U.S. Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) won a gubernatorial straw poll held in the westernmost part of his Maryland district Saturday during an annual summit of the Democratic Party faithful.
Delaney captured 66 votes from the 188 summit attendees who cast ballots. Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz made a strong second-place showing, with 41 votes in a region of the state where he is not well known. Benjamin Jealous, the former head of the NAACP, came in third place with 22 votes, outperforming five other potential gubernatorial hopefuls, including three politicians who have spent years in elected office.
The straw poll is statistically insignificant and took place more than a year ahead of the primary and far from the state’s Democratic strongholds in Baltimore and the Washington suburbs. Only one of the eight potential candidates on the ballot, tech entrepreneur Alec Ross, has officially declared he is running.
