The race to fill an open seat in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District is too close to call, according to an independent poll released Thursday.

Republican Neil Parrott, a former state delegate, holds a slim 2-point lead over Democratic rival April McClain Delaney, the wife of former Rep. John Delaney, well within the margin of error. Pollster Patrick Gonzales, who conducted the poll, said the campaign could be decided by one county.

“In my opinion, this thing is going down to Frederick,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales surveyed 317 registered voters in Montgomery, Frederick, Washington, Allegany and Garrett Counties who said they are likely to vote in November. The small sample poll, conducted between Aug. 24-30, has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.6%.

Earlier this week, Gonzales released polls detailing bumps in job approval for Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Vice President Kamala Harris. A poll released Wednesday looked at the slim lead for Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) in her race against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) for the U.S. Senate.

According to the survey released Thursday, Parrott leads Delaney 41%-39% with 20% undecided. The support for each candidate comes from different areas.

Delaney holds a 42-point lead on Parrott in Montgomery County. Parrott holds a 60-point advantage over Delaney in what Gonzales referred to as the “WAG” area of Maryland — the western Maryland counties of Washington, Allegany and Garrett.

Both candidates hold commanding leads among voters in their respective parties. Parrott holds a 3-point advantage — 34%-31% — among independents.

“What’s really making the difference is that Parrott is snatching 17% of Democratic voters. Delaney is only getting 7% of Republicans,” said Gonzales.

“That is a tight, tight race,” he said.

That leaves Frederick County.

“No matter what, this election will, in my opinion, be decided in Frederick County,” he said.

Four in 10 voters in the district reside in Frederick County.

Currently, Delaney leads Parrott 44%-29% in Frederick County, according to the poll.

But with two months to go, 51% of voters said they do not know who Delaney is.

“That is a challenge, and it is also an opportunity. You’re going to introduce yourself to people with no personal preconceptions,” Gonzales said. “If I were Delaney, I’d be OK with that — especially if I am already getting this reflexive party vote.”

But it also leaves open the potential for Parrott or others to negatively define Delaney before Election Day.

The race’s close nature may also entice some outside groups to put money into the district to swing control of Congress, Gonzales said.

“I have to believe I’m not the only one seeing this,” he said. “I’ve got to believe that those in the position to direct monies and stuff like that, they’re all taking a look at District 6 in Maryland.

“Congress is plus four seats for the GOP. There are close districts all over the country that they’re dealing with. But I’ll tell you one thing, Maryland’s 6th Congressional District ought to be right near the top of the list for both parties,” he said.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

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Democrat Angela Alsobrooks holds a 5-point lead over Republican Larry Hogan in their campaign for U.S. Senate, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The newly released Gonzales poll shows Alsobrooks leading Hogan 46%-41% with 11% still undecided.

“I wouldn’t call in the dogs. The hunt’s still on, and it’s absolutely still a race,” said pollster Patrick Gonzales.

Gonzales surveyed 820 registered voters who said they are likely to vote in November. The poll, conducted between Aug. 24-30, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5%.

On Tuesday, Gonzales released a poll that included updated job performance numbers for Gov. Wes Moore (D), whose job approval was improving, as well as look at the state of the presidential campaign in deep-blue Maryland, where Vice President Kamala Harris (D) holds a wide lead over GOP nominee Donald Trump.

The Gonzales poll on the Senate race contrasts with a recent survey suggesting a tighter race: Last week, a poll conducted for AARP, showed Alsobrooks and Hogan in a dead heat. That poll sampled 600 voters in mid-August and had a 4-point margin of error.

Alsobrooks, the two-term Democratic executive of Prince George’s County, and Hogan, just the second two-term Republican governor in Maryland history, are vying to succeed Sen. Ben Cardin (D). The three-term senior senator announced his retirement more than a year ago.

If elected, Hogan would become the first Republican to hold a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland since Charles McC. Mathias Jr., who retired in 1987.

Alsobrooks and Hogan enter the final 60 days of the campaign with distinctly different levels of name identification among those polled.

For Hogan, 98% of voters said they recognized his name including 50% who said they have a favorable impression of the former governor. Another 19% had an unfavorable opinion and 29% said they were neutral.

Alsobrooks’ name was recognized by roughly 67% of voters surveyed, including four in 10 who said they had a favorable opinion of the county executive. Another 7% said they had an unfavorable opinion of Alsobrooks.

More than three in 10 people surveyed did not recognize her by name.

“It means regular people have lives that don’t revolve around politics,” Gonzales said.

The high number of those who do not have an impression of Alsobrooks could be an opportunity for her, but it also leaves open the door to be defined by her opponent if she does not do so herself, Gonzales said. He said Alsobrooks has a “blank slate” when it comes to how voters see her that allows Alsobrooks to define herself to voters or be defined by her opponent who “can paint whatever they want on it.”

Gonzales said many voters are not yet paying close attention to the race.

Democratic voters in Maryland outnumber their Republican counterparts by a roughly 2-1 margin. The poll shows Hogan has the support of a sizable number of Democrats – 21% said they would vote for Hogan, compared to 72% for Alsobrooks – but Gonzales said Hogan has a math challenge — namely his ability to get to 30% support from Democratic voters.

“Larry’s got to get to 30% of Democrats, no matter what,” Gonzales said. “He’s got to get 90% of Republicans, 55% of independents, and he’s got to get to 30% of Democrats. Mathematically, that’s the only way it adds up to a victory.

“So, is that possible? Of course, it’s possible. But when you look at the numbers (the poll), it’s not possible because there’s only 6% of Democrats undecided,” he said.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

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Worcester County officials are scrambling for options — and money — after learning that state transportation officials are pausing a top transportation priority — the widening of Route 90 and the replacement of its two bridges.

Worcester is just one of the counties given tough news in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s release of an updated draft of the Consolidated Transportation Plan, the state’s six-year transportation plan.

“The way it was explained is they’re telling everybody to stop immediately wherever they are in the design process, the planning process, like hard stop,” said Worcester County Administrative Officer Weston S. Young. “It sounds like they’re heading towards a fiscal cliff with what their projections are now.”

Worcester County leaders were told the Route 90 project will be “paused” when the state releases its draft plan for fiscal years 2025-2030.

“Route 90 was the one that was mentioned. We don’t know of the other projects that they were proposing to do in Worcester, which ones are getting stalled as well,” said Young.

“We were told when the draft CTP comes out … it will have this project along with a whole bunch of projects throughout the state — I don’t know if the word is paused or deferred — because they can’t afford it based on their projections,” he said.

Young and Worcester County are not alone in the disappointing news. County leaders from around the state met with Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld and his staff during the four-day Maryland Association of Counties summer conference in Ocean City.

The news on the transportation front was not good.

“It was not as bad as we thought,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. “You could say it another way: It was better than we thought, but it’s not good. I mean, basically, unless you’ve got a shovel in the ground, you’re not going to see money to put shovels in the ground.”

Elrich said it is not clear what projects will take a hit in Montgomery County.

“We didn’t get a list of specific projects,” he said. “Their basic message was, if there’s a shovel in the ground that we made an investment in, that funding is what we’re going to be able to continue. They may not be able to continue planning for a project.

“If you delay planning, you just further delay even the time you can put a shovel in the ground. It was pretty clear that even shovel-ready projects aren’t going in the ground with the amount of money they have,” Elrich said.

Maryland continues to struggle to find funding for road and transit projects. Gas taxes and other revenues that make up the Transportation Trust Fund lag behind a seemingly endless supply of projects.

In December, Gov. Wes Moore and Wiedefeld delivered dire news at the winter MACO convention in Cambridge: A $3.3 billion projected structural gap over six years between requests for transportation projects and available money meant tough cuts were coming and soon. Gobsmacked county leaders left Cambridge worried about priority road projects and funding for local transportation networks.

Requests for transportation projects — roads, bridges, sidewalks, and transit — always outpace federal, state, and local funding sources. That $3.3 billion estimate in December, while eye-popping, was always based on an unrealistic expectation that every jurisdiction would get every project over the six-year period. Multiple sources with knowledge of current fiscal projections say the shortfall this year is much closer to $1.3 billion.

Moore and the legislature added $150 million from the state’s rainy day fund to ease pressures on the transportation trust fund. The General Assembly also passed several targeted fee increases this spring meant to bolster the flagging fund, but the one-time infusion and targeted revenues were not expected to fully solve the issue.

I mean, basically, unless you’ve got a shovel in the ground, you’re not going to see money to put shovels in the ground. – Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich

“The Maryland Department of Transportation continues to face significant budgetary challenges due to slow economic growth, which places downward pressure on transportation revenues, alongside increased costs for materials and labor,” Wiedefeld has said. “Last year, the Maryland Department of Transportation was able to balance the budget thanks to Gov. Moore’s one-time $150 million in funding and additional revenue sources passed by the General Assembly.”

A blue-ribbon panel is expected to meet this year to develop recommendations before the start of the 2025 legislative session.

Elrich that with the state worried “about the ability even to fund preliminary planning for projects, not knowing what the basis of funding is going to be,” the situation is “kind of what we expected.”

“You know, there’s no reason to believe that they suddenly saw a massive infusion of money into the state that would enable them to build the trust fund back up. So, you know, there are going to be efforts to put money into the trust fund, but it’s not going to be the trust fund that they thought they had,” Elrich said.

Wiedefeld said “stagnant economic growth combined with revenue forecasts for several important funding sources for the Department being revised downward leaves the Maryland Department of Transportation with limited state dollars to leverage federal funding for highway, transit, and aviation projects.”

“Despite these challenges, the Maryland Department of Transportation continues to prioritize safety, maintaining the current system for Maryland families and businesses and reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads,” Wiedefeld said.

On Tuesday, county leaders will get their first look at a draft of the state’s Consolidated Transportation Plan. The document, updated annually, shows spending for projects in the pipeline and what will be funded over the next six years.

Wiedefeld and his staff then head out into the counties for feedback on what is most important to each jurisdiction.

In Worcester County, the Route 90 project remains their top priority.

“It’s one of multiple requests we’ve given the state,” Young said. “If we had to prioritize it, it’s our No. 1. Gov. Hogan helped get it started, but we’ve always known we were going to have to fight to keep it in. So, this news is disappointing.”

The highway and its bridges are nearly 50 years old. Worcester County officials want to “dualize” the highway and its bridges. An additional east and west traffic lane will likely mean replacing the existing spans over the St. Martin River and Assawoman Bay.

“I call it a Hail Mary project,” said Young. “It’s going to be really expensive for us. When you compare it to mass transit, it’s probably going to be a fraction of that, but it’s a big request for the county to have. But if you’ve heard any of our statistics, 8 million unique visitors every year. That road is used frequently, and when there’s an accident or like the sinkhole we had, or we need to get on or off the island for any reason, that is a choke point.”

Young and other county leaders said state officials did offer a ray of hope — projects that require a match to leverage federal aid might move forward. But to do so, already cash-strapped counties will have to come up with the match.

“For these types of projects, we don’t usually pay towards them,” Young said.

“So, we’re in an information gathering phase at this point, I would need to bring it to my commissioners,” Young said. We haven’t budgeted for this. We’re two months into our fiscal year ’25 budget. We would need to figure out how we would identify funding sources.”

It’s unclear how much of a match the counties would be required to contribute. Young thinks it could be as high as 25%.

“This is a new process for us,” he said. “We just want to know, is it 20%? Is it 25%? What’s the state’s estimated costs are in our match, and then would the commissioners be willing to prioritize that over something else?”

Young said there is also the concern that in picking up the match, it sets a precedent of shifting project costs to the counties that were previously paid for by the state.

“I’m a professional civil engineer. The bridge section is just, it’s going to be expensive. It’s not just expanding a road,” he said, adding that not finding the local funding may also be a poor option.

“There’s also the project doesn’t happen for a decade now because they stopped it,” he said.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

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Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks wasn’t seeking the input of voters at this week’s roundtable discussion in Silver Spring–instead she says she wanted to hear from a group of students about the impact of antisemitism on their lives.

A dozen Jewish teens, gathered by state Del. Jared Solomon (D-Dist. 18), met with the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate at the Silver Spring Civic Center on Wednesday. Alsobrooks is facing Republican challenger and former Gov. Larry Hogan in the Nov. 5 general election.

The teens represented a mix of students from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) as well as area private schools. Solomon, who chairs the Maryland General Assembly’s Jewish Caucus, said Alsobrooks’ campaign team had asked him to arrange the roundtable.

“I don’t think hate should be a normal part of your experience,” Alsobrooks said after a student said he’d come to expect casual antisemitism. “We need to think of things officials can do.”

Each student shared their experiences with antisemitism both in and out of school. Over the past two years, the county has seen an increase in reported antisemitic incidents. In December, the Montgomery County Anti-Hate Task Force adjusted its recommendations to the County Council following an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, which began Oct. 7. In August, vandalism was reported at multiple MCPS schools and an area synagogue. 

But many of the students who spoke to Alsobrooks said their experiences of antisemitism weren’t recent, relaying stories from as early as sixth grade.

Eliza Bevington, a senior at Wheaton High School, shared a story of a time another student AirDropped photos of swastikas to her phone. She said that while the school’s administration was sympathetic about her experience and other antisemitic incidents at the school, she felt it became her responsibility to educate her fellow students when she was asked by an administrator to create a presentation about antisemitism. While she said she was willing to do it, she says she would’ve liked more support. 

“There were no support systems. There was no further education done,” Bevington said. “It really falls on the Jewish students.”

Gabby Kux, a student at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, shared similar experiences.

“It’s kind of traumatic having to be the one to report something that is making you a victim … and then you’re the one that has to go through the process of making it better,” said Kux, who is the vice president of her school’s Jewish Student Union.

However, Kux added that she has also felt empowered by her school’s leadership to have conversations with fellow students about antisemitism. The Jewish Student Union at Whitman partnered with the Muslim Student Association to host a town hall to discuss emotions students were experiencing after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

“No one had had a space to talk about it. No one felt comfortable talking about it. I felt very isolated, so we hosted this forum. We brought in an imam and a rabbi, and they shared their perspectives and it was completely apolitical,” said Marisa Janger, the president of Whitman’s Jewish Student Union. “I think the support we had from [the school’s] administration during that time, promoting interfaith relations and that kind of conversation, was just the most productive thing we’ve done.”

Maya Seligman, a sophomore at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, said she wished students were provided with more education about the Holocaust.

“This is a complex issue. … I think a lot of what really needs to happen is a lot of big systemic change, which is hard, and I understand that,” Seligman said. “But I think to start, there needs to be, to some level, some benchmark to establish that these kids know what the Holocaust was.”

Solomon commended the students for sharing their experiences.

“I think some of our schools are better than others. We’re really trying at the local and state level to fix that, but we wanted to hear straight from you all,” he told the students.

Alsobrooks said she agreed with the students that education was important in addressing antisemitic incidents. She said she believes adults are teaching hate to their children and that “the younger generation will correct this.”

“Our education and understanding the experiences of other people is important to all of us to make us stronger and more understanding of each other,” Alsobrooks said.

She told reporters after the event that she wanted to talk to the students because she “loves kids” and feels their insights are important.

“The children have had the keenest things to say,” Alsobrooks said. “You can’t represent people you don’t understand. I have to represent kids, whether they can vote or not. I represent their parents, but I also represent them.”

Hogan has also met with Montgomery County Jews during his campaign. He spoke at an event hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington (JCRC) at a synagogue in Potomac in March. Alsobrooks spoke at a similar JCRC-sponsored event in April. “The Jewish community–I think they’ve had a specific, unique experience. And I think it’s important that to represent people, you have to understand what that experience is,” Alsobrooks said. “So I’ve spent a lot of time meeting, but I’ve also spent a lot of time

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Gov. Wes Moore claimed in a 2006 document that he earned a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan,  a medal that he never received, according to a report Thursday in The New York Times.

While questions have been raised before about claims that Moore had a Bronze Star, he has always insisted that the claim was made by others, but not by him.

But in a 2006 application to the White House Fellowship program unearthed by The Times, Moore claimed that as a result of his work as a director of information operations during the war in Afghanistan, “the 82nd Airborne Division have awarded me the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Action Badge.”

His resume with that application also claimed that Moore, then a captain in the Army, had received the Maryland College Football Hall of Fame Award. There is no such award.

Both misstatements were explained away in the Times’ story by Moore’s superiors at the time — his commanding officer in Afghanistan and a coach on the Johns Hopkins University football team, where Moore was a player — as additions they insisted he make, on the expectation that he would receive the honors.

In a statement Thursday in response to the article, Moore said he was sorry he had not spoken up before this to correct the record. But he also went on the offensive, saying he would “once again, set the record straight, as people hunt for new ways to undermine my service to our country in uniform.”

“Over the last few weeks, our country has grown used to seeing what it looks like when a veteran’s integrity is attacked for political gain,” said the statement from Moore, who has been called on in recent weeks as a proxy to defend Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz over questions about Walz’s military record.

“It was an honest mistake, and I regret not making that correction,” Moore said about the claim of having earned a Bronze Star. “But do not think for a moment that this attack on my record holds any bearing on how I feel about my service, my soldiers, or our country.”

This is not the first time questions have been raised about Moore’s military record. In past interviews, with Gwen Ifill and Stephen Colbert, Moore was introduced as a Bronze Star recipient and he did not correct the misstatements, according to the Times.

Questions about the Bronze Star also came up during Moore’s 2022 campaign for governor, and he insisted at the time that he had never claimed himself to have won the award, only that he failed to correct the mistake in others.

“Of the hundreds of interviews that I have given, the idea of pulling together a couple where I did not correct a reporter or correct an interviewer, it just continues to highlight a measure of desperation in the attacks,” Moore said during an April 2022 campaign event.

Moore told the Times that he forgot he had claimed on his White House Fellowship application to have won the Bronze Star, and that it was a surprise to him when he saw the paperwork this week.

The reaction from Maryland elected officials who had seen the story, including some who are military veterans, was similar to Moore’s explanation: It was a simple mistake that Moore compounded by not correcting it in the intervening years, they said.

Sen. William C. Smith Jr. (D-Montgomery County), a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, noted that it was Lt. Gen. Michael Fenzel, who was a lieutenant colonel and Moore’s superior in Afghanistan at the time of the White House application, who told Moore to put the Bronze Star on his application.

Fenzel told the Times that while the medal had not been awarded at the time, he and every other officer who needed to sign off on the award had done so, and he assumed it was coming through. Fenzel said he only learned this week that the medal was not awarded.

“When you’re evaluating someone, you should make sure you understand the full record,” Smith said Thursday of the latest furor. “As you look at the full record, you see a brigade commander signed him off to get [Moore] processed.

“He has been cleared all the way through for that. He has not misrepresented his record in any form or fashion,”  said Smith, the chair of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.

Most of Moore’s defenders focused on his service and said that should be weighed against the Bronze Star claim.

Sen. Nick Charles (D-Prince George’s), who served in the Air Force from 2001 to 2006, defended Moore in an Instagram post.

“While on Active Duty in the Air Force. I served with some brave men and women. Now, here at home I’m proud to serve and stand with a brave Governor, @iamwesmoore. Wes, we are with you, and you have air cover from me,” Charles’ post said.

Other Democrats rallied around the governor.

Del. Diana M. Fennell (D-Prince George’s), a member of the legislature’s Veterans Caucus, said Thursday that she had not looked closely into the issue, but trusts Moore’s account.

“I believe whatever he said, because he’s such a wonderful person,” she said. “He was in the military and that’s what matters.”

Smith called Moore not only “a veteran who has served in a combat zone putting his life on the line, but he has been the most pro-veteran governor we have ever had.”

“He has used his position as governor to further the interest of all veterans in Maryland. Not only did he put his life on the line leading troops in a combat zone, but he’s now continuing to serve veterans,” Smith said. “To my mind, he’s a patriot and his service should be honored and commended.”

But Doug Mayer, a political strategist with Strategic Partners and Media, said that while the Bronze Star on the White House application may be a minor infraction, it “could speak to his [Moore’s] character” in a larger way. Mayer, who served as communications director for former Gov. Larry Hogan (R), pointed to other questions that have been raised about Moore, including claims that his memoir, “The Other Wes Moore,” exaggerated the amount of time he spent in Baltimore growing up.

“What I hope this does, for everyone’s sake, is rip off the Band-Aid of invincibility and nonsense that surrounds this guy,” Mayer said.

State Senate Minority Leader Stephen Hershey (R-Upper Shore) said questions of Moore’s integrity are a concern — but not the biggest concern he has with the Democratic governor.

“Honestly, I’m more concerned about how he’s governing the State of Maryland than I am about this,” Hershey said in a text message Thursday.

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The Maryland Senate race between former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D) is in a dead heat, according to a new poll commissioned by AARP, the advocacy group for seniors.

The same poll showed a commanding lead for Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump in Maryland — indicating that Hogan so far is succeeding in convincing many voters to split their ballots between the political parties.

But the survey also suggests Hogan may be falling just short of the Democratic support he needs to guarantee victory — and that Alsobrooks, who is less well known to voters at the moment, has more room to grow over the final two months of the campaign.

The Senate race “literally couldn’t be closer,” said Bob Ward, one of two pollsters who designed and conducted the survey, on a Zoom call Monday with Maryland Matters.

Ward, with the Republican polling firm Fabrizio Ward, and Jeff Liszt, of the Democratic firm Impact Research, are conducting surveys for AARP across 10 states with competitive elections.

In the Maryland Senate race, Alsobrooks and Hogan each polled at 46%, with 7% of those surveyed undecided and 1% preferring other candidates. The poll of 600 likely voters was taken Aug. 14-20 and had a 4-point margin of error.

Hogan had a robust 55%-32% advantage over Alsobrooks among independent voters, while her lead among Democrats was 68%-26%.

“That’s what’s obviously keeping him in the race,” Ward said.

Both candidates were viewed quite favorably by voters, but Hogan was better known, another part of the political dynamic in the state.

“We haven’t seen a survey like this this year,” Liszt said. “The story there comes down to name ID.”

Hogan was viewed favorably by 59% of voters, compared to 28% who viewed him unfavorably. Alsobrooks was viewed favorably by 41% of voters and unfavorably by 16%. That’s a huge gap in name recognition, meaning she’s going to need to spend more time and resources working to make herself known to voters across the state

The pollsters also oversampled senior voters and Black voters in Maryland, two critical voting blocs. Eighty-seven percent of voters in Maryland over the age of 50 said their motivation to vote is a 10-out-of-10, compared with only 70% of voters 18-49 who have the same level of enthusiasm. In the 2022 midterm elections, 50+ voters made up 62% of the Maryland electorate.

“What we’ve learned is that candidates in Maryland ought to be paying attention to the concerns of older voters,” said Hank Greenberg, AARP’s Maryland director.

The Senate race is very close among voters older than 50, with Hogan ahead 47%-45%, within the poll’s margin of error. In that broad demographic, he topped Alsobrooks 52%-39% among voters 50-64, while she led 51%-43% among voters 65 and older.

The pollsters said that voters in the 50-64 demographic are generally leaning toward Republicans across the country, while those 65 and older, aging Baby Boomers, remain more liberal.

Black voters represent about 30% of the electorate in Maryland, and while their support for Harris is resolute in the White House election, their disposition could prove critical in the Senate race, where Alsobrooks is trying to make history by becoming the third Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate — and the first from Maryland.

Alsobrooks is ahead by a whopping 52 points among Black voters who are 50+. But the race is much closer among Black voters 18-49, where Alsobrooks is up by 18 points. In his successful races for governor in 2014 and 2018, Hogan took about 30% of the Democratic vote, and he also took about 30% of the Black vote in 2018, even though his Democratic challenger, Ben Jealous, was Black.

The AARP pollsters said Alsobrooks’ lower level of support among younger Black voters is largely a function of her lower name recognition in that demographic compared to older Black voters. Overall, among voters of all races ages 18-34, Hogan is leading Alsobrooks 50%-40% — which is also due to her considerably lower name ID with voters in that bracket.

Hogan’s ability to remain competitive against Alsobrooks, in a fundamentally blue state, may depend on his capacity to keep his numbers in the 30% range with Black voters and Democrats.

“The state has the highest percentage of ticket splitters, especially for voters over 50, that we’ve seen,” said Liszt. “But the fundamentals and the presidential ballot suggest you would put your money on the Democrat prevailing.”

Presidential race: Harris in command

In the White House election, Harris will have no problem winning the state by a huge margin, the survey showed.

In a head-to-head matchup with Trump, she led 64% to 32%, with 3% undecided and 1% expressing a preference for someone else. In a test of all presidential candidates, Harris took 59% compared to 29% for Trump. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump last week, though he will remain on the Maryland ballot — was at 5% in the poll. Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver each took 1%.

That’s consistent with the results of the 2020 presidential election, when President Biden won 65% of the vote in Maryland compared with Trump’s 32%.

Harris led with every demographic in Maryland, except for Republicans, where Trump unsurprisingly had an 83%-14% advantage.

In the poll, Harris was viewed favorably by 61% of voters, while 33% viewed her unfavorably. Trump’s numbers were underwater, with 30% viewing him favorably and 65% unfavorably. Biden’s favorable to unfavorable rating was 51%-42%. Gov. Wes Moore (D) was viewed favorably by 57% of voters and unfavorably by 21%.

Seniors’ priorities

In the survey, 52% of older voters in Maryland said Social Security is or will be a major source of their income, and 79% said candidate positions on Social Security are “extremely or very important” in determining their vote in November — which was the highest priority out of any issue polled.

Sixteen percent of older voters identified themselves as swing voters who aren’t going to be straight-ticket voters at either the presidential or Senate level. Among swing voters, economic issues led the way, with personal economic issues like inflation, Social Security, jobs and taxes being the top issues they care about.

Swing voters were more likely to be family caregivers: one-third of swing voters 50+ identified themselves as family caregivers. To this demographic, issues like Social Security and Medicare price negotiation stand out as disproportionately important.

“The economy is really the backdrop to this election,” Wade said. He added, that many races this year are impossible to predict: “Anything could happen. It’s 2024.”

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

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Maryland is one of two states, with California, to pass a so-called Kids Code law — legislation aimed at providing privacy and other protections to children using online platforms.

But a federal appeals court’s decision this month to uphold much of a lower court’s injunction of the California law – on which Maryland’s law is based – is raising new fears about the vulnerability of the Maryland law to court challenge.

“There’s definitely, for those of us who are constantly looking at the legality of these provisions, there are some open questions,” said Meetali Jain, director of the Tech Justice Law Project — an organization that has supported the passage of Kids Code laws.

The Aug. 16 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held some positives for Kids Code supporters: It said a lower court may have gone too far when it issued a preliminary injunction on First Amendment grounds.

But the appellate court largely agreed with the lower court that tech firms were likely to succeed on their claim that the law violates free speech protections, by requiring them to review products they believe would be used by children looking for content that could be harmful. Those portions of the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act amount to a restraint on speech, the court said.

That was the claim made by NetChoice, a tech industry group that has aggressively opposed state efforts to impose regulations. The group has lobbyists in more than two dozen states. The effort in Maryland is in addition to lobbyists hired by individual members including Google, Facebook parent company Meta, and Amazon.

Maryland passed its Kids Code law this year, and advocates consider it an evolved, upgraded version of the California law.

“I think a lot of people believe that the district court in California got it wrong, but just because they got it wrong doesn’t mean that folks can’t try and strengthen the bill against a legal attack in Maryland,” said Nichole Rocha, a California-based data privacy rights attorney who worked on both the California and Maryland laws. “So absolutely, there was a lot of consideration given to amendments to make it legally stronger.”

A similar bill passed this year in Vermont, but Gov. Phil Scott (R) vetoed it and lawmakers there were unable to override his veto.

The Maryland bills — House Bill 603 and Senate Bill 571 — were signed into law in May and take effect in October. It will require default privacy settings and safety measures for children. The law limits the collection of data,  including geolocation data, from minors by social media and other companies, as well as the sale of that data. And it requires that companies complete assessments in 2026 of new features, focusing on the effects on children.

I think a lot of people believe that the district court in California got it wrong, but just because they got it wrong doesn’t mean that folks can’t try and strengthen the bill against a legal attack in Maryland. – Nichole Rocha, California-based data privacy rights attorney

Negligent violations of the law are punishable by a fine of $2,500 per child per instance, while intentional violations carry a fine of $7,500 per child per instance.

The legislation was sponsored in the Maryland General Assembly by Del. Jared Solomon (D-Dist. 18), who represents Chevy Chase and Kensington, and Sen. Ben Kramer (D-Dist. 19), who represents Silver Spring. 

“It will be sort of an entire new framework for the way in which companies are supposed to look at their products,” Solomon told MoCo360 in May. “That’s through the use of data protection impact assessments, which will really require them to analyze their products for the potential harm that they might cause to young people. When weighing those harms, the harms have to weigh more than the potential profit.”

Attorney General Anthony Brown, in a letter to Moore, said that while the law was “not clearly unconstitutional,” there are “potential constitutional issues” within the act.

Key among them were the state’s data privacy provisions. Brown wrote that there is risk that “a reviewing court will construe some of the Maryland Act’s provisions … to regulate speech or other expressive conduct, and as such, subject them to heightened scrutiny under the First Amendment and find those provisions unconstitutional.”

But Brown concluded that any individual provisions struck down by the court could be severed from the rest of the law.

So far, there has been no legal challenge.

Rocha said she and others believe NetChoice could be biding its time in Maryland while awaiting a final decision on the California law.

“They’re just waiting to see what happens so they can position themselves,” Rocha said.

A spokesperson for NetChoice said the group does not publicly discuss legal strategy.

Del. Jared Solomon (D-Montgomery), who sponsored the House version of the bill, said in May that he was confident the Maryland law would  be the first to withstand judicial scrutiny. Solomon did not respond to a request for comment on the impact of the California ruling.

A key change in the Maryland law is language making it clear that there is no intent to censor content or limiting access to content, Rocha said. Additionally, Maryland more clearly defines “best interest of the child” and includes physical, financial and psychological harm.

And advocates point out that Maryland included language that prevents the entire law from being struck down if a court finds one or more provisions are unconstitutional.

Appeals court strikes down part of California law

California passed its version in 2022. NetChoice – whose members include Amazon, Google, Meta, Netflix and X – sued in federal district court on Dec. 14, 2022, and it asked for a preliminary injunction of the law on Feb. 17, 2023.

The district court agreed with NetChoice, temporarily blocking the law on Sept. 18, 2023, sparking the appeal to the 9th Circuit.

The appeals court ruling was, in some ways, a setback for supporters of the California law. In a 44-page decision handed down on Aug. 16, a three-judge panel agreed that a required data protection impact assessment in California law violated the First Amendment.

The assessment’s requirement that “covered businesses opine on and mitigate the risk that children may be exposed to harmful or potentially harmful materials online … facially violates the First Amendment,” the court panel said.

The appellate court remanded the case back to the lower court for additional review. In the opinion, the panel said it was “unclear,” based on the initial court review, if other challenged provisions of the California law “violated the First Amendment.”

Lawsuit watch in Maryland

The lack of litigation against the Maryland law so far does not mean it is in the clear.

Jain said the appeals court ruling in the California case leaves four open constitutional questions: Are data privacy protections and design safeguards constitutional; can the rest of the law stand if the court finds data privacy impact assessments unconstitutional; can social media platforms be required to verify or estimate the age of a user; and are duty of care provisions constitutional?

The Maryland law goes into effect in October. A legal challenge could still come when Maryland implements the law.

“Maryland’s law is very similar to (the California law), especially the Data Protection Impact Assessment provision, which the Ninth Circuit focused on as likely unconstitutional under strict scrutiny. That is an even higher standard than the District Court reviewed it under,” Krista Chavez, a spokesperson for NetChoice, wrote in an email response to questions.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

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During his first campaign for public office in 2006, when he ousted a 32-year state senator in the Democratic primary, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) called his scores of youthful volunteers “the democracy corps.”

That loose amalgamation of youthful energy has morphed through the years into the Democracy Summer, a robust program sponsored by Raskin and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that dispatches young people across the country to work for progressive candidates and causes.

But “Democracy Summer” could also describe part of the campaign Democrats are waging against former President Donald Trump and his political allies.

And Raskin has been right in the thick of it.

Already he’s been on the road to two dozen states this election cycle, campaigning for — and sometimes against — various candidates. He’s been moving frenetically throughout Chicago during the Democratic National Convention this week, speaking to several groups. And on Monday evening, he became the first of three high-profile Maryland political leaders to speak on the convention floor in prime time (Gov. Wes Moore and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks were the others).

All the while he’s been delivering good-humored zingers at his political foes that also expose the severity of the challenges facing the U.S.

Raskin’s floor speech was keyed to his experience as a constitutional scholar — and his roles as the impeachment manager of Trump’s second trial and as a key member of the special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Much of his speech focused on that terrifying day — though he began it by saying, “Hello, America! Welcome to democracy convention!”

He went on to prosecute the case against Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

“Make no mistake, a man who uses fraud, theft and violence to take power will commit any crime to keep it,” Raskin told the delegates. “We’re going to defeat Donald Trump, the career criminal and incorrigible recidivist con man and his pet chameleon, JD Vance.”

But the convention speech was just part of Raskin’s agenda this week.

According to a schedule provided by the congressman’s campaign office, Raskin has spoken to eight state delegations, including Maryland — almost as many as Moore. He spoke at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee’s Interfaith Council and at a meeting of the DNC’s Climate Crisis Council. And he hosted one of the Maryland delegation’s late-night after-parties, at Harry Caray’s Tavern on Chicago’s Navy Pier — a celebration that seemed very much in Raskin’s image.

There, he hosted a reunion of some members of the indie band The Dispatch, which thrilled some members of the Maryland convention delegation.

“My favorite band,” said the party chair, Ken Ulman.

“The soundtrack to my college years,” said Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater (D).

There, the band played some songs from a rock opera that Dispatch leader Chad Stokes has written called “1972,” which follows a young woman who is attempting to obtain an illegal abortion and features some of the characters she meets along the way.

Raskin advised the schmoozing politicos to go outside if they didn’t want to listen to the music. But first, he introduced the crowd to Harry Dunn, the former U.S. Capitol Police officer whom Raskin credited with saving his life, and to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, whom Raskin called “a born-again patriot.”

‘Everyone has their own Sugar Daddy’

At midday Thursday, a large room in a makeshift space in downtown Chicago known as the Democracy House was like an MSNBC junkie’s dream. Assembled there to discuss the prospects for reforming the Supreme Court were Melissa Murray, a New York University law professor and MSNBC commentator; Elie Mystal, the justice reporter for The Nation magazine, who can summon outrage the way most people breathe; Michael Waldman, the director of the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University Law School, who has written a book about the court; Adrianne Shropshire, the director of Black PAC, an organization that mobilizes Black voters; U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Raskin.

For the congressman, shining a spotlight on the Supreme Court is part of his crusade to save democracy.

“There’s a fantastic ethics crisis taking place on the court,” Raskin told the crowd.

When Murray referred to the court as “a millionaire emotional support group,” Raskin chimed in, “Everyone [on the court] has their own Sugar Daddy … The nation’s highest court has the lowest ethics. Anyone in Congress would be in jail” if they accepted favors from rich benefactors the way Raskin said some justices do.

Whitehouse suggested something sinister has been afoot at the high court for years, but that it only began to come into focus after justices voted to repeal Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“You cannot explain this court with the term conservative,” he said. “That is the wrong term to use. You have to use the term covert operation. Or regulatory capture.”

Mystal called Leonard Leo, who as head of the Federalist Society promoted conservatives for federal judgeships, “a groomer.”

“People like [Justices] Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, they were not born, they were made in a lab by Leonard Leo,” he said.

Shropshire said that Black voters have become increasingly alarmed about the direction of the Supreme Court since justices began chipping away at voting rights laws. When Black voters are asked by pollsters what they fear most, the Supreme Court comes in second, behind Trump’s reelection.

“I think all of us have to fall out of love with the Supreme Court of the United States,” Raskin said. “That doesn’t mean fall out of love with the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.”

Raskin lamented that he was planning to speak more about the Supreme Court during his convention address, but joked that he was asked by convention organizers to cut his 5,000-word speech down by 4,550 words. Still, he said, he was proud to use the term “Kangaroo Supreme Court of the United States” on the convention floor.

“I just want to note, this [conversation] is unusually spicy,” Murray said at one point.

‘Mustard that agrees with your Constitution’

Also spicy are the jars of mustard that Raskin has been handing out during convention week, “Jamie’s Strong & Sweet Democracy Mustard,” which features the slogan “Mustard that agrees with your Constitution” on its label.

The mustard was produced by Raskin’s cousins, who operate the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin.

The jars went especially quickly when Raskin addressed the Maryland convention delegation Thursday morning, zinging insults at Trump and Republicans to the great joy of his audience. Noting Vance’s conversion from anti-Trumper in 2016 to Trump’s running mate in 2024, he said, “Everybody’s waiting for the big debate between our amazing nominee, Kamala Harris, and Donald Trump. I’m waiting for the debate between J,D. Vance and J.D. Vance.”

Raskin also said that in response to Republicans’ insistence on referring to Democrats as “The Democrat Party,” he has taken to calling Republicans “Banana Republicans.” When he informed his wife that he had “finally gotten back at them,” she observed, “That was an extremely immature response.”

But he’s still using the line, and there’s no rest for the weary: Raskin next takes his act on the road this weekend to Saranac Lake, N.Y., in the Adirondack Mountains — not exactly a hotbed of progressive politics — where he’ll be raising money for his own campaign and for Democracy Summer.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

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The spotlight may not have been on Montgomery County’s newest state representative, Del. Teresa Woorman (D-Dist. 16), at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday night, but the internet has decided otherwise.

The General Assembly member, who represents the Bethesda area, was attending the convention as a Maryland voting delegate for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. During Oprah Winfrey’s speech Wednesday night, MSNBC and CNN cameras cut to a shot of Woorman as the TV icon referenced GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s controversial “childless cat ladies” comment.

“When a house is on fire, we don’t ask about the homeowner’s race or religion. We don’t wonder who their partner is or how they voted,” Winfrey said. “No, we just try to do the best we can to save them. And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out, too.”

The camera then panned to a shot of Woorman, who was nodding in agreement with Winfrey’s comments as the crowd laughed and applauded.

As of Thursday afternoon, at least one social media video of Woorman had received more than 2 million views.

Woorman responded on social media to the post, saying, “lol this is me, hi! I’m having a great time at the DNC. And damn right this childless cat lady is 100% disgusted by J.D. Vance in general and 100% behind @KamalaHarris and @GovTimWalz!”

She also shared a picture of her cats following a request from social media users.

In a text exchange Thursday with MoCo360, Woorman, who was sworn in Aug. 12 as a state delegate, said she has been surprised by the attention the moment has received.

“At the time I was thinking back to my swearing-in a week and a half ago where I opened up [my remarks] with ‘Hey I’m Teresa Saavedra Woorman and I’m a childless cat lady,’ ” Woorman told MoCo360 in a text. “I think people identified with my being randomly pictured on TV at the moment Oprah said ‘childless cat lady,’ but then I used the occasion (and my swearing-in) to highlight how ridiculous JD Vance’s statement was.”

Woorman said she believes people’s reception to her posted response is indicative of their views of Vance’s comments.

“My point was that democracy and representation are for everyone, whatever their race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, religion, party affiliation, income level, or parental status,” she wrote. “I think the viral response suggests that many, many people agree with me and not with JD Vance.”

Woorman’s response to the viral moment spawned stories posted on the websites of the Huffington Post and The Guardian.  The video clip has generated several memes and commentary from social media users.

The Maryland Democratic Party also highlighted the moment in a social media post.

The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) nominated Woorman, who previously served as the committee’s secretary, last month to fill a General Assembly delegate seat vacated by now-state Sen. Sara Love (D-Dist. 16).

One of nine candidates for the seat, Woorman, 32, won the nomination after three rounds of voting by the 24-member central committee. In an interview with MoCo360 after winning the nomination, Woorman said she wants to focus on assessing and improving constituent services and hopes that she will be placed on the House Health and Government Operations Committee.

Her nomination was accepted by Gov. Wes Moore before she was officially sworn in Aug. 12.

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U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) of Takoma Park was the first Marylander to speak on the convention floor Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

A constitutional law professor, the manager of former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial and a member of the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection, Raskin recalled the terror of the Capitol riot and slung insults about the Republicans’ disdain for democracy.

“Thank you for the beautiful weather, Chicago,” Raskin said at the top of his speech. “It’s been a little difficult on Capitol Hill, where it’s not just the heat, it’s the stupidity.”

Raskin decried “the banana Republicans who have turned Lincoln’s party into a dangerous cult of personality.” He recalled the chants of Jan. 6 insurrectionists: “Hang Mike Pence!”

“Someone should have told Donald Trump that the president’s job under Article 2 of the Constitution is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not that the vice president is executed,” Raskin said. He joked that U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s current running mate, only got his job because the previous occupant, Pence, didn’t want it.

“Do you (Vance) understand why there was a sudden opening for vice president on the GOP ticket?” Raskin said. “They tried to kill your predecessor.”

Raskin reminded the crowd how courts throughout the country rejected Trump’s false claims in 2020 that the election had been stolen, but also rapped the current Supreme Court and exhorted Democrats to action.

“Let’s make it a landslide so big that Donald Trump and his kangaroo court Supreme Court justices cannot even try to steal it,” he said, to thunderous applause.

“Congressman Raskin’s courageous voice and bold defense of our democracy continues to make Marylanders proud,” Maryland Democratic Party Chair Ken Ulman said later.

Historic gathering for Alsobrooks

In the history of this republic, three Black women have served in the U.S. Senate.

One of them is a little busy right now: Kamala Harris.

But the other two, Sen. LaPhonza Butler (D-Calif.) and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.), are scheduled to appear Tuesday at a fundraiser benefiting two women who are vying to join their very exclusive club next January: U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.

Perhaps fittingly, the historical gathering is set to take place at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center on this city’s South Side.

Both Alsobrooks and Blunt Rochester are bidding to replace veteran lawmakers whose political careers span decades—Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who has spent 18 years in the Senate and first won political office in 1966, and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who has spent 24 years in the Senate and first won political office in 1976.

Although she is not yet the Democratic nominee—the Delaware primary doesn’t take place until Sept. 10—Blunt Rochester is heavily favored to win the Delaware seat. Alsobrooks is considered the favorite in Maryland for now, but faces a tough battle against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R).

Moseley Braun was elected to the Senate in an upset in 1992, but she lost her seat six years later. Democrats won it back in 2004 with a fellow named Barack Obama. Butler, a top policy adviser to Harris’ previous presidential campaign, was appointed to her Senate seat last year, following the death of trailblazing California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D), and will finish up her term in January.

Tuesday’s event was organized by a campaign committee known as the Alsobrooks Blunt Rochester Victory Fund, but it’s a little more complicated than that.

According to the invitation, the proceeds will be split, depending on the size and source of contributions, in a complicated formula that’s explained in the fine print, between the two campaigns and the federal campaign accounts of the Maryland Democratic Party and the Delaware Democratic Party. Blunt Rochester’s proceeds will go first toward her primary campaign and then to the general election.

Phew!

Hogan, meanwhile, came out with three 30-second TV ads Monday. Each touts Hogan’s independence from partisan dogma and spotlights a professional woman (two are Democrats and one is independent) who is voting for Hogan.

“As a welder, I understand heat and pressure,” says Kay Williams in one of the ads. “Larry Hogan understands heat and pressure.”

“He has a common sense ideology,” says nurse Roxanne Thomas in the second ad.

“Hogan was for me the definition of solutions without judgment,” Pam Curtis, a self-described “proud Democrat,” says in the third ad.

But Democrats continue to pound away at Hogan’s preferred narrative that he will be an independent operator in the Senate. That counter-argument was repeated at the Maryland convention delegation’s breakfast Monday morning by none other than U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

One of the charms of the hotel where the Maryland Democrats are staying and meeting is that nine other state delegations are also staying there, and the delegations are gathering in ballrooms that are close to each other. Schumer was drawn into the Maryland breakfast on his way to the Empire State meeting, after hearing whoops following Gov. Wes Moore’s rousing speech.

“Wait a minute, can I join this party?” Schumer said, as he approached the podium, to surprised cheers from the Marylanders.

“I want to make sure that we elect Angela Alsobrooks to the United States Senate,” he began. “Guess who Gov. Hogan will vote for for majority leader. It ain’t Chuck Schumer.

“Angela will do such a great, great job,” Schumer continued. “You have a great state, with Angela Alsobrooks in the U.S. Senate, with Chuck Schumer staying as majority leader, with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the White House.”

Later, Maryland Democratic Chair Ken Ulman noted that under Schumer’s leadership, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee “has been a tremendous partner to the Maryland coordinated campaign. He is really focused on Maryland.”

Also from the podium at Monday’s delegation meeting, Alsobrooks was endorsed by Ryan Boyer, the business manager of the Metropolitan Area of Philadelphia/Baltimore/Washington Laborers’ District Council, the regional affiliate of the Laborers International Union of North America. The union often endorses Democrats — but it did back Hogan when he was seeking a second term as governor in 2018.

“Angela Alsobrooks made history as the first Black women to be elected Prince George’s County executive,” Boyer said. “With our endorsement, we are going to work with her to not only make history again, but make a difference for the working men and women of Maryland.”

Perhaps just as notably, Boyer expressed admiration for Maryland first lady Dawn Moore in a funny way, with a back-handed compliment for her husband.

“I knew he was very intelligent,” Boyer said. “He’s a Rhodes Scholar. But I wasn’t sure until I met the first lady. He’s really a genius!”

Gov. Moore, Ulman, Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D) and U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve in a presidential cabinet, were the other principal speakers at Monday’s delegation breakfast.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

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