A Washington Post/University of Maryland survey of 1012 likely voters shows that Angela Alsobrooks is leading the race for Maryland’s Senate seat 51%-40%. This is the mirror-reflection of the last poll taken in March where former Governor Larry Hogan lead Alsobrooks 50% to 36% among registered voters. The first order assumption is that voters outside of Prince George’s County have gotten to know Alsobrooks over the last few months and like what they hear.
This is backed by a Hill/DC News Now/Emerson College poll on Tuesday showing Alsobrooks has a 49 to 42 percent lead with “9 per cent of likely voters said that they were undecided”. An interesting tidbit is that the poll found that 15% were planning to split their ticket, voting for Hogan and Harris, and yet Alsobrooks has a considerable lead. There was no mention of ticket splitters voting for Trump and Alsobrooks, but I assume it was really small.
Based on a sampling of flyers and ads, Hogan’s pitch seems to be “Hey, remember me? I not crazy like the other Republicans and will vote for all the things that Democrats vote for,” but the word “Republican” does not appear on the flyers. Larry, can I call you Larry? If it embarrasses you to be a Republican, then don’t be a Republican.
The race is far from over. From Axios, a mysterious super PAC called Maryland’s Future has booked $18.3 million worth of ads in favor of Hogan, although not that mysterious. It is mostly financed by Billionaire Ken Griffin, who is a hedge fund manager and was the 38th-richest man in the world in 2023. The PAC will no doubt launch attacks based on somebody she prosecuted long ago but is now free to prey on school children. I am no fan of super PACS, but it would it not be great if we had a billionaire on our side, one who cares deeply enough about this Senate seat to self-finance his own $60 million candidacy to put up the dough to match? David Trone, are you paying attention?
Disclaimer: I have no connection to the Alsobrooks campaign.