Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) It’s been a bruising race, full of attack ads, accusations, and identity politics that are exposing some deep divides in Maryland’s deep blue base. Congressman Chris Van Hollen and Congresswoman Donna Edwards, both attorneys and 57 years old with highly progressive records, are vying to be Maryland’s next Senator as Barbara Mikulski retires.
“I think a strong voter turnout in Maryland means a win for Donna Edwards,” Edwards said at a recent campaign event. “We’re out there working hard every single day so we can convince voters about the perspective that’s needed in the Senate of a worker who understands what it means to struggle for wages and pay the rent, and somebody who understands the opportunity for the American people.”
A Public Policy Polling tally found 25% of Democratic voters were still undecided in the week prior to Tuesday’s primary. Another recent poll from Monmouth University found stark racial divides as voters struggle over the importance of race in their preferences.
Van Hollen noted he has support from a majority of elected African-American women in Maryland, along with African-American women Mayors of Prince Georges County’s “Port Towns” of Colmar Manor, Mount Rainer, and North Brentwood. “They’ve endorsed me because I work with them to get funds for community centers where they now have after-school programs, funds for transportation projects,” Van Hollen said at a recent campaign event. Edwards represents those areas in Congress.
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Edwards has the financial backing of Emily’s List, a PAC that supports female pro-choice candidates. Van Hollen has maintained he has an equally friendly women’s rights record, while an open letter signed by over 1,000 self-described “staunch Democrats and feminists” last week maintained Emily’s List was wasting their money in trying to help a Congresswoman with “no demonstrable legislative achievements.”
One of the biggest battlegrounds, Baltimore City, is expected to see a high turnout as they likely elect their next mayor on Tuesday and mark the one-year anniversary of the rioting and looting that followed Freddie Gray’s death in police custody. The two Democratic frontrunners for Mayor are African-American women.
“You have to be like Senator Mikulski, who never forgot that our job is to deliver results on the ground for people in Maryland,” Van Hollen said. Mikulski has maintained she will stay “studiously neutral” in the race.
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