In former President Donald Trump’s latest Republican primary win, Maryland state Delegate Dan Cox won the GOP nomination for governor Tuesday – boosting Democrats after they spent more than $1 million propping up the conservative candidate.
With almost 80% of the expected ballots in, Cox narrowly had 56.2% of the vote, while former state Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz could only muster 40.3%.
Incumbent GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, who backed Schulz, was unable to run for re-election again due to term limits.
In the weeks leading up to the primary election, Cox received a massive boost from the Democratic Governors Association, which spent approximately $1,175,000 on ads labeling him as “too close to Trump” and “too conservative” for Maryland.
Cox’s anti-abortion, pro-Second Amendment views — as well as his belief that the 2020 presidential election was rife with fraud — may be popular among Republican voters, but are likely to turn off moderates and independents in a state where President Biden won 65 % of the vote two years ago.
In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, author and entrepreneur Wes Moore (36.7%) led former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez (27.4%) with just over 61% of the expected vote counted. The race, which is still too close to call, caused a split among the top two House Democrats—with Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsing Perez and Maryland’s own Majority Leader Steny Hoyer backing Moore.
In Tuesday’s Senate primary, Democratic incumbent Chris Van Hollen – who suffered a stroke in May – sailed easily to renomination, beating out challenger Michelle Smith with 77.9% of the vote. Chris Chaffee, who unsuccessfully challenged Hoyer in 2014, won the GOP primary with just 21.6% of the vote — signaling the long odds facing Republicans in a race where they had hoped Hogan would be the party’s standard-bearer.
In the 1st Congressional District, former Delegate Heather Mizeur beat out David Harden with 68.9% of the vote to win the right to challenge Republican incumbent Rep. Andy Harris in the fall.
The state’s only open House seat—in the deep-blue 4th Congressional District—is likely to go to form Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey, who beat out eight other candidates, including former Rep. Donna Edwards, for the Democratic nomination with 51.2% of the vote.
Incumbent Rep. Anthony Brown left the 4th District seat open to run for state attorney general, and so far his choice has paid off. Brown easily won the Democratic primary, garnering 59.6%% of the vote to defeat the state’s former first lady, Katie O’Malley. In November, Brown will face off against Republican Michael Peroutka, who received 58% of the GOP vote.
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