Crime and violence are the leading issues to Democratic voters in Baltimore and rank in the top three for Maryland voters in general, a new poll shows.
According to the poll by The Baltimore Sun, University of Baltimore and FOX45, 19% of Maryland voters said economic factors were driving whom they would choose for the open U.S. Senate seat, while 16% said political partisanship was driving that decision for them and 13% said it was public safety. For city voters, 37% said public safety issues were a priority.
Rep. David Trone leads Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in polling for the Democratic primary. Mr. Trone, co-founder of the national chain Total Wine & More, is ahead of Ms. Alsobrooks 48% to 29%, according to the poll conducted April 7-10 of 600 likely voters.
However, former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan leads both of them, a poll of nearly 1,300 likely voters showed.
Maryland, a highly Democratic state, is proving to be a battleground state when it comes to the Senate race as the GOP tries to secure another seat in the narrowly divided Senate.
Less than half of statewide voters, 47%, think Maryland is heading in the right direction. For Democratic voters in the city, 40% think the city is on the right track, while 40% think the city is on the wrong track.
For those who said Baltimore was heading in the wrong direction, 58% of them mentioned the impact of violence, crime, safety, guns and drugs. Among statewide voters, 24% who think Maryland is heading downhill mentioned those words.
Democratic city voters at 42% said crime has increased compared with four years ago, while 28% said it decreased and 27% said it stayed the same.
Statewide, more than half, at 57%, said crime was affecting their quality of life, while 37% said it wasn’t.
The poll of likely Baltimore Democratic primary voters surveyed 508 people and was conducted April 7-11. It has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
The survey of 1,292 likely voters across Maryland was conducted April 7-10 and has a margin of error of 3.0 percentage points.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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