Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan holds a 22 percentage point lead over Democratic nominee Ben Jealous in the state’s gubernatorial race, according to Goucher College polling released Wednesday.
Mr. Hogan, a Republican, attracted support from 54 percent of likely voters, compared to 32 percent for Mr. Jealous. Green Party candidate Ian Schlakman and Libertarian candidate Shawn Quinn each garnered 1 percent. Nine percent said they were undecided.
About three-quarters of those who decided on a candidate said they are set on their choice.
Mr. Jealous, a former president of the NAACP, has lagged far behind Mr. Hogan in fundraising, leaving him unable to define his candidacy to the public and achieve gains in recent months, said Mileah Kromer, who oversees the poll. According to campaign fundraising reports filed late last month, Mr. Jealous had about $386,000 cash on hand, and Mr. Hogan had $9.4 million.
“Hogan’s electoral strength continues to be grounded in political moderation and the confidence the public has in him to handle economic issues,” Ms. Kromer said. “We have less than two months to see whether Hogan can maintain his bipartisan voting coalition or if Jealous can turnout enough progressives to make up the difference.”
Democrats have a 2-to-1 registration advantage over Republicans in the blue state, and Mr. Hogan will be bucking history if he wins re-election, as Maryland has not re-elected a Republican governor since the 1950s.
Mr. Jealous had a 10-point lead over Mr. Hogan among Democrats in the poll, 48 percent to 38 percent.
Mr. Hogan had the support of 91 percent of Republicans, compared to just 1 percent for Mr. Jealous. Fifty-seven percent of independents also said they support Mr. Hogan, compared to 17 percent for Mr. Jealous.
Mr. Jealous has campaigned on unabashedly liberal policies like Medicare-for-all and marijuana legalization, and his campaign is banking that an anti-Trump backlash will energize the Democrats who might have stayed home in 2014, when Mr. Hogan scored an upset victory over then-Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown.
But 60 percent of likely Maryland voters said their opinions about the president will have either no effect or little effect on their choice for governor.
By a 43 percentage point margin, voters said they have more confidence in Mr. Hogan to handle the economy and job creation — the most important issues in determining who they will support according to the poll — compared to Mr. Jealous.
Voters also sided with Mr. Hogan over Mr. Jealous by double-digit margins on who they have more confidence in to handle education and health care.
The Goucher survey was conducted from Sept. 11-16. The margin of error for the 472 adults identified as likely to vote was plus-or-minus 4.5 percentage points.
Mr. Hogan’s team eagerly touted the poll results Wednesday, while the Jealous campaign pointed out that public polling in 2014 showed Mr. Hogan trailing considerably and said there are still enough undecided voters to win over in the campaign’s closing stretch.
Meanwhile, Mr. Jealous and Mr. Hogan are scheduled to hold their only debate on Monday. The hour-long event will be broadcast at 7 p.m. Monday on Maryland Public Television, WJLA-TV in Washington and WBAL-TV in Baltimore.
The MDDC Press Association, which advocates for media outlets in Maryland, Delaware and the District, expressed outrage Tuesday that Mr. Jealous had vetoed Hagerstown Herald-Mail Tamela Baker from the panel that will question the nominees.
⦁ Carleton Bryant contributed to this report.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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