John Matthews
WMAL.com
BALTIMORE — With seven weeks to go before election day, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has a 22-point lead in his race against Democrat challenger Ben Jealous.
A new Goucher College poll out Wednesday gives the Republican incumbent a 54 to 32 percent edge over Jealous, with 73 percent of respondents saying they are unlikely to change their minds before voting.
Hogan’s support is statewide. His lead over Jealous is weakest in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties, where the margin is five points – just outside the poll’s margin of error. Across the rest of the state, however, Hogan leads, 68 to 23 percent.
Jealous, a progressive who survived a field of eight candidates in the Democratic primary, has struggled to earn endorsements from establishment Democrats in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a two-to-one margin. He has also struggled to raise money, reporting just $265,000 in cash on hand, compared to Hogan’s $8 million war chest.
Hogan is attempting to become Maryland’s first two-term Republican Governor since 1954, and the first Republican to win re-election to any statewide office since Charles Mathias won a third term in the U.S. Senate in 1980.
In other statewide races, Democrat incumbents are facing little challenge. U.S. Senator Ben Cardin and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh are both far ahead of their Republican challengers in their bids for re-election.
To read the poll results, CLICK HERE.
Copyright 2018 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Gov. Larry Hogan/Facebook)
