WINNER! - Ben Jealous defeats Rushern Baker in Maryland Democratic Gubernatorial Primary - June 26, 2018
Image and text taken from The Washington Post
Another Big Win for Progressives in Maryland!
Jealous claimed victory at about 10:30 p.m., saying he would triumph as well in the general election in the fall because he "knows how to build a true people-powered grassroots campaign." His spokeswoman said Baker had conceded.
Jealous has strong backing and outside money from liberals and progressive groups. He offered bold proposals — including state-based, universal health care and debt-free college --that he believed would energize voters to defeat Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who has record approval rating in the state.
Hogan, who was unopposed in the GOP primary, has governed as a moderate and repeatedly distanced himself from President Trump, who is widely disliked in Maryland.
Jealous, 45, won strong pluralities in the Baltimore area and doing well enough in the populous Washington suburbs to have an advantage over Baker and the rest of the field.
Baker, a veteran politician, had the endorsement of almost all of the state’s top Democratic elected officials. But he raised less money than Jealous, who was backed by labor and teachers’ unions who had supported Baker in his previous campaigns.
A traditional candidate did well in a key local race, as Prince George’s State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks, who had establishment backing, won the Democratic nomination to succeed Baker as county executive.
In Montgomery, businessman David Blair and progressive County Council member Marc Elrich (At-Large) were locked in a close race for the nomination for county executive.
In the closely watched 6th congressional district, businessman David Trone held a lead over state Del. Aruna Miller in a contest for the Democratic nomination. Trone or Miller will face GOP nominee Amie Hoeber in the race to succeed Rep. John Delaney (D), who resigned to run for president.
Democratic incumbents cruised to victory in many other Maryland primary races. Winners included U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin and Rep. Jamie Raskin. Rep. Anthony Brown and Attorney General Brian Frosh were unopposed.
Jealous and Baker were far ahead of the rest of the gubernatorial field, which included state Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (Montgomery); Alec Ross, a tech entrepreneur; James L. Shea, former chairman of the Venable law firm; and Krishanti Vignarajah, a former policy director for Michelle Obama.
Jealous’s victory is an unusual triumph for an outsider over the party establishment in a gubernatorial primary. Such insurgents came up short in Virginia last year and Iowa earlier this month.
It also illustrates the continuing strength of the Baltimore area in Democratic state politics in Maryland, despite growth in population in the Washington suburbs.
Jealous, who has family roots in Baltimore and headed the Baltimore-based NAACP, performed better in that part of the state, whereas Baker’s strength was in his home base in Prince George’s.
Baltimore County voter Marcia Schoenfeld, a retiree, said she chose Jealous because she believed he would be more supportive of the Baltimore region.
“I wanted someone who I felt would be better for the city. He was there when he was with the NAACP, and I just think that the competition being from PG County is more geared toward Washington,” she said, referring to Baker.
But Jealous also was beating Baker in liberal and populous Montgomery, where Baker had hoped to do well because he was well-known there and had the endorsement of Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, a close friend and mentor.
To assemble his coalition, Jealous began with a base of liberal voters who supported Sanders in his unsuccessful presidential run two years ago against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
To that, Jealous added financial and organizational support from major unions, including the state teachers union and Service Employees International Union, and the Latino advocacy group Casa de Maryland. He got endorsements from well-known African American Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), as well as a longtime personal friend, commedian Dave Chappelle.
Jealous, echoing positions that Sanders took in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, ran on an uncompromising liberal platform.
He wants to pay for health care, tuition and other programs by raising taxes on cigarettes and the wealthiest 1 percent of Marylanders, closing corporate tax loopholes, freeing resources by shrinking prisons, and legalizing and taxing marijuana.
Many top state Democratic officials are concerned that Jealous’s positions will be too far to the left to win in the general election. But Jealous and his supporters say only an uncompromising message will draw sufficient numbers of Democrats to the polls to win.
In Montgomery, Leisure World resident Ann Vermillion, like many Maryland voters, chose Jealous over Baker because the former “has more energy” and “a fresher outlook.”
But, like many Democrats, she wasn’t sure that’ll be enough to lead her to support the Democrat in November, saying, “I think Hogan’s doing a great job.”
The sheer number of contenders on the ballot left many overwhelmed. Several voters said they waited until the last minute to decide whom to support, or skipped down-ballot races.
Lori Steel of Kensington, a librarian at a private school, said the mounds of literature, phone calls and knocks on her door backfired. “It overwhelmed me and shut me down a bit,” she said after voting at the Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church.
An administrative error by the state Department of Motor Vehicles meant that as many as 80,000 voters were not registered at the proper polling places or with the correct party affiliations and would have to cast provisional ballots. Those ballots won’t be counted until July 5. Polls around the state closed at 8 p.m., but three precincts in Baltimore City that opened late extended voting until 9 p.m., elections officials said.
Because of the glitch, the state Democratic Party — which blamed Hogan for the “screw-up” — rescheduled its “unity” news conference, which had been planned for Wednesday morning.
At Reginald F. Lewis High School in northeast Baltimore, a heavily African American precinct that is key to Democratic hopes for November, Lavette and Warren Blue voted for Jealous because of his civil rights record but said they are inclined to back Hogan for a second term. They think he has been a steady hand on issues including the budget and schools.
“When he got in, everyone was like, ‘Oh no, a Republican,’ ” said Lavette Blue. “But he didn’t to the things we expected him to do. He stood up for the people.”
For months, the gubernatorial primary was mostly a lackluster affair, partly because so many candidates were running and with comparatively few differences over policy. All supported more spending on education and mass transit, and increasing the state minimum wage to $15 an hour.
They also conducted a generally civil campaign, preferring to focus their attacks on Hogan and Trump rather than on one another.
Prominent Democrats such as former U.S. labor secretary Tom Perez and former state attorney general Doug Gansler chose not to run.
Baker and Jealous were near the top in early polls, along with Kevin Kamenetz, the Baltimore county executive whose death in early May after a heart attack scrambled the race.
Baker is well known in the populous Washington suburbs. He has spent most of his career in politics, including 7½ years as Prince George’s county executive and about 8½ years in the House of Delegates, and had widespread support from the party establishment, including Leggett, former governor Martin O’Malley and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen. Baker visited polls Tuesday with O’Malley and Leggett.
Baker campaigned primarily on his record in Prince George’s, where he has overseen a burst of economic development that included the opening of the MGM National Harbor casino. He also restored a level of integrity to the county executive’s office after his predecessor, Jack B. Johnson, was convicted on federal corruption charges.
But he was embarrassed by school scandals that led to the announcement last month that his handpicked schools chief executive would resign. He struggled to raise money and was slow to build an organization in Baltimore.