‘That’s Larry Hogan’s Formula’: Pollster On How The Former Gov. Has Managed To Tie MD's Senate Race

join me now is Bob Ward pollster and partner at F breia Ward Bob thanks so much for joining me once again thank you Britney it's good to be back you have a poll hot off the press in Maryland a new AARP poll shows that vice president kamla Harris has a really comfortable lead against former president Donald Trump in Maryland tell us some of your takeaways yes um the race is not close on the presidential side um and that's to be expected I mean Joe Biden won Maryland in 2020 by 33 points and we're seeing Harris uh ahead of trump in Maryland by currently 32 points um so not a big surprise what is the surprise in Maryland however is the closeness of the Senate contest so um open seat um Democratic senator Ben Cardon is not running again you've got a former two-term Republican Governor Larry Hogan uh as the Republican candidate going up against Prince George's County Executive Angela also Brooks we have that race dead tied at 46% um which is a really interesting feat um Hogan has won Statewide in Maryland and he does it by appealing to um Democratic constituencies um you know he is uh winning 26% of the democratic vote right now he's winning uh 31 % of the African-American vote uh and so these are numbers that you just don't um you know aren't used to seeing from a republican candidate but that's Larry Hogan's formula and how he became a two-term governor and it seems to be paying off now in uh in this Senate race I think the other thing I would add to that though we are a couple months you know out from uh a bit more than a couple months out from the election Angela alsbrooks just really is not known to much of the state and so as you look at you know her name ID and the number of people who just don't know who she is or don't have an opinion of her she really has the up upside here um you know given the strength at the top of the ticket that Harris brings um as Angela also Brooks gets introduced to voters in Maryland you might expect to see this race um widen from a from a dead heat but you know that's depending on what kind of campaign she can run to introduce herself and um you know Larry Hogan is not running as a traditional Republican um we see lots of his ads here on TV and um you know he he doesn't mention Republican and he mentions that he's independent all the time and frankly it seems to be working right now so we have in Maryland vice president kamla Harris beating Trump more than double digits and you have uh Larry Hogan who's a republican in a tie with his Democratic Challenger is this because of his popularity as governor in the state absolutely um Larry Hogan is well known to the voters of Maryland um there are a few people who don't have an opinion of him um and not only is he welln but he's well-liked uh and so if we look at you know his favorable unfavorable numbers in Maryland um he has a net positive image uh among Republicans Independents and Democrats Democrats have a 57% favor 29% unfavorable view of Hogan um on the other side you know he has been attacked by Trump he's not been a trump supporter and there are 26% of Republicans who have an unfavorable view of Larry Hogan too um most of them are still voting for him uh but it's um he appeals to a broad you know cross-section of the American of the Maryland electorate and it you know he his his uh performance as governor um you know is is showing here as he uh tries to become a US senator