I moved out of MD. too -the taxes did it. The state ( not the City of Baltimore) is diverse, and rich, and well educated.
But it is slavishly partisian - the closer to DC the more so. The poor are thrown into Balto. dumping ground from the counties ( Balto is an incorporated city).
Not dumassses, although the City of Balto is run on dope ( like the HBO show "the Corner"), it's just too poor, always was, and I lived there from 1955 -'73, when I moved out to Balto county - which is realtively conservative ( Spiro Agnew was Balto. county Executive before Gov, before VP under Nixon)
It's a blue as it gets, it's my home state, and while i loved living there un till 1999, it's even got a "flush tax" now. Too expensive for this poor boy.