Trumps Breadcrumb Trail is the Path Cox Hopes to Take to the GOP Majority for Governor – Things in Maryland

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Del. Daniel L. Cox (R-Frederick). Photo by Danielle E. Gaines.

The primary Republican election of 2022 for governor could be Governor Larry Hogan versus Donald Trump.

Kelly Schulz may be carrying the banner of Hogan and Republican moderates in next year’s primary election for governor, but Del. Dan Cox (R-Frederick), a political figure, believes the Marylands followed Donald Trump but could, instead, be a generous gift to Democrats.

Hogan spent the entire election season in 2016 and 2020 ruined and eventually rejected Trump, but when the noise died down, Trump prevailed in 2016, winning the main party of every subdivision in the state, some by large margin.

To roughly paraphrase Shakespeare, comparisons suck. Trump was not on the ballot, nor was he directly involved in the recent California recall election. But Trumpism is, in the resurrected form of talk-show host Larry Elder, who, like his avatar, has proved that everything is blistered and pointless.

Trumpism coattails are scissors. Governor Gavin Newsom (D) reversed the difficult recall election by dropping 64 percent of the vote and a convincing implementation of his strict pandemic policies on masking and vaccination to protect public health.

Here in Maryland the learning curve is still a limp arc and the word Trumps lingers in some fine corners of the state. The counties where Trump got his biggest vote in 2016 were the same subdivisions where jabs and masks were viewed as demons stung and lurked.

In the 2016 field of 11 GOP presidential candidates in Maryland, Trump got 54.1% of the vote, or 248,343 votes. His closest opponent is John R. Kasich, with 106,614 votes (23.2%) and next on the list is Sen. Ted Cruz, with 87,093 votes (19%).

The heaviest vote yields were in Anne Arundel (32,081), Baltimore County (38,247), Carroll (16,942), Frederick (16,011), Harford (22,376), Howard (12,238) Montgomery (19,689) and Washington (12,352).

Cox has lost the whole of Trump. The relationship is meaningful because that’s the path Cox intends to follow. And it may also be why Michael Steele, the TV commentator and former lieutenant governor, is fighting over the fence as he ponders whether to join the contest for governor. And, oh, by the way, long-term pain-in-the-hole Robin Ficker, didn’t fail. He is also a candidate.

Here’s a sampler of Coxs agenda from her Dan Cox for Governor website: She begins with an endorsement from Doug Mastriano, whom she describes as America’s most beloved state senator.

Mastriano was the Pennsylvania state senator who led the push to overthrow the election of Joe Bidens as president in that state. Cox served as an attorney with the Trumps legal team in Philadelphia. (The Pennsylvania legislature recently approved an election audit last year, including the power to subpoena personal records of voters.) Cox’s agenda followed, in part:

Protect our God-given rights to life, liberty and property, including the freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights such as First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment. Citizens must be free from over-reaching and invading government controls.

Give parents a choice of educational opportunities and respect parental rights to end divisive CRT and make our schools free from political or ideological indoctrination.

Ensure the integrity of the election, order a forensic audit and protect the people of the right to choose their representatives in one person, a legal vote. I will submit a legislative package to require a valid citizen voter ID, complete general mail-in ballots and order a forensic audit of the 2020 election.

But hold on to your horses! The Coxs agenda document can be read as an American as freedom and money but it contains all the appropriate Trumpian dog-whist phrases and issues that provoke the Republican right base but are neither active nor unified. scramble generally in Maryland, a 2- 1 Democratic state. Coxs issues could potentially burn in Texas or Idaho.

Cox, on another occasion, accused Hogan of suspending the Bill of Rights by demanding face masks as part of the antidote to the coronavirus. He introduced a bill, according to reports, to ban anything required to show evidence of a medical examination, vaccination, a medical examination or any other medical information for work or travel. And he will allow parents to refuse immunization of children as a requirement for school attendance.

Cox led a group of constituents to a Trump -inspired rally or riot on Jan. 6, and called then -Vice President Mike Pence a traitor in refusing to block Bidens ’election certification. This led to calls for his expulsion from the General Assembly of the Frederick Central Democratic State Committee. (Pences’ role in Bidens election certification is questioned in a new book, Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.)

Cox won the Republican nomination to Congress from the 8th District in 2016 on the same ticket as Trump but lost to Rep. Jamie Raskin who, in one of those very small rounds, was the leader of Trump’s two impeachment trials, Coxs hero.

Without full liberation in Maryland, Catholics remember that in Cecil County, the Ku Klux Klan was still regularly burning across the 1960s; there was, until recently, an active KKK cell in Carroll County; Garrett County for many years has been actively fighting the fluoridation of its drinking water as a toxic conspiracy; and the nine Eastern Shore provinces excluded themselves from the states ’lodging law in 1963.

Although the entire Republican ballot has not yet been fixed, Schulz and Hogan had better be vigilant and careful. With an agenda like the Coxs, and the breadcrumb trail Trump left in Maryland, Cox could easily win the Republican primary in a low year of non-presidential elections.

Schulz, like Cox, came from Frederick who represented him in the House of Delegates. He joined the Hogan administration as secretary of Labor, Licensing and Regulation and is now secretary of Commerce.

Here is a paragraph from Schulzs website that is generic and benign versus Coxs thunderclap fulminations:

I run for the governor so that we can continue to build on all of our past successes and fulfill the great promise and potential of our state. Together, we can make Marylanders work, help our struggling families and small businesses, and restore and boost our economy.

Not an indication of Trumpian mistakes or conspiracy in that or in the entire 5-paragraph statement of Schulzs ’candidacy. But Schulz had better insist on his speech if he hopes to resist Coxs ’grab-em-by-the-throat messaging.

The Republican primary election is notoriously low in delivering voters in the primary election there are only 998,749 of them as opposed to 2.261 million Democrats because there is rarely competition at the top of the ballot.

Yet there are 13 counties in Maryland where Republicans are more numerous than Democrats Allegany, Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Garrett, Harford, Queen Annes, St. Louis. Marys, Somerset, Talbot, Washington and Worcester. Cox, a lawyer, is secretary of the Republican Central Committee in Frederick County where there are 74,616 Democrats and 68,009 Republicans, though most of the county falls into the conservative column.

The Democrats, the I-95 corridor party, couldn’t be happier than having Cox in the race because they hope to revoke the governorship after eight years on the outside look. They can only pray that he stays in the tournament and wins the premiere. Trump lost Maryland in 2020 by 33.2% Bidens 1.985 million votes to Trumps 976,414.

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