A poll released Wednesday shows former Maryland governor Larry Hogan (R.) leading his potential Democratic opponents by double digits in the state’s Senate race.
If the election was held today, Hogan would win the seat left vacant by the retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.), beating the leading Democratic candidates Rep. David Trone (Md.) and county executive Angela Alsobrooks, according to the Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. Hogan led Trone 49 percent to 37 percent and Alsobrooks 50 percent to 36 percent in the poll, which queried 1,004 registered Maryland voters this month.
Although Maryland voters said by a 20-point margin that they would prefer Democrats control the Senate, the former Republican governor, who left office in January 2023 with high approval ratings, is more popular in the state than his two Democratic rivals.
The poll results show that more than three out of five voters in Maryland look on Hogan favorably, as opposed to only 33 percent for Trone and 26 percent for Alsobrooks. About half of registered voters have no opinion of either Democratic candidate.
"The big issue for the Democrats right now is that many people in the state don’t know who either of these candidates are," Professor Michael Hanmer, director of the University of Maryland’s research center that conducted the poll, told the Post.
"[Trone and Alsobrooks] seem to be doing fine in the places where people know them," Hanmer added. "But large, large numbers of people don’t know who they are. … It’s just around the corner now for the primary, but there’s still plenty of time for both of them to do things differently."
The Wednesday poll came after an Emerson College poll last month showed Hogan with a slight edge over Alsobrooks—44 percent to 37 percent—but on par with Trone at 42 percent.