The Goucher Poll released new statistics showing how people feel about the Democratic candidates for both the governor and US Senate primaries.
When asked if voters had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the governor candidates, most say they don't really know. Rushern Baker had the highest favorability rating of 30 percent, followed by Ben Jealous at 28 percent and Kevin Kamenetz at 22 percent.
If the primary elections were held today, 19 percent of voters said they would vote for Rushern Baker, 12 percent would vote for Kevin Kamenetz, and 10 percent were for Ben Jealous. 47 percent of people said they do not know who they would vote for.
Education (26 percent), economy/jobs (20 percent), racial/social justice (16 percent), and healthcare (14 percent) were identified as the most important issues in determining a vote for governor.
“Days out from the candidate filing deadline, our poll suggests that Democratic voters have yet to turn their full attention to the gubernatorial race,” said Mileah Kromer, director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center. “With so many undecided voters, there is ample time and room for the field to shift—even dramatically. Yet, at the same time, the lesser-known candidates need to increase their name recognition soon or this primary could become a 3-way race.”
When it comes to the US Senate race, it seemed like voters had more of an idea what they were going to do at the polls.
Senator Ben Cardin pulled a favorability rating of 64 percent, and 15 percent said they had an unfavorable opinion of him. 44 percent of voters said they are unsure how they feel about Chelsea Manning, 19 percent said they hold a favorable opinion of him, and 37 percent said they have an unfavorable opinion.
If the primary election for US Senator was held today, 61 percent said they would vote for Cardin, 17 percent said they would vote for Manning, and 19 percent were unsure.
