US Rep. Elijah Cummings might jump into the competitive primary to determine who will possibly fill the seat of US Senator Barbara Mikulski who is retiring at the end of this term. He is planning to make an announcement after Clinton testifies which is next week. According to a poll released by the Washington Post/University of Maryland he would enjoy at least 33% of the voters in a primary against fellow Congress members Donna Edwards and Chris Van Hollen who both take 20%. Why does Cummings come out on top, follow below.
1. On a regional basis, Cummings represents a large part of the Baltimore area and heads down south to Howard County. This gives him a solid base of support where he is well liked and popular unlike Van Hollen (Montgomery County) and Edwards (Prince George's) while both are well liked and popular they both come from the DC area and might split those two areas which are strong bases for any Democrat state wide.
2.During the Freddy Grey incident Cummings was out in public trying to keep the peace and it was noticed and he earned high marks.
3. Cummings has been a one man wrecking crew as the Ranking Member on both the House Oversight and also the Get Clinton Committee (I meant Benghazi) and giving the GOP nothing but hell and pointing out the foolishness and incompetency of both committees. This has made him very popular in Democratic circles, he may want to use this to go to a state wide run.
4. He doesn't split the African American vote in Maryland which makes up 40% statewide, so he would not have to worry about Van Hollen sneaking in if he were to split the vote with Donna Edwards
Overall, Maryland Democrats have three choices that they can be proud of...all three are reliably liberals although some may have issues with Van Hollen due to his work on the Budget Committee and negotiating on a budget and putting Social Security on the table. If I am not mistaken, I believe Donna Edwards was endorsed by Daily Kos over Van Hollen, it would be interesting to see if Cummings does get in if that might change.
Van Hollen does enjoy the support of white Democrats and especially older ones who voted in 2014 which in a small turnout could help him. The poll also has good news for Edwards supporters as a in a two way race she beats Van Hollen 38-28.
Here is a link to an article from the Washington Post about this, unfortunately they do not have a link to the survey:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/...