ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (AP) – With the term of office of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan limited, the highly competitive contest to replace him has caught the attention of former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and even all Oprah Winfrey.
As voters choose candidates for state, legislative, and congressional races on Tuesday, the central governor’s career has the highest bill. Hogan, a rare two-term Republican governor in a Democratic-leaning state, won applause from both sides of the aisle for his bipartisan approach and willingness to challenge Trump.
Her legacy on the line, Hogan has supported Kelly Schulz in the Republican governor primaries. Schulz, who served as secretary of labor and commerce in the Hogan administration, faces the challenge of Dan Cox, a Trump-backed state lawmaker who sued Hogan over his pandemic policies and then tried dismiss him without success.
On the Democratic side, Tom Perez, a former U.S. Secretary of Labor and former Democratic Party chairman, has the support of Baltimore-born Pelosi, while bestselling author Wes Moore has secured the support of Winfrey and U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, no. 2 House Democrat. Other top candidates include Auditor Peter Franchot, former Attorney General Doug Gansler and former U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr.
The endorsements of big names that have taken place in Maryland’s primary gubernatorial election illustrate the big bets for both parties. Democrats see the contest as one of their best opportunities nationwide to change a governor’s mansion in this year’s midterm elections, while Republicans want to consolidate control of the ruling party.
Republican primaries offer a potential 2024 breakthrough in the attractiveness of candidates in the mold of Hogan and Trump, which offer contrasting views for the party’s future.
Other major contests in Tuesday’s election include contests for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Attorney and the Attorney General. Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen faces a top rival two months after suffering a minor stroke, but is expected to easily win the renaming. The eight-member state congressional delegation has an open seat representing a district in the suburbs of Washington. And the daughter of the former state attorney general competes for her father’s former job.
It could take days, or even longer, to determine the winners of the most contested races. This is because Maryland law prohibits counties from opening ballot boxes by mail until the Thursday following election day.
In all, 10 candidates are voting for the Democratic nomination for governor. Perez has the support of unions across the state, while Moore, the former CEO of the Robin Hood Foundation, an anti-poverty organization, has received support from the state teachers’ union and the top two leaders of the Maryland General Assembly, House Speaker Adrienne. Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson.
Franchot, who has won four races across the state by wide margins for being the state’s tax collector, brings significant recognition to the primaries. Gansler, a longtime prosecutor, presents himself as moderate. King served in the cabinet of President Barack Obama.
Voter Laura Kretchman, a 41-year-old high school teacher, said Moore’s endorsement by the Maryland State Education Association helped her decide to vote for him. She said she is impressed with what Moore has accomplished after overcoming the challenges of childhood and being raised by a single mother.
“I teach kids in a school who also come from difficult education, so I’d like to see maybe what it can bring to help those students who are struggling and challenging,” said Kretchman, an Annapolis resident.
While Moore has highlighted his credentials outside the government, some voters said they preferred a long government service resume. For this reason, Curtis Fatig, a 67-year-old Annapolis voter, chose Perez, who also worked on the Montgomery County Council, as Maryland’s secretary of labor and as deputy attorney general for civil rights in the United States. Obama administration.
“He’s not a newcomer,” said Fatig, who also likes Perez to have union support.
In the Republican primary for governor, Hogan has stood firmly behind Schulz, whom he considers the strongest candidate to face a Democrat in November. Democrats seem to agree, with the Democratic National Committee investing more than a million dollars behind an announcement to push Cox into the Republican primaries. It is a tactic they have used in other states in an effort to face an easier opponent in the general election.
Hogan has criticized Cox for organizing buses loaded with Trump supporters to go to Washington on January 6, 2021, for the “Stop the Steal” demonstration that preceded the insurgency at the U.S. Capitol. Cox has said he did not go to the Capitol and left before the riots began.
In a tweet he later removed, Cox called then-Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor” for refusing to heed Trump’s demands for not certifying the 2020 election. He apologized and denounced the attack on the Capitol. .
Trump, for his part, has called Schulz and Hogan RINOs, or Republicans In Name Only, a mocking term reserved for party members who do not conform to him.
“Get rid of RINO Shutdown Larry Hogan, who is trying to get another RINO to take office, Kelly Schulz,” Trump said in a statement Monday afternoon.
The only open seat in the Maryland Congress is in the 4th Congressional District, a black-majority Democratic district in the country’s capital suburbs. Acting U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown is leaving his safe seat to run for attorney general. Former Rep. Donna Edwards, who previously held the seat, is running to get her job back and faces former County Attorney Glenn Ivey in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Democratic primary for Attorney General has become a battle between former Gov. Martin O’Malley’s wife, Katie Curran O’Malley, who is a former Baltimore judge and daughter of former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., and Brown, O’Malley’s Lieutenant Governor who lost the 2014 governor’s career to Hogan.
Both are competing to replace Democratic Attorney General Brian Frosh, who is retiring. Maryland has not had a Republican attorney general in nearly 70 years.
In other races, candidates are voting for the 188 seats in the Maryland General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats.
Maryland primaries were delayed three weeks by the state’s highest court because of demands challenging state legislative maps and the state convention.
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