In the contest to become Maryland’s next U.S. senator, Democrat Angela Alsobrooks and Republican Larry Hogan are in a dead heat heading into the fall campaign season, according to a new poll.
Alsobrooks and Hogan are tied at exactly 46%, with only 7% undecided among those who responded to a poll commissioned by the AARP that was released Tuesday.
National elections prognosticators have rated the race as “leans” or “likely” Democratic, but the AARP poll shows that the race is closer than some analysts have predicted. “We’re hitting Labor Day.
We’re hitting the point where more voters are going to engage, where surveys have a little more predictive value than earlier in the election cycle,” said Jeff Liszt, partner with Impact Research, one of the two firms that conducted the poll for the AARP.
The AARP poll marks the first truly independent poll — and the first poll of any kind — in months in the Senate race, and it may help set the stage for the 70 days remaining until the final votes are cast.
Alsobrooks and Hogan are vying not just for their own chance to represent Maryland, but for their party to control the Senate. Maryland is one of a handful of states where the outcome of the Senate race could factor into the balance of power, where Democrats currently hold a slim 51-49 majority.
Alsobrooks, in her second term as Prince George’s County executive, is fresh off a week in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention, where she got a coveted prime-time speaking spot and networked with party faithful from across the country.
She’s been pushing a message that control of the Senate could come down to how Maryland votes in this race.
“The stakes of this race couldn’t be higher,” Alsobrooks campaign spokesperson Gina Ford said in a statement Tuesday. “This race will determine whether Democrats defend our Senate majority or whether Larry Hogan hands Republicans a Senate majority and empowers Republicans to control the agenda for our country.”
The story continues at The Baltimore Banner: Hogan and Alsobrooks are tied in US Senate race, poll finds
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