Maryland Republicans accuse Gov. Moore of interfering in their primary with new ads and mailers

A Maryland Republican candidate for governor is crying foul over advertisements Democratic incumbent Wes Moore is running and is accusing him of trying to interfere with the GOP primary. 

The ads appear to favor Dan Cox, the Republican Moore beat in a resounding victory four years ago. 

Moore's campaign is not backing down and continues to air the commercials on Fox News and Facebook. 

Ed Hale's outrage 

Republican candidate for governor Ed Hale and his supporters stood next to a large picture of an ad that Go. Wes Moore and the Democratic Party are running a campaign that aims to define him in the primary. 

"Ed Hale can't be trusted. Hale was running for governor as a Democrat. Makes sense since he's a lifelong Democrat," the ad says and shows a picture of Hale with former Democratic Maryland governor and Baltimore City Mayor Martin O'Malley. 

"Ed Hale is only a Republican because it helps Ed Hale," the narrator's voice booms. 

Hale told WJZ, "This is to me so blatantly bad that the governor of our state is manipulating the election to get everybody out except for Dan Cox, whom he whipped badly by 32 points in the last election."

His running mate, Tyrone Keys, had harsher words for the Moore campaign. 

"[Moore] wants to run against Dan Cox again," Keys said. "Wes Moore beat Dan Cox like a rented mule in 2022, and he'd do it again. He is afraid of Ed Hale.  He doesn't want to run against him, so Republicans across the state must be saying that strategy cannot work again. We can't let Wes Moore define who the Republican nominee will be."

It worked for Moore in 2022, who successfully ended the campaign of GOP candidate Kelly Schulz.

Republican Governor Larry Hogan backed Schulz, a former member of his cabinet, to succeed him in office. 

Cox went on to get the Republican nomination and lost by more than 30 percentage points. 

The Moore campaign stressed Cox's MAGA and Trump support in another ad running on Fox News and Facebook. 

"Trump called Cox an America-first patriot," the narrator tells viewers. "Dan is MAGA all the way."

Hale said of Cox, "I hate to even mention his name because he's lost at everything he's done, and I don't expect that he would win again. I believe that I would be the only person who can get out there and beat Wes Moore."

The Cox campaign did not immediately return WJZ's request for comment. 

Hale supporter and former delegate Jim Ports told reporters, "Wes Moore is making a mockery of democracy by getting involved in a Republican primary." 

While Minority Whip and State Senator Justin Ready, who is also backing Hale, had this message for Republicans: "If Wes Moore and the Maryland Democratic Party are telling you you should vote a certain way, you should vote opposite. You should not vote the way Wes Moore tells you to vote."

Fellow Republican Senator J.B. Jennings callled the Moore ads "interference" and "dirty politics."

Moore responds 

The Moore campaign told WJZ they are not supporting Cox, just defining him. 

"We're not going to take anything for granted, no matter who we're running against. Whoever wins the Republican primary will be met with the strongest coordinated campaign Maryland has ever seen, and we will work day and night to make sure in November that voters know what they stand for," said Carter Elliott, the senior communications adviser to the Moore campaign. 

Democratic Party chairman Steuart Pittman, the Anne Arundel County Executive, said in a statement, "Marylanders deserve to know who's running to represent them: a far-right extremist who bussed people to the Capitol on January 6th and someone who is willing to switch their party and their beliefs just to win an election."

Pied piper

This strategy, where one party runs ads in another party's primary, is known as "pied piper."

But it does carry some risks.

Sam Novey, the chief strategist with the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at the University of Maryland College Park, said "the jury is still out" on the effectiveness of pied piper. 

"Is the potential impact of these ads and the advantage of having a weaker candidate worth the potential risk of the ads not working?" Novey asked. "And then you just spent a bunch of money that you could've spent somewhere else as well as any potential reputational backlash from either opponents or supporters of the governor."

But he said the Moore campaign's frontrunner status is a factor.

"It's the kind of strategy you only engage in if you're in a very strong position. That's definitely where the governor is in this kind of political environment," Novey said. 

He told WJZ, "There are signifant advantages to running against a weak or more extreme candidate, but it's unclear that any particular advertising strategy is the way to get there."

Early voting is ends of Thursday, June 18.

Primary Election Day in Maryland is Tuesday, June 23. Stay with WJZ and CBS News Baltimore for updated election news and results.