Democrat Ben Jealous struggles in blue Maryland

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Ben Jealous compared his decisive Maryland Democratic primary victory in June to climbing the world’s second-highest mountain. He described it as a prelude to ascending a political Mount Everest to knock off popular Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

Instead, Jealous has had to reverse course in recent weeks after some highly publicized missteps.

So far, he’s struggling to prevent the first re-election of a Republican governor in heavily blue Maryland since 1954 and become the first black governor of Maryland.

A Goucher College poll is showing a staggering gap, with Hogan leading by 22 percentage points. The poll of 831 Maryland adults had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. The Jealous campaign says the poll is underestimating the number of voters they believe will turnout in November.