United States House of Representatives elections in Maryland, 2008

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November 4, 2008 (2008-11-04)

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All 8 Maryland seats to the United States House of Representatives

	Majority party	Minority party

Party	Democratic	Republican
Last election	6 seats, 64.63%	2 seats, 32.15%
Seats won	7	1
Seat change	1	1
Popular vote	1,677,490	762,587
Percentage	67.15%	30.53%
Swing	+2.52%	-1.62%

The 2008 congressional elections in Maryland were held on November 4, 2008 to determine who would represent the state of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives, coinciding with the presidential election. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected serve in the 111th Congress from January 3, 2009 until January 3, 2011.

Maryland has eight seats in the House, apportioned according to the 2000 United States Census. Its 2007–2008 congressional delegation consisted of six Democrats and two Republicans. It is now seven Democrats and one Republican. District 1 was the only seat which changed party (from Republican to Democratic), and was the only district CQ Politics had forecast to be at some risk for the incumbent party.

The district encompasses the entire Eastern Shore of Maryland, as well as parts of Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford Counties, and was represented by Republican Wayne Gilchrest since 1991.

Incumbent Wayne Gilchrest, a Republican, lost to state senator Andy Harris in the Republican primary, in which E.J. Pipkin also ran. Gilchrest was one of only two Republicans to vote for the bill to set a timetable on the Iraq War, which passed 218-212; he also voted on April 25, 2007 for another Democratic Iraq War bill, which passed 218-208. Harris was first elected to the Maryland Senate in 1998 and served as Minority Whip, 2003-2006. He has worked as an anesthesiologist, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, and chief of obstetric anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Harris entered the February 12 primary with endorsements from the Club for Growth, former Governor Bob Ehrlich, seven of ten state senators who represent parts of the Congressional district, and House minority leader Anthony J. O'Donnell. Despite Gilchrest's endorsement by the Baltimore Sun, Harris defeated him by 10 points in a relatively bitter race.

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