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Most recently, the governors chief of staff helped Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) navigate the University of Florida presidential selection process, ultimately assisting the senator in becoming the sole finalist to lead the states flagship university, a move that caused hundreds of University of Florida students this week to protest.

DeSantis over the summer also appointed a top GOP legislative ally, state Sen. Ray Rodrigues, as Floridas chancellor for higher education a position from which he will wield enormous power over the states 12 public universities.

They want to take over higher education, and this is one way to do that, Andrew Gothard, president of the United Faculty of Florida union, said of Sasses selection as a finalist to lead the states flagship university. Gothard is a faculty member at Florida Atlantic University.

Conservatives in recent years developed an antagonistic relationship with academia, viewing college campuses as proving grounds for progressivism. And, fueled by the populist movement that elected Donald Trump, many Republicans have declared war on elitism and used higher education as a symbol of what theyre fighting.

But DeSantis, considered a leading contender for president in 2024, seems to be taking the notion a step further. The governor and GOP state lawmakers are expanding Republican efforts to reshape K-12 education in America, an undertaking that DeSantis has made a key pillar of his agenda.

The governor has pushed legislation that would allow parents to sue schools if they teach critical race theory in classrooms, prohibit teachers from leading classroom discussions on gender identity and sexual orientation for young students and reject math books that contain elements focused on race- and social-emotional learning.

Many of these GOP-backed laws drew condemnation from Democrats and teachers unions, who accuse Republicans of politicizing childrens education. But they are also proving popular among conservatives and in particular many parents that have grown frustrated by their local education systems.

Some of DeSantis higher education moves have also sparked a backlash, including Sasses pick as a finalist to lead the University of Florida. His selection was aided by a new law that shields university presidential searches from Floridas public records law, ending a tradition of open searches for the coveted and pivotal roles. The change in law was made possible by Floridas Republican majority in the Legislature, but several Democrats also supported it since it needed a supermajority to pass.

The new law, which Democrats and union leaders are criticizing, makes private all personal identifying information classified for candidates seeking college or university president posts. Names, however, must be unmasked either 21 days before a final selection is made or when a finalist group emerges.

Policymakers credit the new law with aiding UF gather a dozen highly qualified diverse candidates, including nine sitting presidents at major research universities and seven AAU universities, in its search.

We would have never gotten a sitting U.S. senator or multiple sitting presidents at universities to apply without the search exemption, said Rodrigues, the new higher education chancellor, who for years led efforts to pass the legislation. I think its accomplished its goal.

Faculty, students and Democrats, however, are raising questions about the selection process and want university officials to release the names of other top finalists, something the school is not bound to do.

Every student frustrated with the way UFs presidential finalist was chosen should understand that this unfolded exactly by design, Democratic state Sen. Lori Berman, who opposed the legislation, tweeted Monday. Florida Republicans passed a law to drape the search process in secrecy, giving you, the student body, less ability to weigh in and speak out.

The legislation clearing the way for Sasses pick was one of several bills that ushered in changes to Floridas higher education system in 2022.

Florida colleges and universities are searching for new accreditors in light of a state law passed by the Legislature this year that requires schools to find a new accreditation board by their next cycle.

Accreditation agencies generally ensure higher education institutions meet standards of quality. Florida Republicans, led by DeSantis, argue that they have too much authority over the states schools.

Floridas new law requiring the state to find a new accrediting agency was spurred partly by fights between higher education leaders and lawmakers and Floridas longstanding accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACS.

Those conflicts included SACS opening an investigation into the University of Florida after the school blocked three professors from testifying as expert witnesses in a federal lawsuit challenging a new law that places restrictions on mail-in ballots and drop boxes. The GOP-backed Legislature approved the voting law at DeSantis request.

Conservatives across the country, like the National Association of Scholars, praised Florida for its effort to reform such a vital and woefully broken component of higher education. They claim that accreditors are abusing their power by imposing political views and interfering with university governance.

Florida is also facing several legal challenges to one landmark piece of legislation requested by DeSantis, the Stop-WOKE Act, which targets how lessons surrounding race are taught in classrooms and the workplace. In one of the lawsuits, conservative free speech group FIRE argues that the law makes professors unsure about which lessons are government-approved or could result in punishment, including termination.

The new law, according to FIRE and other critics, constrains the ability of professors to play devils advocate and forbids them from advancing viewpoints even for the sake of Socratic discussion. And aside from race, faculty members are concerned about even broaching other topics like gender out of fear they could ultimately lose their jobs.

Its having a really far-reaching effect on the stifling of speech from what I hear from the colleagues who are consulting with me, said Robert Cassanello, a professor at the University of Central Florida who teaches classes on the civil rights movement, emancipation and the Reconstruction era and is a plaintiff in one lawsuit.

Lawmakers and state higher education officials, however, contend that the law doesnt outlaw any specific curriculum.

Its very clear what the act prohibits you cant place guilt on individuals for actions committed by others or by prior generations, Rodrigues, the new higher education chancellor, said. I would submit we should not have anyone teaching that one race is superior to another and be paid by taxpayers for that.

Another new state law approved by Floridas GOP-led Legislature in 2021 requires all state universities and colleges to survey students, faculty and staff annually about the intellectual freedom in schools. The voluntary questionnaire is believed to be the largest-scale campus survey in the nation.

The law was approved by Florida Republican leaders who were worried that schools are biased against conservatives. It has already drawn a legal challenge.

One recent report also shows that the DeSantis administration had even bigger plans for higher education this year, ideas that were left on the cutting room floor and could emerge in 2023.

Draft legislation obtained by independent journalist Jason Garcia this year shows that DeSantis sought to centralize more power in boards run by the governors political appointees and make universities more dependent on money controlled by lawmakers in Tallahassee. The proposal aimed to grant the 17-member board that governs the states university system greater power to launch investigations of school presidents, veto school budgets and fire university employees.

Florida in 2022 did, however, pass legislation allowing the state to adopt rules requiring tenured faculty to take part in a comprehensive review every five years.

Faculty at the University of Florida broached the issue with Sasse on Monday when the senator visited the campus, asking how he would protect tenure while noting that he ended it during his stint as president of Midland University, a Lutheran school in Nebraska.

Sasse said he would be a zealous defender of tenure at the university, outlining that it is necessary for a major research school like the University of Florida that differs from Midland, which has a fraction of the Florida institutions more than 55,000 students.

But qualms about potential tenure tweaks remain a top issue among faculty throughout Florida as they await forthcoming rules from university system leaders.

A draft of proposed system tenure rules indicated that reviews must consider any biased teaching or indoctrination constituting discrimination under Florida law by the professors, along with history of professional conduct and unapproved absences. Its unclear, though, if these policies will be included in the final cut of the tenure rule. The Board of Governors canceled its September and October meetings and convenes next on Nov. 9.

Gothard said lawmakers in Florida are relying on a cartoonish representation of what is happening in higher education to make policy moves.

He pointed to the extremely low response rate to the political diversity survey offered to students and faculty throughout the system as evidence that the issues brought up at the statehouse arent as prevalent on campuses.

Floridas students deserve the best education possible, and they deserve better than to be tinkered with, interfered with and harmed by the actions of politicians, he added.

Gary Fineout contributed to this report.

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How DeSantis and Florida Republicans are reshaping higher education - POLITICO

FILE - Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker campaigns Sept. 7, 2021, in Emerson, Ga. (AP Photos/Bill Barrow, File) Bill Barrow/AP hide caption

FILE - Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker campaigns Sept. 7, 2021, in Emerson, Ga. (AP Photos/Bill Barrow, File)

The Republican party is not known for ethnic diversity, but this year, 22 Black candidates are running for Republican House seats. And for the first time, we could see two Black Republican senators serving simultaneously. The historically diverse lineup also includes Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans on Republican tickets for the midterms.

Some in the party are hopeful that Ronald Regan's vision of the party as an inclusive "Big Tent '' may be on the horizon. But those who study race and politics say that the GOP's poor record on race and outright racist remarks from high-profile Republicans - like recent comments by Senator Tommy Tuberville -continue to keep Black voters away - even those who consider themselves conservative.

Host Michel Martin talks to Theodore Johnson, a researcher, and writer whose work focuses on how race plays out in politics and policy.

In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlam. It was edited by Jeanette Woods. Our executive producer is Natalie Winston.

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What Does a Record Number of Black Candidates Really Mean for Republicans? : Consider This from NPR - NPR

Eric Trump, son of former President Donald Trump, on Friday discussed how the GOP has been reshaped in his father's image, and added that there is "no longer a Republican Party."

The younger Trump made the claim during an appearance on conservative news channel, Newsmax. The clip of Eric Trump's TV appearance was shared on Twitter by left-leaning pundit and former federal prosecutor, Ron Filipkowski, and has been viewed over 100,000 times as of Saturday afternoon.

"He's fundamentally changed the party," Eric Trump said about his father. "It's no longer the Republican Party, it's the Trump Party."

The claim is not a new one for the younger Trump, who has made similar comments in past interviews while discussing the present and future state of the Republican Party. During another Newsmax appearance in August, he said the same thing while discussing Representative Liz Cheney's primary defeat against Trump-endorsed GOP challenger, Harriet Hageman.

"There's no question. I mean, it's not even the Republican Party," Eric Trump said at the time. "I'd say it's actually the Trump party."

During his appearance in August, the former president's son also went into greater detail on his claim about the GOP, and said that his father's endorsements have "brought in a whole new party." Trump's endorsements this year have led to primary wins 92 percent of the time, according to Ballotpedia.

"My father has literally brought in a whole new party from the RINO [Republican in name only] class of the Republican Party," Eric Trump said. "He literally brought in a whole new party that stands for something totally different than the wider class of the Republican Party ever stood for. My father's really redefined what the party is, how the party speaks to its constituents and I think it's exactly why you have this overwhelming support in all of the people he's endorsed."

During his most recent appearance on Friday, Eric Trump also discussed the public hearings of the House select committee investigating last year's Capitol riot, saying that "not a single person cares about" them.

"Not a single person cares about the J6 hearings," he said. "The Republicans are absolutely going to steamroll the Democratic Party because they haven't accomplished anything in two years. This is all coordinated, it's all made up. It's all a diversion, a distraction."

Contrary to his claims, the select committee's hearings have appeared to draw significant interest, with the eight televised hearings from the summer averaging 13.1 million viewers, with the first hearing drawing in around 20 million. A PBS poll from July also found that 50 percent of respondents agreed that Trump should face charges for his involvement in the January 6, 2021, riot. However, only 28 percent believed he will actually be prosecuted.

Newsweek reached out to Donald Trump's press office and the Republican National Committee (RNC) for comment.

Original post:
Eric Trump Declares There Is 'No Longer' a Republican Party - Newsweek

SARAH WATSONQuad City Times

With a backdrop of spotless cars that spanned the decades of the 20th century in Dahl Fords Old Car Home in Davenport, Mariannette Miller-Meeks told dozens of Republicans shed work to bring down rising prices and be a check on the Biden Administration if reelected.

It was June, and the average price of gasoline that day was $4.62 cents a gallon, nearing Iowas peak price before falling under $4 in late summer.

It (the cars) hearkens back to a day when America was an innovator, was great, was a world power and there was so much hope in our country, Miller-Meeks told Republicans at her June campaign event, which was headlined by potential 2024 presidential contender Nikki Haley. And as I reflect on the things that we see today in our nation, there seems to be a lot of hopelessness.

Miller-Meeks puts the blame squarely on the Biden administration for rising inflation, and the veteran often has criticized the president for the U.S. handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

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She joined all Republican House members in voting against the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, called the American Rescue Plan Act, describing it as wasteful spending, and voted against the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, citing concerns that it was tied to a larger Democrat-backed social spending bill.

At the federal level, we need to monitor what were doing and spending, not increase taxes, and allow more energy development, Miller-Meeks said in a recent interview.

She supports a ramp-up of domestic oil and gas production through more land permits and leases and encourages more bio-fuel production as ways to address oil and gas prices.

Her opponent, Christina Bohannan, has contended Miller-Meeks hasnt done enough to combat price increases, pointing to her votes against Democrats Inflation Reduction Act, which would allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. Some economists have predicted it will have a negligible impact on inflation.

Miller-Meeks also voted against the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that would funnel dollars to repair bridges, locks and dams, and other infrastructure in the district.

Miller-Meeks first came to Iowa for a residency in ophthalmology in 1988, and joined a private practice in Ottumwa. She ran for the 2nd District three times unsuccessfully, was the director of the state department of public health from late 2010 to early 2014, and served one term as a state senator.

The district

Miller-Meeks is seeking reelection in a newly drawn 1st Congressional District. She currently represents Iowas 2nd District in southeast Iowa. The new district covers 20 counties in southeast Iowa.

She won the seat in 2020, beating Democrat Rita Hart by six votes after a recount the narrowest margin of victory in a U.S. House election since 1984.

Miller-Meeks previously was the Republican nominee for the office three times in 2008, 2012, and 2014. She lost each election to then-incumbent representative Dave Loebsack, a Democrat.

She now faces an election challenge from state Rep. Christina Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor and former environmental engineer.

Bohannan won election to the Statehouse in 2020, unseating 20-year Iowa City representative Vicki Lensing in the Democratic primary for the Iowa City seat.

Political forecasters have rated the race as competitive, and each candidate has attracted support from the national party. Most recently, one forecaster the Cook Political Report tightened its forecast of the race, changing its rating from likely Republican to leans Republican.

The new district drew Miller-Meeks home county, Wapello, into the 3rd Congressional District. She said she and her husband, Curt, kept their home in Ottumwa and she now has a second residence in LeClaire. The new district includes 16 of the 24 counties Miller-Meeks currently represents.

Abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court returned the decision of restricting or allowing abortions to the states this summer, spurring considerable and ongoing debate.

Mariannette Miller-Meeks has said she supports a federal ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother.

A recent ad from Bohannan purports that Miller-Meeks wants to outlaw all abortions nationwide. No exceptions for rape, incest, or to save a womans life.

Miller-Meeks cosponsored the Life at Conception Act, a House proposal with 163 Republican co-sponsors that would guarantee a constitutional right to life of each born and pre-born human person from the moment of fertilization without explicit exceptions.

In an interview with a Quad-City Times reporter, Miller-Meeks said when asked about the Act: I think that you can recognize medically that life begins at conception, and still have exceptions... So, again, my long-held position in multiple public interviews has been Im pro-life with exceptions for life of the mother, rape, and incest.

The pandemic

Miller-Meeks called Operation Warp Speed, which cut red tape to speed up a COVID-19 vaccine a real shining moment for the United States.

She said, however, the U.S. had lessons to learn from the pandemic, including: amassing more sources of personal-protective equipment, or PPE; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention communicating pandemic risks more effectively; righting concerns that some state leaders prolonged lockdowns of schools and businesses longer than necessary.

Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

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Who is Mariannette Miller-Meeks? Meet the Republican ophthalmologist running to defend her seat in Congress - WCF Courier

More than 100 days ahead of Marylands primary and facing an uphill battle against three rivals, Del. Dan Cox stood proudly on the floor of the House of Delegates to introduce his wife and 10 children, expressing confidence he would be the Republican Partys gubernatorial nominee.

I just wanted to real quickly let the body know my bride, Valerie, [and] the future first family of Maryland is here visiting me today in the gallery, a smiling Cox said. Some colleagues clapped. Others jeered.

But the Trump-endorsed, anti-abortion backbencher went on to defeat fellow Republican Gov. Larry Hogans hand-picked successor in the July 19 primary, widening a rift between Trump and Hogan supporters in Marylands GOP.

Hes got another mountain to scale in the Nov. 8 race against Wes Moore. Democratic voters outnumber Republicans 2-to-1 in Maryland and Moore is out-fundraising him at a rate of 10-to-1. But as the GOP nominee, Cox, 48, is closer to the governors office than early polls, the media and political scientists ever imagined.

By now, many voters have heard Cox is a Make America Great Again Republican, arranged for buses to the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally in Washington, wont say whether hell accept the results of his gubernatorial race or that Hogan dubbed him a QAnon whack job.

So, where did he come from? And what happens to him on Election Day and in the ballot-counting days that follow?

Republican Dan Cox speaking Wednesday during a gubernatorial debate with Democrat Wes Moore in Owings Mills. (Michael Ciesielski/AP)

Hes a father of 10, ranging from a baby to a 25-year-old, and is one of 10 children himself.

I named my son Daniel after the prophet Daniel in the Bible, Coxs father, Gary, said in an interview at his sons primary victory party. I was awe-struck that its possible for people of faith to live their faith and, in the process, to impact the culture around them for good.

Gary Cox is the founder and superintendent of Wellspring Christian Family Schools, an organization that offers support services to families who home-school their children. Dan Cox enrolled in the school as a child, and served as a high school instructor and registrar from 1995 to 2005. According to its website, Wellspring Christian Family Schools is a faith-based, home-school organization that requires meaningful church attendance for all enrolled families and emphasizes parents involvement.

Cox attended Mount St. Marys University, a Catholic college in Emmitsburg, from 1992 through 1995, then earned a bachelors degree in government and politics in 2002 from whats now University of Maryland Global Campus. In 2006, he received a law degree from Regent University in Virginia Beach, which was founded by televangelist and former Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox greets supporters July 19, 2022, with two thumbs up at his campaign party on primary night in Emmitsburg. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

Cox announced on July 4, 2021, that he would run for governor, but his interest in politics was evident 20 years earlier.

Cox and his wife, Valerie, were living in the Eastern Shore town of Secretary in 2001 when they wrote a letter to The Dorchester Star about a state bill to bar discrimination against people based on their sexual identity in employment, housing and other areas. They said it would violate the rights of business owners ... who firmly believe homosexuality is sin and those who practice it are in danger of temporal disease and eternal death.

I love civil rights, as many bigoted business owners have been stopped from persecution of people because of their skin color or ethnicity. But there is no bigotry in standing strong against an action, the letter said. Homosexuality is not the same thing as being African-American or Hispanic. The legislature passed the anti-discrimination bill.

In 2006, Cox ran an unsuccessful clerk of court campaign in Dorchester County. According to a 2006 report from The Star, Coxs platform included establishing a division to help fathers gain visitation and ensure mothers receive child support. It also included a plan to refuse to issue licenses for same-sex marriages, which were not legal in Maryland at the time.

Cox won office in 2008 in Secretary, which had around 500 residents at the time. He served a term on the Town Commission, and was its president.

Cox has described himself as both a constitutional and civil rights attorney. Cox founded a law firm in 2007; according to his most recent legislative ethics disclosure filing, it netted over $200,000 in 2021.

Hes litigated cases that included a challenge to public health restrictions Hogan established during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit was dismissed in November 2020. Also, Cox represented a father and son who sued the Harford County Board of Elections in 2020, alleging their civil rights were violated when they couldnt vote without masks. That case, too, was dismissed.

Del. Dan Cox, a Republican, speaks April 9, 2022, at the state House of Delegates against a measure to expand abortion access in Maryland. (Brian Witte/AP)

In 2016, Cox ran unsuccessfully against then-state Sen. Jamie Raskin in parts of Carroll, Frederick and Montgomery counties to represent Marylands 8th District in Congress. Raskin won with 61% of the vote to Coxs 34%, and went on to help lead the impeachment trial against Trump after the Jan. 6 riot.

During the attack on the Capitol, Cox tweeted Republican Vice President Mike Pence was a traitor. Cox has said he was not involved in the buildings takeover.

The nice thing Id like to say is that he has nice and very patient kids who were brought to every protracted, interminable debate and forum that we had, Raskin told The Baltimore Sun.

Raskin contrasted Coxs campaigning with his.

He has extremist politics and a conspiratorial cast of mind. Im devoted to grassroots, door-to-door campaigning, Raskin said. As far as I can tell, they werent doing any of that. He really was just trying to organize right-wing elements online.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox greets his family at his party on primary night July 19, 2022, in Emmitsburg. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun)

With a congressional seat not in the cards, Cox ran a successful campaign in 2018 for a term in the Maryland House of Delegates representing areas of Frederick and Carroll. In a field with three Republicans and three Democrats running for the districts three seats, he finished at the top with 21% of the vote.

Cox filed 84 bills in four years in the House, including a 2022 resolution to impeach Hogan. The Democrat-controlled legislature passed two Cox bills, both from his first session: one requiring a sign about National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline in every state courthouse and another creating a task force to study crime classification and penalties.

He voted this year against a bill prohibiting schools from discriminating against LGBTQ students and their families. He supported an amendment similar to a Dont Say Gay policy in Florida that prohibits teachers from discussing sexuality and gender in public schools. The amendment failed and the Maryland bill became law this summer.

Cox opposes the expansion of LGBTQ rights in education, highlighting at several turns during his gubernatorial campaign his belief that addressing issues of gender, sex and sexual orientation in schools equates to indoctrination and propaganda, and that schools are participating in brainwashing and sexual grooming.

Cox is vocal about parental involvement in education. He introduced an unsuccessful bill in 2022 that would have allowed parents to object to instructional materials if they disagreed with the content on moral, philosophical and religious grounds. The bill also would have allowed parents to keep a child from studying some of their schools health curriculum.

The many unknowns swirling around the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in its early days, afforded Cox and other politicians a way to raise their profiles and connect with voters. Cox and Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, now that states GOP gubernatorial nominee, used Facebook to urge their respective governors to roll back public health restrictions they deemed onerous.

Mastriano and Cox, both endorsed by Trump, have struck up a friendship. Trump gave Cox a shoutout last month at a rally for Mastriano.

Trump is hosting a fundraiser Monday for Cox at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. For $25,000, attendees can stand alongside Cox and the former president for a photo. Its not clear how much of that money Cox gets; the Maryland limit for a campaign contribution to a candidate is $6,000.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Cox gave two thumbs up to supporters after speaking with reporters June 30, 2022, in Annapolis. He had appeared at a news conference held by one of his primary opponents, Kelly Schulz. (Kenneth K. Lam / Baltimore Sun)

Cox, often a showman, is no stranger to controversy.

Ahead of the primary, Cox ambushed a June campaign event for Republican Kelly Schulz, Hogans pick to succeed him. Standing just feet away, Cox yelled, Defamation, sir! when the governor called him a QAnon conspiracy theorist.

During a House debate in 2021, Cox compared a bill to expand access for preteens to mental health care without parental consent to Nazi experimentation on Jews. And he did it on Holocaust Remembrance Day, while wearing a mask printed with a depiction of the Nuremberg trials at which the Allies sought to bring Nazi officials to justice after World War II.

In July, Cox defeated Schulz 52% to 43% to become the GOP nominee. But establishment Republicans notably Hogan; Barry Glassman, the Republican nominee for state comptroller; and GOP leaders in the Maryland House and Senate have not endorsed him.

Republican Del. Ric Metzgar of Baltimore County said he was the first House member to endorse Cox in his gubernatorial bid. He told The Sun that his constituents made it clear they were not interested in seeing Schulz provide the equivalent of a third term for Hogan.

People in my district said to me, Delegate, if theyre connected to Governor Hogan, Im not voting for them. And with that said, they saw how Governor Hogan alienated himself against Trump, he said.

Republican Dan Cox, candidate for governor, speaks with reporters after debating Democrat Wes Moore at Maryland Public Television. (Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun )

Cox has run a shoestring campaign compared to Moore, who raised $1.7 million compared to Coxs $252,000 in the five weeks after the July 19 primary, according to the latest campaign finance reports, which were filed at the end of August. The next reports are due in two weeks.

His family has pitched in to work on the campaign, with one daughter serving as campaign manager during the primary. He only recently hired a veteran campaign spokesperson.

Weekly

Keep up to date with Maryland politics, elections and important decisions made by federal, state and local government officials.

The campaign provided a quick denunciation Oct. 10 after information started circulating about a planned Unite the Right event in Maryland. The gathering with Republican candidates had the same name as a white supremacist rally that turned deadly five years ago in Virginia.

We will not be associated with anything that is reminiscent, accidental or otherwise, of the unspeakable tragedy that took place in Charlottesville, VA on August 12, 2017, Cox said in a statement. Anything less is unacceptable. Dan Cox and his campaign remains committed to the empowerment, safety and freedom of all Marylanders.

It was a forceful rejection for a candidate who has, at times, embraced conspiracy theories, such as his continued support for false claims that Trump only lost his reelection bid in 2020 because of widespread election fraud.

Cox recently lost an appeal in the states highest court in which he tried to keep county election boards from scanning any mail-in ballots that arrived before of Election Day. Cox has yet to say whether he will accept the results of his own race, and is aligning his campaign with groups that plan to press for their own audit of the results.

So, can Cox pull off a win and give Republicans a third consecutive term in Marylands top executive office?

I wouldnt bet my house on it, said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel of Allegany County, who supported Schulz in the primary. If he wins, thats great for him. If he loses, thats something we all accept as the nature of politics and we move on to getting the work done.

Baltimore Sun reporters Jeff Barker, Emily Opilo and Sam Janesch contributed to this article.

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Dan Cox upended the status quo in Maryland's Republican primary. Where will the election for governor take him? - Baltimore Sun