Gov. Wes Moore headed to reelection win in rematch with Republican Dan Cox

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) was projected to win reelection Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, which would mark his second win over Republican challenger Dan Cox in a rematch of their 2022 race.

The AP called the race just minutes after the polls closed, before the first ballots were counted. But Moore quickly jumped ahead as results came in. With 1.5% of precincts reporting, Moore, the  state’s first Black governor, had 65% of the vote to Cox’s 32%.

Green Party nominee Andy Ellis and Working Class Party nominee Cathy White each had about 1.7% of the vote.

Moore’s election night party in Baltimore — where attendees dined on crabcake sliders and honey Old Bay wings — reached its 1,200-person capacity limit at about 8:45 p.m., said Moore spokesman Carter Elliott.

As word of Moore’s projected victory hit MS Now, playing on a large projector, the crowd erupted with cheers. Fellow Democrats were quick to congratulate the governor on his expected victory shortly after polls closed Monday night.

“Maryland has spoken loudly, and Maryland has spoken clearly — and they said four more years,” said Vanessa Atterbeary, a Democrat running for Howard County executive, at Moore’s election night event.

The two other top Democrats in statewide office, Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) and Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D) also claimed early victories over Republican challengers who were unable to gain traction against the incumbents.

Brown was leading Republican nominee James B. Rutledge III, a Harford County attorney, by a 67-32 percent margin in early returns. Lierman had 68% of the early tally to 32% for GOP nominee Sonya Dunn, a information technology and communications consultant and a first-time candidate.

Brown, speaking from the stage at Moore’s election night party, said that “whether you voted for me or not … I am your attorney general. ” will fight for your rights. I will protect your freedoms, and I will work every day to earn your trust.”

Lierman took a moment to reflect on a note she’d written as a 10-year-old about the job she wanted to hold in the future.

“That 10-year-old Brooke wanted to travel, to learn, to help people,” Lierman said. “Tonight, you gave her four more years to do it. Tomorrow morning, we get back to work.”

Moore’s repeat race against Cox was not a given: Nine Republicans tossed their hats in the ring for the primary, including Baltimore Blast owner and businessman Ed Hale, a lifelong Democrat who switched parties for the race, and John Myrick, a federal consultant and previous Harford County sheriff’s deputy.

In the end, Hale proved the only real challenge to Cox and his running mate, gun shop owner Rob Krop, who won the June primary with 43% of the vote to Hale’s 36%. Republican voters again selected Cox, a former state delegate, despite his 2022 loss to Moore by a margin of 64.5% to 32.1%.

Back then, Moore was a first-time candidate, brandishing his record as a former nonprofit executive and author. This time around, Cox repeatedly sought to make the election a referendum on Moore’s first term, citing snags in the effort to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge, repeated state budget deficits and rising costs for consumers.

Cox also tried to take a stand against data centers, calling for a statewide moratorium and trying to paint Moore as pro-data centers. Both men have supported data centers in the past and both have shifted their positions, with Moore signing an executive order in September calling for greater state oversight.

But in Maryland, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 2 to 1, Cox’s message failed to gain any true momentum. And he was running with just a fraction of the funds that Moore had at his disposal: Cox reported raising $371,822 in his campaign finance report last month with the Maryland State Board of Elections, to just under $17 million reported by Moore.

During his campaign, the governor tried to paint Cox as a MAGA adherent. Cox took chartered buses to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection and tweeted at the time the Vice President Mike Pence was a “traitor” for not rejecting the 2020 election results that cost President Donald Trump the presidency.

But Cox took care to put distance between himself and Trump on the campaign trail, claiming he was focused on state issues instead, and said he regretted the Pence tweet.

Moore largely focused his campaign on his efforts to combat cost-of-living woes and to fight Trump’s agenda.

“I do want to level with you: I do know the past year and a half has been hard,” Moore said during a debate with Cox last month. “I do know that while we have had many successes together as a state, that we are still fighting against Donald Trump’s illegal tariffs, still fighting against these endless foreign wars, and still fighting against these cuts to health care. … This is the agenda that Dan Cox says he supports 100%.”

Still, Moore has seen his approval ratings decline gradually during his first four years in office. In an April poll from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Moore’s job approval fell below 50% for the first time, and 6 in 10 respondents indicated that they believed the state was heading in the wrong direction.

Between October 2024 and April 2026, Moore’s approval rating fell from 54% to 48%.

“For Wes Moore, the individual, there’s been a downward trend. It’s also a downward trend in the way people think about the economic conditions in Maryland. All these things are trending in the wrong direction if you’re the person in charge of the government,” said Mileah Kromer, the poll’s director, at the time of its release.

— This story will be updated.