BALTIMORE — Primary election night was full of surprises and in some cases, the wait for results could take days because the race is still too close to call.
In the race for governor on the Democratic side, a long-time politician is in distant third and a political newcomer has surfaced as the front-runner.
Comptroller Peter Franchot was considered a favorite because so many know his name. But as results came in Tuesday night, Wes Moore emerged in the lead. The author, military vet, Rhodes Scholar and nonprofit CEO is still unable to claim victory.
“There won’t be any announcements made tonight, and it’s because we believe in counting every vote,” Moore said to a crowd of about 300 supporters.
Throughout the night and into the Wednesday, Tom Perez continuously chipped away at Moore’s lead. As of Wednesday afternoon, Perez was within 10 points of Moore.
“Folks we have a pathway and it is a viable pathway, but we have to make sure we vote and we count all of those votes,” said Perez.
Perez, a former Obama administration official, who once held elected office in Montgomery County and led the Democratic National Committee, drew coveted union support.
Peter Franchot, the statesman with decades of service to Maryland, came in with extremely high name recognition, and that gave him an advantage. But by the end of the night, Franchot was trailing in a distant third. He urged supported to “hang tough”.
“Stay tuned, don’t panic everything is going to be different because it’s just a sliver of the actual votes that have come in. We haven’t even begun to open up the mail in ballots. We know we’re very strong there,” said Franchot.
Election officials will start counting what could be a significant number of mail-in ballots Thursday, although it’s yet to be seen if they will make a difference.
Roger Hartley, dean of the College of Public Affairs at thee University of Baltimore, said the campaign with the best ground game could gain an edge.
“The most volunteers who have been able to contact those voters and ask them to return the ballots. So whomever of Perez, Moore or perhaps Franchot that did the best job at that can come out on top,” he said