Lar­ry Hogan’s Mary­land Sen­ate race cre­ates sur­prise drag on Demo­c­ra­t­ic resources

Even for­mer Mary­land Repub­li­can Gov. Lar­ry Hogan would con­cede his U.S. Sen­ate cam­paign to replace retir­ing Sen. Ben Cardin (D‑MD) will be dif­fi­cult based on Democrats’s almost 2–1 vot­er reg­is­tra­tion advan­tage in the sap­phire blue state.
But with a poll indi­cat­ing Hogan has a dou­ble-dig­it edge on the lead­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­ma­ry can­di­dates, Democ­rats may have to spend mon­ey in the state when they already have to con­tend with a dis­ad­van­ta­geous 2024 map.
Hogan, who decid­ed last month to launch a cam­paign for the Sen­ate instead of a spec­u­lat­ed pres­i­den­tial bid with third par­ty No Labels‘s uni­ty tick­et, has a 12 per­cent­age point lead over Rep. David Trone (D‑MD), 49% to 37%, who, as founder and co-own­er of Total Wine & More, is self-fund­ing his effort. Hogan is 14 points ahead of Prince George’s Coun­ty Exe­cu­ti …