By Michael Phillips | Oct. 5, 2026
Marylanders will pick a governor, a comptroller and an attorney general on Nov. 3, and Democrats hold all three offices. Gov. Wes Moore, Comptroller Brooke Lierman and Attorney General Anthony Brown are each seeking a second term. Their Republican challengers are Dan Cox, a former one-term state delegate who lost to Moore by 32 points in 2022, Sonya Dunn, a Bowie businesswoman, and James B. Rutledge III, an attorney. Moore and Cox share the governor’s ballot with Green Party nominee Andy Ellis and Working Class Party nominee Cathy White, according to the State Board of Elections.
The candidates are mostly familiar. The issues pressing on them are what deserve a closer look. Across polling, forums and the campaigns’ own messaging, the same subjects keep coming up: what it costs to keep the lights on, a state budget that does not add up, residents leaving, and a wave of data center proposals.
The pocketbook comes first
A poll of 800 likely voters, taken July 27 to Aug. 3 by Zenith Research, put money at the center. The margin of error was 3.5 percentage points. Blended Public Affairs and the Annapolis lobbying firm Perry Jacobson commissioned it, according to Maryland Matters.
- Four in 10 said the next governor should focus on lowering utility costs. About a third named jobs and economic growth.
- Fifty-one percent said they are struggling financially or just getting by.
- Forty-two percent said they had trouble paying a utility bill in the past year, and 53% worry a bill will climb too high for them or a relative to pay.
- Nearly six in 10 rated the state’s economy as “not so good” or poor.
“Fifty-one percent said they are struggling financially or just getting by.”
The same survey has Moore ahead of Cox by 27 points, with 56% approving of his job performance. Cox has pressed the affordability point. At a candidate forum in Ocean City on Aug. 15, he opened by hitting Moore over residents leaving the state, and said two of his eldest children had moved away because of affordability.
A $3 billion hole
The next governor and the General Assembly will have to close a projected structural budget gap of about $3 billion in fiscal 2028, Maryland Matters reported Sept. 14. The Department of Legislative Services put it at nearly $2.6 billion in June, while the state budget office says it is carrying a figure closer to $3 billion. Gaps of roughly $3.4 billion are projected in each of the two years after that. The poll suggests voters have little appetite for the broad taxes that raise real money. Raising taxes on households earning $500,000 or more drew 54% support. A one-cent sales tax increase, which would bring in an estimated $1.2 billion, drew 11%. A property tax increase drew 3%.
“The next governor and the General Assembly will have to close a projected structural budget gap of about $3 billion in fiscal 2028.”
Moore has conceded part of the problem. Speaking to county officials at the Maryland Association of Counties conference, he said the gap exists because the state leaned too heavily on federal money and because “we were spending more than we were growing.” He also blamed federal layoffs and aid cuts under President Donald Trump, and noted his administration has filed a balanced budget every year, as required.
Dunn, the comptroller candidate, lists structural deficits and a credit-rating downgrade among her reasons for running. Moody’s downgraded Maryland’s bonds in 2025, and S&P lowered its outlook on the state’s debt in May, citing growing out-year gaps. Cox has argued that Moore’s leadership has produced higher state costs and debt, as MDBayNews reported Sept. 7. When the administration asked agencies in September to model cuts of up to 10%, Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey, a Republican, said it showed the administration was finally acknowledging a spending problem, but warned the exercise could become political cover without a specific plan.
The comptroller’s own report documents the outmigration
The strongest evidence for Cox’s argument comes from the office of an incumbent on the same ballot, Comptroller Lierman. Its “Housing & the Economy” report, released in October 2025, found that from 2010 to 2023 about 2.3 million residents moved to other states while about 2 million moved in. Births outpacing deaths and immigration kept the population slightly up.
“The state has lost a net average of about 40,000 people a year to states with lower housing costs.”
Lierman wrote in the foreword that the state has lost a net average of about 40,000 people a year to states with lower housing costs, calling it “a downward drag on our labor market, economic output, and state and local revenues.”
The money follows the people. In 2022, the 164,000 residents who left took $10.2 billion in adjusted gross income with them, while the 138,000 who arrived brought $7.5 billion. That is a net loss of $2.7 billion in a single year. The report also called Maryland the sixth-most regulated housing market for residential development, and said the state would need to approve 30,000 permits a year to keep pace with demand. Since 2014, it has averaged 18,000. Lierman said that since the pandemic, younger people and lower-income households have made up a growing share of those leaving.
“In 2022, the 164,000 residents who left took $10.2 billion in adjusted gross income with them.”
The budget connection is direct. Fiscal 2028 is the first year the costs of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education plan exceed the revenues set aside for it, Maryland Matters reported, which means the general fund has to cover the difference. Administration officials also point to salary growth as a driver of the budget’s growth.
Data centers and the power bill
Cox wants an immediate statewide moratorium on hyperscale data centers, and calls it “a big difference between Wes Moore and me.” Moore took a different route, and he moved further in September. On Sept. 23, he issued an executive order creating a state task force, staffed by seven agencies, to review proposed data centers expecting at least 25 megawatts of peak demand. Projects will be rated aligned, conditionally aligned, or not aligned with state principles that include protecting ratepayers, environmental safeguards, and community support. A public dashboard will list proposals; state agencies may not sign new nondisclosure agreements with developers, and state incentives, grants, loans or financing are limited to projects rated aligned or conditionally aligned. Moore also said he will push to repeal the state’s 2020 data center tax exemption.
Moore says final say stays with local governments, and that data centers must pay their own way or stay out. He called moratoriums a local decision, though he told Punchbowl News he would sign a statewide moratorium bill if lawmakers sent him one. The order stops well short of a ban or pause, and critics on both sides said so. Hershey, the Senate Republican leader, said it contradicts Moore’s earlier push for Maryland to lead in technology and AI. Green Party nominee Andy Ellis called it lip service and demanded a ban.
“The order stops well short of a ban or pause.”
Cox has focused on one project. TeraWulf, an Easton-based company, wants to turn the retired Morgantown power plant in Charles County into a data center site. Cox points to two $6,000 contributions Moore received in 2025 from TeraWulf’s founder and his wife, listed in state campaign finance records, and says Moore gave the plant to the developer.
The sale was a private deal between TeraWulf and the plant’s owner, GenOn Holdings, and federal regulators approved it. But Maryland Matters reported that the Moore administration has signaled it would help route natural gas to the site. A letter from the Maryland Department of the Environment, first reported by The Baltimore Banner, pledged that help. The governor’s staff did not immediately respond to Maryland Matters’ request for comment on Cox’s remarks.
“Three of every four said they are concerned or very concerned about data centers.”
Voters are uneasy. In the Zenith poll, three of every four said they are concerned or very concerned about data centers, and 39% named higher electric bills as their top worry. The same poll found 56% support for new nuclear plants and 57% support for keeping the state’s remaining natural gas plants open. On Sept. 30, Constellation and Amazon announced a 20-year agreement covering 690 megawatts from the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant. Constellation says it will support a roughly 190-megawatt expansion and more than $3 billion in Maryland investment, with all of the power continuing to flow to the regional grid.
Down the ballot: two offices, two arguments
Comptroller. Dunn says management is the issue. In a Fox45 interview published Aug. 19, she cited customer service problems at the comptroller’s office and the rollout of the Maryland Tax Connect system. “Tax Connect has not connected,” she said. She also wants a centralized grant management system, pointing to the state’s inability to say how much taxpayer money goes to nonprofits. Fox45 reported that neither the Moore administration nor the comptroller’s office has given it a total.
Fox45 also noted that the state budget is largely set by the governor and legislature, not the comptroller. The office does administer taxes and holds a seat on the three-member Board of Public Works with the governor and treasurer, which approves state contracts. Dunn has raised little money so far. Fox45 reported she held a little more than $400 in her campaign account, compared with more than $2 million for Lierman.
Attorney General. Brown’s office led, co-led or joined more than 100 legal actions against the Trump administration during the first year of Trump’s second term, Maryland Matters reported in January. Brown says the suits protect Marylanders. Critics call them politics rather than policy. One suit, filed in February, tries to block a 1,500-bed ICE detention center at a warehouse near Williamsport in Washington County, which ICE bought for $102.4 million. The suit argues the agency skipped the required environmental review.
“Brown’s office led, co-led or joined more than 100 legal actions against the Trump administration during the first year of Trump’s second term.”
Rutledge has said in voter guide answers that he would focus on gang prosecutions and cyber predators and cut back on lawsuits against the federal government, according to a Hoodline summary of those answers.
Also on the ballot: Question 3
Every statewide candidate shares a ballot with Question 3, a constitutional amendment on congressional redistricting that the legislature passed in an August special session. Two circuit courts ruled against putting it on the ballot. The Supreme Court of Maryland reversed them, but ruled the original wording was misleading and rewrote the question itself. Justice Steven B. Gould dissented, writing that the new version still would not tell voters that the criteria being removed include guarantees in the Declaration of Rights.
Two polls released in September disagree. One, from the group opposing the change, found about 40% opposed, 28% in support and 31% undecided. The other, from the group backing it, found 40% in support, 35% opposed and 25% undecided.
What to Watch
- The Oct. 6 debate. Moore and Cox meet on Maryland Public Television in what Maryland Matters described as their only scheduled debate. Cox has asked for more, and Ellis has objected to being left off the stage.
- The data center order. Watch which proposals become the first tests of the 25-megawatt review, and whether the monthly dashboard changes local fights.
- Tax Connect. Fox45 reported that individual taxpayers were scheduled to move onto the system Sept. 1. Dunn’s argument now depends on evidence of outages or service problems since then.
- Question 3. A quarter to a third of voters were undecided in the September polls.
- The gap. Whoever wins in November takes office facing a projected fiscal 2028 shortfall approaching $3 billion.
“Whoever wins in November takes office facing a projected fiscal 2028 shortfall approaching $3 billion.”
Related MDBayNews coverage: Maryland’s 2026 governor’s race is set; governor’s race hub.
Sources: This article draws on Maryland Matters reporting by Bryan P. Sears (Aug. 11, Aug. 12, Sept. 14 and Sept. 24, 2026), Christine Condon (Aug. 15 and Sept. 23, 2026) and Danielle J. Brown (Oct. 21, 2025), plus Maryland Matters’ Jan. 20, 2026 report on the attorney general’s office and its Feb. 2026 report on the Williamsport lawsuit; a Fox45 (WBFF) Spotlight on Maryland interview with Sonya Dunn by Gary Collins (Aug. 19, 2026); a Zenith Research poll for Blended Public Affairs and Perry Jacobson (July 27 to Aug. 3, 2026); the Maryland Comptroller’s “Housing & the Economy” report (October 2025); Maryland Matters’ Aug. 28, 2026 political notes on the debate; Constellation’s Sept. 30, 2026 announcement; the State Board of Elections’ Oct. 2, 2026 statewide candidate list; a Hoodline report on James B. Rutledge III’s voter guide responses (May 20, 2026); The Baltimore Banner’s report on federal approval of the Morgantown sale; and MDBayNews coverage from Feb. 26 and Sept. 7, 2026.
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