place in Fulton, Bob Bruce, 67, said he voted for state Sen. Clarence K. Lam (D-Howard). “He’s represented the district well now for a while, so I thought I’d give him a chance in Congress,” Bruce said. “There was a lot of negative campaigning between Elfreth and Dunn, and it was turning me off.”

Although Dunn was one of the last candidates to jump into the contest, he swiftly became a front-runner by raking in millions in campaign donations, securing high-profile endorsements from national political figures and running an aggressive ad campaign.

“Before Dunn entered the race it seemed clear it would be Elfreth’s race and she would be heading to Congress,” said Todd Eberly, a political scientist at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. “If it had been anyone other than a Capitol Police officer with an incredible backstory it just wouldn’t have been a contest.”

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Dunn was endorsed by a number of national Democratic leaders including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Rep. James E. Clyburn (S.C.) and Schiff. Last week he was endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which includes Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).

Dunn raised more than $4.5 million with significant support from out-of-state donors, far outstripping his competition in individual donations. Elfreth had raised more than $1.4 million, but in the last weeks of the campaign, she benefited from more than $4.1 million in independent expenditures from the United Democracy Project super PAC. Affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the United Democracy Project says it takes money from Republicans and Democrats to support candidates who “will be strong supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship in Congress.”

Eberly said that he used to teach that a typical contested congressional race in Maryland would cost about $1 million. With the cash flowing this year into the 3rd District race, “we have now just blown that out of the water,” Eberly said.

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The financial backing of the super PAC prompted the Dunn campaign to accuse Elfreth of taking “dark money” and lumping her in with far-right Republicans.

Dunn blasted the influx of the super PAC money on X in early April, writing, “A SuperPAC funded by MAGA extremist donors who also gave to Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Lauren Boebert just dropped $500k in our race. They want to buy this election. They will fail.”

Elfreth’s campaign countered that it had no control over outside groups that choose to get involved in the race.

“We aren’t allowed to coordinate with this entity, we aren’t allowed to dictate how they spend their money,” Elfreth campaign spokesman Pat Murray said. He also said that Elfreth supports campaign finance reforms that would restrict super PAC spending.

The Dunn campaign’s efforts to link Elfreth — an established Democrat — to Trump supporters rubbed some Maryland politicians the wrong way.

“It just is exactly what is broken with Washington and not what will lead to a more productive U.S. Congress,” said Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City). Ferguson said the insinuation reflected Dunn’s inexperience in politics.

Teo Armus contributed.

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