The latest statewide Maryland survey reveals profound concerns over utility bills and overall cost of living. Forty-two percent of Marylanders said they struggled to pay their electric bill over the past year, and one in two said they are “really struggling financially” or “just getti ng by,” according to a survey of 800 registered voters conducted on behalf of Blended Public Affairs and the Perry Jacobson government relations firm by Zenith Research. These pocketbook issues – particularly over utility bills – are what Marylanders say they want Gov. Wes Moore and state leaders to focus on, the surey shows. But many Marylanders don’t give particularly high marks to the performance of the state government. Asked to give a grade to Maryland state government on services and the quality of life in exchange for taxes paid, 37 percent give the state government an A or B grade; 42 percent give a C or D; and 18 percent give an F. Gov. Moore has stayed above water as economic concerns are rising. Currently 56 percent of voters generally approve of the job he’s doing, with 39 percent disapproving, for a net 17 point favorability rating. That is translating into a comfortable margin at the moment for his November reelection campaign, with 58 percent saying they will vote for Moore, and 31 percent intending to vote for Republican Dan Cox, and 12 percent unsure or favoring another candidate. The survey has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. What do these numbers really mean? What trends do they reveal? And – given the state of polling in the U.S. – can we trust them? These are the questions that the Maryland Now podcast hosts – David Nitkin, Dori Henry and Josh Kurtz – posed to pollster Adam Carlson for the first episode of Season Two in our podcast. You can listen at the link below [and see the full survey results below]: Carlson has been in the market research and polling field for more than a dozen years, and here is some of what he had to say on the podcast about the Maryland Now survey: Cost-of-living concerns “It it is affecting everybody. And it is very, very top of mind for people and they’re looking for immediate solutions, including utility bills in particular. So that’s a kind of a tangible thing that they’re looking for help with from the government. Asked which of the following issues would you like Governor Moore and the General Assembly to focus on over the next twelve months, 40 percent said the number one issue was lowering electricity and utility bills. Number two was creating jobs and growing the economy, at 32. And everything else was was was below that. Public safety, protecting rights, education, these things are on the back burner right now until you help people get their monthly household bottom line lower.” More revenue to balance the state budget “We gave respondents eight different options for ways to raise revenue: ‘If Maryland had to raise revenue, which of the following you prefer?’ And the one that popped the most by far was raising state income taxes on households earning more than $500,000 a year. That was 54 percent of people. So a majority of respondents said they wanted to do that. The next highest one was legalizing and taxing internet gaming at thirty-six. Everything else was way, way below” Wes Moore favorability “He’s winning across most subgroups and he’s doing strongest among the groups that you’d expect: Black voters, progressives, Democrats, college educated voter. But in terms of job approval, he is at 56 percent approve, 39 percent disapprove, with 5 percent saying they don’t know. Only 26 percent strongly approve. So it’s split evenly between ‘strongly’ and ‘somewhat,’ which means that the intensity is not super high, which is common for governors. There’s a lot of like complicated feelings people have towards their governors, a lot of assigned blame that they may or may not have control over. and it’s very difficult to get a higher intensity number. But it’s not like an overwhelming number are very pleased or strongly approve.” Polling in the Trump Era “The MAGA folks, the America First folks are like, ‘You’re you’re as bad as the media; you’re as bad as the Democrats. You’re fake. You’re a fake pollster. I’m not even gonna take them.’ No method of reaching them was great. So you have a handful of them that you get, and you’re hoping the representative of that larger group and you’re upweighting them and you’re making sure, but that presents a lot of room for error. That is a major structural issue that I am very curious about if that outlasts Trump or whether it is a Trump-specific phenomenon. I guess we’ll see that, whether it’s Vance or Rubio or whoever else in 2028… General elections in the Trump era, polling is pretty good, writ large, and is pretty bad in presidentials. I think the midterm electorates are a bit more predictable.” Maryland Now_ August 2026 PollDownload Connect With the Show:  Questions, comments, or story ideas [email protected]  Maryland Now is brought to you by Blended Public Affairs and produced by Carper Cre8tive. ...read more read less