Maryland primary election: Trump-backed Dan Cox will win GOP gubernatorial
Elections officials on Tuesday night had begun what could be a weeks-long process of counting ballots. County officials were barred from beginning to process the record-breaking number of mail-in ballots for a primary election until after in-person voting concluded.
Cox won the GOP race to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Larry Hogan — an outcome that showcased Republican voters’ willingness to scrap what had been a winning formula in the deep-blue state after Hogan angered his own party with his criticism of Trump and his public safety measures amid the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s not yet clear which Democrat Cox will face; author Wes Moore and former Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez were the leading vote-getters as ballots were being counted Tuesday night.
The primary was a proxy fight between former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Cox, and Hogan, who endorsed his former commerce secretary, Kelly Schulz.
That Hogan had won two terms in Maryland was a feat: Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state, two-to-one; the state hasn’t backed a GOP presidential candidate since 1988. But Hogan is seen as one of the GOP’s most moderate figures.
Democrats believe Cox poses a much easier general election match-up than Schultz would have. The Democratic Governors Association spent more than $1 million on television advertisements that highlighted Trump’s endorsement and Cox’s most conservative positions — a tactic intended to boost Republican support for Cox but diminish his standing among moderates headed into November’s general election.
Those spots highlighted his opposition to gun restrictions and abortion rights and his endorsement from Trump. One calls Cox “too close to Trump, too conservative for Maryland.”
Schultz, in a news conference with Hogan last month, said that Democrats are attempting to “spend a million now and save $5 million by not having to face me in the general election.”
The marquee contest on Maryland’s primary ballots Tuesday was the governor’s race. Hogan, who is among his party’s most moderate figures and one who has frequently criticized Trump, is barred by term limits from seeking reelection.
His departure has turned the primaries in the governor’s race — one unfolding in a state where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by about two-to-one, but where the GOP has held the governor’s office for 12 of the last 20 years — into a window into the larger battles unfolding in both parties on the national stage.
Democrats saw a wide-open showdown featuring 10 candidates — a field that included Perez, Oprah Winfrey-backed Moore, state comptroller Peter Franchot, former US Education Secretary John King and Doug Gansler, the former Maryland attorney general and failed 2014 gubernatorial candidate.
The primaries in the governor’s race are the most closely watched contests on Tuesday’s slate in…
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