The University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Institute of Politics asked Marylanders about their expectations for 2026, and their answers weren’t encouraging.
Plenty of people in Maryland will be happy to put 2025 in the rear view mirror, but that doesn’t mean they’re excited about 2026.
As an addendum to its end-of-the-year poll, University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Institute of Politics asked Marylanders about their expectations for 2026. With politics infused so deep into the D.C.-area culture, and with Maryland Democrats outnumbering Republicans by so much, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that there isn’t a lot of optimism for what’s to come.
“With Republicans in charge, you’re seeing these kind of more negative attitudes reflected among Democrats,” said Mileah Kromer, the director of UMBC’s Institute of Politics.
“That’s really reflected here among Marylanders,” she added, noting “66% of folks expect divisions between people based on their political party to worsen in the coming year; 57% think American democracy is going to get worse; 53% think the overall quality of life for most Americans is going to be worse.”
The survey also asked Marylanders about their New Year’s resolutions. Kromer admitted she was hoping for some good answers.
“The big story there is not what the resolutions are, but rather that so many Marylanders are just forgoing the tradition of doing a New Year’s resolution,” she said. “Almost three-quarters of Marylanders are not making New Year’s resolutions this year.”
Just 22% said they plan to make a resolution.
“So 8% of Marylanders say they’re going to try to improve their health and well-being in the next coming year,” Kromer said. “Five percent just say some sort of general improvement — they want to be a better person, those types of things; 4% want to try to fix their finances, their work and sort of the stability of their lives.”
The survey was conducted in the beginning of December and received answers from 801 adults. The margin of error is plus-minus 3.5%.
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