ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Bestselling author Wes Moore won the Democratic primary for Maryland governor on Friday, setting up a general election contest against Republican Dan Cox, a hard-line conservative endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Moore, the author of the book “The Other Wes Moore” and the former CEO of an anti-poverty nonprofit, defeated a long list of other high-profile Democrats, including Tom Perez, the former U.S. labor secretary and ex-Democratic National Committee chair, and Peter Franchot, the state’s longtime comptroller.

Moore will be the strong favorite in the November election against Cox, a right-wing member of the Maryland House of Delegates whose extreme brand of politics is considered a liability in a heavily Democratic state that twice elected centrist Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Moore would be the state’s first Black governor if elected.

A political novice, Moore was boosted in his campaign by Oprah Winfrey, who hosted a virtual fundraiser for him. He also had the support of U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat.

Cox was declared the winner of the Republican primary on Tuesday night. It took until Friday to call the Democratic primary for Moore because the margins were tighter and a larger number of mail ballots were cast in the race. Maryland law prohibits counties from opening mail ballots until the Thursday after election day.

One day after Del. Dan Cox declared victory over former state Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz in the Republican gubernatorial primary, Democrats and their allies rushed to define the GOP nominee as an ideological extremist in the mold of Donald Trump. Or, as Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) famously put it, a “QAnon whack job.”

At the same time, a high-profile Republican seeking statewide office signaled that he intends to keep his distance from his party’s nominee.

House Majority Leader Eric Luedtke (D-Montgomery) accused Republicans of nominating “their most extreme ticket ever,” noting that Cox organized buses for Trump supporters to the U.S. Capitol for the Jan. 6 rally. Luedtke faulted Michael Peroutka, the GOP’s apparent nominee for attorney general, for his ties to “a neo-confederate group.”

Del. Dan Cox defeated former state Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz to win the Republican nomination for governor in a competitive race that pitted two sides of the GOP against each other.

Cox, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, was leading Schulz, who was Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s hand-picked successor 56% to 40% when The Associated Press called the race just after 11 p.m.

In the Democratic primary, early voting returns and initial batches of in-person votes from Tuesday’s primary day showed former nonprofit leader Wes Moore ahead of the crowded nine-person field, followed by former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez and state Comptroller Peter Franchot. A large pool of still-uncounted mail-in ballots could make a difference in that race.

Best-selling author and former foundation executive Wes Moore, who began his long-shot pursuit of the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in single digits, catapulted into the lead on Tuesday as the first wave of ballots were counted.

With early-voting ballots counted and 1,958 of 2,074 precincts reporting primary day ballots, Moore and his running mate, former state Del. Aruna Miller, had 37% of the primary vote.

Former U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, a former Maryland Labor Secretary and Montgomery County Council member, had 27%. He and his running mate, former Baltimore City Council member Shannon Sneed, trailed Moore and Miller by about 34,000 votes.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Franchot, Maryland’s four-term comptroller, addresses supporters at his campaign headquarters on Tuesday. Photo by Bruce DePuyt.
Comptroller Peter Franchot, the state’s four-term tax collector, fell short of expectations. The consensus frontrunner since launching his campaign over a year ago, Franchot and his running mate, former Prince George’s Council member Monique Anderson-Walker, pulled in just 20% of the vote, with 94% of precincts across the state and all early voting centers reporting.

Maryland and Virginia senators have joined together to urge President Joe Biden to resume plans to build a new Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters, which could be built in either state.

The bureau’s current headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. – the J. Edgar Hoover Building – “has crumbling facades, aging infrastructure, and security limitations that are severely impeding the FBI’s ability to meet its critical law enforcement and national security missions,” wrote Maryland’s U.S. Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Virginia’s Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, all Democrats.

The letter was sent Friday.

In 2014, the federal General Services Administration narrowed the list of potential new headquarters locations to two sites in Prince George’s County, and one site in Springfield, Va.

In an ongoing push to improve vaccination rates, the state will now post data weekly on how many residents and staff at each nursing home in Maryland have received shots to protect against the coronavirus.

Through Tuesday, about 77% of residents and 63% of employees at the state’s 227 skilled nursing facilities were vaccinated, according to the new dashboard managed by the Department of Aging. However, the rates vary widely from facility to facility and county to county.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) is removing some homes from the city’s annual tax sale later this month.

Owner-occupied homes that face a tax sale lien for the first time won’t go to the auction block, Scott said Monday.

The announcement means that some Baltimore homeowners who’ve taken a financial hit as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic won’t have their past-due property taxes and other charges sold to the highest bidder at the city’s May 17 tax sale, an online auction that the city uses to collect overdue bills.

During the auction, bidders pay for the various property liens owed to the city in exchange for a tax sale certificate, which “gives the bidder the right to obtain ownership of the property by filing a tax sale foreclosure lawsuit,” according to the city’s website. Property owners can reimburse the successful bidder for the liens and other charges paid during the tax sale — in addition to interest and other costs imposed by the lienholder — to avert a foreclosure, according to the website.

It’s great to once again have a president who can read.

Comparisons suck, to roughly paraphrase Shakespeare. President Biden is no Barack Obama, nor does he need to be. The salient point is that neither is he a Donald Trump, which is important in the battle for literacy in the nation.

We learn by example and experience. Trump was no role model.

Trump could barely pace his tongue through a simple declarative sentence without fumbling, stumbling, tripping over syllables and using his forefinger as a pointer to guide him through the orderly arranged letters of the alphabet to extrude the proper word. Trump couldn’t follow the written word if the text had directional signs. Trump is a textual deviate.

In a recently-produced video circulating on social media, Rep. Andrew P. Harris (R-Md.) urges people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Joined by nine other Republican physician-legislators, Harris tells viewers that the development of safe and effective vaccines provides the country “a clear path to the eradication of the pandemic.”

“The FDA did not skip any steps,” he adds.

Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) said getting vaccinated will bring an end to “the government’s restrictions on our freedoms.”

The Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission will hold its first meeting next Wednesday at 7 p.m.

The redistricting commission is tasked with making recommendations on congressional and legislative maps to Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R), which he will submit to the General Assembly. The introductory meeting comes after commission co-chairs announced the panel’s full membership in mid April.

The virtual meeting will be open to the public. People who want to watch the meeting can join from computer, tablet, or smartphone by going to: global.gotomeeting.com/join/558394869. Members of the public can also dial in by calling 1-872-240-3311. The access code is 558-394-869.

Vice President Kamala Harris will spend a few hours in Baltimore on Thursday, as she and President Biden tout their administration’s successes on their 100th day in office.

Harris is expected to arrive in Baltimore shortly after 1 p.m. and leave shortly after 4 p.m.

She will be given a tour of Maryland’s mass vaccination site at M&T Bank Stadium.