The Publish endorses Ms. Schulz within the July 19 major. We help her not solely as a result of she is a reliable, results-oriented public servant, effectively certified for the governorship, but additionally as a result of Maryland advantages from a vibrant two-party system. Ms. Schulz would additional that agenda. Her chief rival within the major, Del. Daniel L. Cox of Frederick County, would render Republicans electorally irrelevant in a state the place registered Democrats outnumber the GOP 2 to 1.

Ms. Schulz, by temperament and by obvious strategic design, has modeled herself on Mr. Hogan, who’s leaving workplace after two consecutive phrases, the constitutional most. Her marketing campaign has borrowed closely from his first gubernatorial bid, in 2014, when he received an upset victory. Who can blame her? The governor, having ruled as an anti-Trump, comparatively non-divisive centrist, enjoys stratospheric approval rankings, together with from Democrats.

Like Mr. Hogan in 2014, Ms. Schulz has eschewed detailed coverage positions in favor of a handful of brisk speaking factors, chief amongst them her opposition to greater taxes. She has additionally embraced college selection and a tricky law-and-order response to the jarring spike in violent crime, particularly in Baltimore. She favors Mr. Hogan’s plan to increase the Beltway and Interstate 270 in Montgomery County. What her stances lack intimately they make up for in message self-discipline — she repeats them metronomically, leaving little doubt about her priorities.

She is not any light-weight. Having dropped out of school at age 19 whereas pregnant together with her first son, she waited tables and tended bar earlier than embarking on a profession as a group activist, small enterprise proprietor, state delegate representing Frederick County and, underneath Mr. Hogan, the top of two state cabinet-level businesses: the Labor Division and, for 3 years, the Commerce Division. Within the latter job she performed a key position holding companies afloat through the pandemic and was the state’s chief financial improvement officer, studying firsthand the challenges of recruiting companies to relocate in Maryland. (At age 37, she additionally accomplished her school diploma.)

We half methods with Ms. Schulz on some points, however there isn’t any doubt she is a reasonable concerned with sound governance, not partisan bonfires.

The other is true of Mr. Cox, who touts his endorsement from Donald Trump, denies President Biden’s election victory, and arranged buses for final yr’s Jan. 6 rally, which became a violent assault on the Capitol. This spring he spoke at a QAnon-infected rally in Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, the place organizers performed a video asserting the world is present process “an excellent awakening” that can expose “ritual youngster sacrifice” and a “world satanic blood cult.”

A vote within the major for Mr. Cox is a vote for Republican oblivion in Maryland. A vote for Ms. Schulz is a vote for sanity.