Dan Cox, a hard-right former state lawmaker, will once again face Wes Moore in the race for governor of Maryland, having won the Republican nomination on Tuesday, The Associated Press said. Gov. Moore, who is running for re-election, defeated Mr. Cox in 2022 by 32 percentage points.
Mr. Cox bested a crowded Republican field, few of whom had held political office before, reflecting the absence of a unifying leader for the state Republican Party since Larry Hogan, Maryland’s last Republican governor, left office more than three years ago. Mr. Cox’s most well-funded primary opponent, Ed Hale, a former bank executive and the current owner of Baltimore’s indoor soccer team, was a Democrat until last August, when he switched parties.
The funds raised by all the Republican candidates combined amount to a fraction of the more than $6.5 million that Mr. Moore’s campaign has in the bank.
Mr. Cox is a staunch loyalist of President Trump, insisting that the 2020 election was stolen, chartering buses to the rally on Jan. 6, 2021, that ended in the Capitol riot, and calling former Vice President Mike Pence a traitor on social media for not blocking certification of the election. Mr. Trump did not endorse a candidate in the current primary.
The size of Mr. Moore’s victory four years ago likely explains why the Moore campaign began airing ads in the primary’s final days informing Maryland voters that Mr. Cox was “MAGA all the way” and was “too conservative” for the state. It was a repeat performance from 2022, when the Democratic Governors Association spent more than $1 million broadcasting Mr. Cox’s bona fides with the Trump political movement during the Republican primary.
Mr. Hale condemned the Moore campaign for “manipulating the election” to knock everyone out, “except for Dan Cox, who he whipped badly.” Mr. Cox, for his part, called it a “dirty and disgusting tactic,” and insisted that his positions were not too conservative but rather “common sense.”
The platform on his website focuses on cutting taxes and fees, providing housing assistance and lowering energy costs. He has been plenty conservative though. Before running for governor, Mr. Cox served a term in the state House of Delegates, where he pushed legislation that would have rolled back abortion access, limited state public health mandates and expanded gun rights.
In 2024, Mr. Cox represented the owner of a Maryland firearms store called the Machine Gun Nest against federal charges that he conspired with a local sheriff to illegally acquire machine guns. The owner, Robert Krop, was acquitted on all counts. He is now Mr. Cox’s running mate.
The post Hard-Liner Wins G.O.P. Nomination for Governor in Maryland appeared first on New York Times.
