With few ads airing, Md. gubernatorial candidates to hit debate stage

Turn the television on in Florida and Texas and voters are being bombarded daily with ads for gubernatorial candidates who have spent upward of $25 million in the past month making their pitches. The same holds true in Georgia, where candidates have spent almost $22 million in the past 30 days. Meanwhile, in Maryland, where Democrat Wes Moore and Republican Dan Cox are competing to fill the seat being vacated by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, the airwaves are silent. That changes Wednesday when Moore and Cox take center stage to make their pitches in the first and only televised debate — in what essentially amounts to free advertising for the candidates. With a lack of money to purchase ads and trailing by double-digits in polls, the stakes are high for Cox, a hard-right, Trump-endorsed conservative delegate from Frederick County.