As they gathered for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Maryland’s top elected leaders considered the stakes of the upcoming presidential election.

“I don’t want to be dramatic, but this is an existential moment for the state,” state Senate President Bill Ferguson said in an interview during the August convention.

Nearly 12 weeks later, the moment has passed, and the result — the election of a Republican-controlled Senate and a GOP president frequently at odds with Maryland officials during his first term — has left the blue state’s White House partnership on shaky ground.

Maryland relies heavily on federal funding that could be cut under President-elect Donald Trump and a new Congress that may be firmly under GOP control following Tuesday’s election. Republicans flipped the Senate red and will likely hold their House majority once final results are tallied.

The outcome has left Maryland Democrats — who control the governor’s mansion and hold supermajorities in the General Assembly — hoping for the best while girding for the worst.

Maryland’s proximity to the nation’s capital makes it particularly vulnerable to federal cutbacks. The state is home to as many 150,000 federal workers — plus many federal contractors — and hosts the Social Security Administration and other agencies.

“It’s not a good day for the concerns that we have on so many issues involving the federal partnership,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin said in an interview following the election.

Trump has said he wants to reduce the size of the federal government and has criticized career employees’ civil service protections.

“I never give up hope,” Cardin said. “One of the uncertainties about a Trump administration is that it’s hard to understand Donald Trump’s philosophy at times. It’s just that he’s more about himself and about saying things that aren’t necessarily true. That’s putting it mildly. So, in a way, that can work to some of our advantage because maybe his actions will be different. You just don’t know.”

The American Federation of Government Employees, representing hundreds of thousands of workers, said following the election that Trump in his first term had “attempted to gut many of our negotiated union contracts, downsize and relocate federal agencies at great disruption and cost to taxpayers, and replace tens of thousands of non-partisan civil servants with political appointees who would blindly do his bidding.”

There was no immediate response from a Trump spokesman. His campaign said before the election that the federal workforce was bloated.

Tom Kennedy, the chair of the Baltimore City Republicans, said Trump would be “a boon to Marylanders and to all Americans.” Kennedy, interviewed before the election, cited several Trump proposals, including ones to deport “undocumented criminals” and seal the border.

Trump, who left office in January 2021, had a contentious relationship with Baltimore, at times calling it rat-infested and corrupt. He was met with dozens of sign-waving protesters as he arrived for a 2019 speech in the city.

Brian Frosh, then the state’s attorney general, led or joined multiple lawsuits during Trump’s first term, including one alleging Trump illegally profited from his presidency. That case was dismissed as moot once Trump’s presidency ended. Trump lost his 2020 reelection bid before winning Tuesday’s election over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

A spokesman for Gov. Wes Moore said Thursday that it would be premature to discuss the implications of a new Trump presidency.

But the governor’s office released a statement from Moore: “I want the people of Maryland to know that the Moore-Miller Administration’s promise to leave no one behind remains steadfast, and we will continue to move forward as we always have in our state — together.”

Among Moore’s priorities is trying to revive the massive Red Line light-rail project for Baltimore that Republican Gov. Larry Hogan canceled in 2015.

In 2021, Cardin and Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen secured language in a congressional infrastructure package that would allow the Red Line to be revisited as part of billions of dollars in capital investment grants. The language specifies that such previously vetted projects be placed at the front of the line for funding consideration, assuming state and local leaders endorse them.

“There’s no reason to believe that would not be honored by the next administration,” Cardin said Wednesday.

Maryland’s federal lawmakers remain hopeful that Congress will also approve legislation requiring the federal government to pay 100% of the cost of rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge that collapsed in March.

The lawmakers are looking for a vehicle — such as a spending bill headed for passage — to attach the legislation.

That could happen, Cardin said, in the current “lame duck” session that occurs before members of the new Congress begin work in January.

“Any lame duck (session) is unpredictable,” the senator said. “We have strong bipartisan support for the 100% payment.”

Have a news tip or question about this story? Contact politics editor Candy Woodall at cwoodall @baltsun.com.