Dan Cox wants to talk about Maryland but can’t escape Trump questions

Ask Republican governor candidate Dan Cox about President Donald Trump and he’ll turn to affordability and Maryland’s cost of living. Ask him about Trump’s effect on prices, including gas and diesel, and he brings up the state’s gas tax.

Four years ago, Cox probably wouldn’t have won the Republican nomination for governor without Trump’s help. In this year’s rematch, Cox is focusing on popular ideas such as rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge faster, banning data centers and pledging not to raise taxes.

But he’s finding it difficult to step away from his history as a 2020 election denier who advertised buses to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, fundraised for his first governor run at Trump’s Florida club and last year posted “THANK YOU LORD JESUS” on social media with a screenshot of Trump taking the oath of office.

His opponent, Gov. Wes Moore, and state Democrats want to keep that history front and center.

“I think last time it got into the weeds a little about national issues,” Cox conceded during an interview.

Cox turns questions about Trump into answers about why he’s a better choice than Moore, who holds a 2-to-1 lead over him, according to recent polling.

At Baltimore’s Inner Harbor last week, for example, Cox railed against the slow progress of rebuilding the Key Bridge and blamed Moore for a schedule that’s slipped to 2030.

Cox talked about affordability issues that he said were caused by Moore and Democrats, including higher car registration fees, when asked if he was making a point to avoid Trump.

“These are Maryland issues,” said Cox, a lawyer and former state lawmaker. Moore’s approval has dipped as he reaches the end of his term and compiles a longer record — providing a small opening for an outsider like Cox to capitalize on anti-incumbent sentiment.

Cox’s message discipline is a marked change from 2022, when he boasted about his associations with Trump, especially during a competitive Republican primary victory over then-Gov. Larry Hogan’s choice, Kelly Schulz.

During the 2022 campaign, Trump called in to a Cox fundraising rally and later spoke on a telephone call to Cox supporters. Cox scrubbed “Trump endorsed” from his campaign materials for the general election, but he made a fundraising pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago.

Two years earlier, Cox served with Lawyers for Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election results.

This election season, Cox avoids any mention of Trump, even answering questions about the president without uttering his name. Trump’s name appears nowhere on Cox’s website and campaign literature.

Distancing himself from Trump may be the only shot Cox has at finishing closer to Moore than he did last time.

Trump is wildly unpopular in Maryland. The president’s job approval rating was measured at 36% by a poll from Gonzales Research & Marketing in January. Another 63% of those polled disapproved of the job Trump is doing.

It’s not just Democrats — members of the dominant party in Maryland — who don’t support Trump. His job approval was 42% among independent Marylanders.

And look no further than the 2024 election. Though Trump reclaimed the White House, he won just 34% of the vote in Maryland

Moore and Democrats are working to make sure Marylanders don’t forget Cox’s ties to Trump.

“Dan Cox can’t run away from his MAGA record, and Marylanders have seen that first-hand,” Maryland Democratic Party Chair Steuart Pittman said in a statement. “This is a man who said he backs Trump 100%.”

At one point in this month’s TV debate between the Cox and Moore, the governor referred to Trump as “your good friend.”

Asked in the debate about those ties, Cox said he’d work with the president but he wouldn’t be “beholden” to him.

“I am a Marylander, first and last. I am an American, first and last,” Cox said. “I will work with whoever is the president. And that’s the difference between myself and my opponent. We can’t take another two years of this governor not working with the federal government.”

During the debate, Cox conceded one regret for his actions of 2020 and 2021, which included going to Washington on Jan. 6.

He lamented a Jan. 6 social media post from a since-deleted account that then-Vice President Mike Pence was “a traitor.”

“Well, absolutely, I mean, I regret tweeting,” Cox said, throwing his hands up. “I mean, that was six years ago.”