O’Malley polls woefully in home state

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s presidential polling woes extend to his home state, where he takes only 2 percent support in the race for the Democratic nomination, according to a new poll.

A Goucher College poll released Tuesday shows Hillary Clinton leading the field in Maryland with 43 percent support, followed by Vice President Biden at 23 percent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 17 percent, and O’Malley, tied with former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, at 2 percent.

{mosads}Those results mirror O’Malley’s struggles nationally. According to the RealClearPolitics average, he is stuck in the bottom tier of candidates at only .6 percent support.

“Although Martin O’Malley was a popular two-term governor among Democrats in the state, his campaign’s difficulties in gaining traction nationwide are reflected in Maryland,” said Mileah Kromer, the director of Goucher College’s political institute.

O’Malley served two terms as mayor of Baltimore, and two terms as governor of Maryland, ending in 2015. He launched his presidential bid from Baltimore in late May.

None of the candidates has spent much time campaigning in Maryland, where the primary isn’t until near the end of the nominating contest.

O’Malley has spent a great deal of time in Iowa, although his support there is small as well. He sits at 3.3 percent in the Hawkeye State, according to the RealClearPolitics average.

O’Malley has been the first in the Democratic field to release ambitious liberal policy proposals on everything from the environment to criminal justice reform, but he has been relegated to the margins amid the rise of Sanders on the left.

The Goucher poll of 739 registered Democrats was conducted between Oct. 1 and Oct. 3 and has a 3.6 percentage-point margin of error.