Trump, Democrats all big winners in Maryland’s Republican gubernatorial primary

He was not on the ballot, but former President Trump was one of the winners in Maryland’s Republican primary for governor.

So was the Democratic Governors Association, whose seven-figure investment in the GOP contest appeared to pay off.

The candidate Trump was backing in the Republican primary, state Delegate Dan Cox, captured the party’s nomination in the race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Larry Hogan in blue state Maryland.

Cox defeated Kelly Schulz, a former state lawmaker who had served as Maryland’s secretary of labor (2015-2019) and secretary of commerce (2019–2022) in the Hogan administration. Schulz had Hogan’s backing, and the race, to a degree, turned into a proxy war between the former president and the incumbent governor. Two other long-shot candidates combined captured less than 5% of the total vote.