Jealous Beats Seven Democratic Contenders For Governor In Maryland Primaries |

Politics

Jealous Beats Seven Democratic Contenders For Governor In Maryland Primaries

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Vandana Rambaran

June 26, 2018 10:45 PM ET

Political progressive Ben Jealous pulled ahead of the seven other Democratic candidates he shared the ballot with on Tuesday, winning the Maryland primaries and earning himself a chance to take on Republican incumbent Gov. Larry Hogan in the November gubernatorial race.

Jealous won the nomination with 39.3 percent of the vote, beating his closest opponent Rushern Baker, who got 30.6 percent of the vote, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Jealous raked in 160,365 votes to Baker’s 124,942 votes. He also beat another contender, Sen. Rich Madaleno, who got a mere 5.6 percent of the vote.

If he wins the race for governor, the former NAACP executive director, who campaigned on issues such as Medicare for all, free state college tuition and criminal justice reform, would become the first black governor of Maryland and the third in the nation.

Jealous has been endorsed by Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, whose presidential campaign Jealous worked for during the 2016 election, as well as Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Despite clinching the nomination ahead of Baker, who has been credited with boosting business in Prince George’s County as county executive, Jealous’s battle is uphill if he’s going to become governor. He faces Hogan, who has maintained the bipartisan support of his constituents in a deep blue state and is popularly backed by Democrats, with an approval rating of nearly 60 percent of the opposing party.

In the U.S. Senate races, Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, held his seat in office against eight others on the primary ballot. He took home 124,157 votes, over 83 percent, beating Chelsea Manning, a transgender man who identifies as female, and former U.S. Army private who was convicted of leaking more than 700,000 classified documents. Manning got only 4.9 percent of the vote.

In the congressional districts, Democratic incumbent John Delaney gave up his seat in the 6th District in Western Maryland as he begins his run for presidency, and relinquished it to David Trone. Trone won 40.4 percent of the vote. Amie Hoeber won the Republican primary with 68.8 percent of the vote.

In the 1st District on the Eastern Shore, Republican incumbent Rep. Andy Harris was reelected with 85.9 percent of the vote. Democratic candidate Jesse Colvin secured her nomination with 38.2 percent of the vote.

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