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With in-person voting starting in Maryland, Democrats remain poised to sweep the statewide offices, according to a new poll.
Democratic nominee for governor Wes Moore holds a 58%-27% advantage over Republican nominee Dan Cox in a poll of likely voters conducted by the University of Baltimore and The Baltimore Sun.
The poll continues a trend shown by earlier polls, including a Goucher College Poll/Baltimore Banner/WYPR survey that showed Moore ahead by 21 points in September, and a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll that found Moore had a 32-point lead later that month.
“It’s clear Wes Moore has all of the momentum in this race, but we can’t take our foot off the gas for a second,” Moore spokesman Carter Elliott IV said in a statement Thursday. “Wes is running like he’s 10 points behind, and that’s not going to stop heading into the final days of the election.”
Moore, a former nonprofit executive and bestselling author making his first run for office, planned to greet early voters in Randallstown on Thursday, followed by a series of campaign events over the coming days, including a rally with Vice President Kamala Harris in Baltimore on Saturday.
“If elected, Wes will build up Maryland’s education system, boost the economy and make Maryland’s communities safer — he’s the clear choice in November,” Elliott said.
Cox is a lawyer and state delegate. His campaign manager did not respond to a request for comment from The Baltimore Banner on Thursday morning.
In the new poll, 8% of voters were undecided or refused to give their choice for governor. Third-party candidates had a modicum of support: 3% for David Lashar of the Libertarian Party, 2% for Nancy Wallace of the Green Party and 1% for David Harding of the Working Class Party.
Other Democrats for statewide office have similarly large advantages, according to the new poll.
For attorney general, Democrat Anthony Brown is leading Republican Michael Peroutka, 60% to 28%. Brown is a congressman and former lieutenant governor and Peroutka was a one-term County Council member in Anne Arundel County who holds Christian-centric views of the law and formerly belonged to the League of the South, an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as “explicitly racist” with a goal of establishing “a Christian theocratic state.”
For comptroller, Democrat Brooke Lierman is leading Republican Barry Glassman, 57%-29%. Lierman is a state delegate from Baltimore and Glassman, who has carefully distanced himself from Cox and Peroutka, is the county executive of Harford County.
The poll of 989 likely voters was conducted by the firm OpinionWorks by phone and online from Oct. 20-23 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The poll also asked 439 likely voters in Anne Arundel County about their choice for county executive. Incumbent Democrat Steuart Pittman is leading Republican challenger Jessica Haire, 48% to 40%, with 8% undecided and 4% refusing to answer. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.
pamela.wood@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Pamela Wood covers Maryland politics and government. She previously reported for The Baltimore Sun, The Capital and other Maryland newspapers. A graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, she lives in northern Anne Arundel County.
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