Four years ago, Dan Cox won the Republican primary for governor of Maryland thanks to more than $1 million in television advertising on his behalf funded by the Democratic Governors Association.
Now Mr. Cox — a devotee of President Trump who wrote on social media during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that Vice President Mike Pence was a “traitor” — is again receiving help from Democrats to win his primary for governor next week.
Gov. Wes Moore, who defeated Mr. Cox by 32 percentage points in 2022, began airing ads on Tuesday on Fox News that said the former state legislator “supports Trump’s agenda” and that quoted a 2022 endorsement from Mr. Trump calling Mr. Cox “MAGA all the way.”
Such messages, of course, are useful to a Republican running in a Republican primary.
The Maryland Democratic Party is also sending mail to Republican voters promoting Mr. Cox and denouncing his leading primary rival, Ed Hale.
Mr. Hale, a retired bank executive who owns the Baltimore Blast indoor soccer team, is a former Democrat who began a primary campaign against Mr. Moore last year before switching parties to challenge the governor as a Republican.
“We’re not going to take anything for granted, no matter who we’re running against,” said Carter Elliott, a spokesman for Mr. Moore’s campaign.
Maryland campaign finance reports show that Mr. Hale has raised more money than Mr. Cox has, but neither has bought television advertising time, according to AdImpact, a media-tracking firm.
Mr. Moore is likely to be a heavy favorite against either Republican in deep-blue Maryland, though running against an ill-funded Trump acolyte he has already defeated once would most likely give him an even easier path to victory.
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