State Sen. Catherine E. Pugh and former Mayor Sheila Dixon are locked in a virtual tie in the Democratic race to become Baltimore’s next mayor, a new poll for The Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore shows.
Pugh, whose support has surged in recent weeks, is now favored by 26 percent of likely voters in the Democratic primary. That’s two points higher than the 24 percent who back Dixon, who has led the field for months. Businessman David L. Warnock, who has spent more than $650,000 on television ads, is in third place with 10 percent.
“It’s a tight race between the two leaders,” said Steve Raabe, president of OpinionWorks, the Annapolis-based firm that conducted the poll. “Sheila Dixon has been matched and potentially overtaken by Catherine Pugh. People who decided recently are going toward Pugh.”
City Councilman Nick J. Mosby was in fourth with 6 percent, followed by lawyer Elizabeth Embry with 5 percent and Councilman Carl Stokes with 3 percent. All other candidates in the crowded field of 13 Democrats — including prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson and engineer Calvin Young III — garnered less than 1 percent.