While many Maryland Democrats basked in the glow Wednesday of Vice President Kamala Harris’ energy following the previous night’s debate, some Republicans said they were unimpressed with either candidate and acknowledged former President Donald Trump’s struggle in staying on task.

“President Trump had a more difficult time making his points and illustrating the problems inherent in four more years of Biden/Harris policies,” Maryland House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, an Allegany County representative, told The Baltimore Sun in a text message Wednesday.

High-profile Maryland Democrats, like state Maryland House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, a representative of Baltimore County, praised Harris’ debate performance.

“Last night’s Presidential debate leaves no doubt – @KamalaHarris is the candidate who will lead our country forward, and bring us together,” Jones posted on X on Wednesday morning. “We are not going back.”

A national poll of 1,695 likely voters conducted for the New York Times and Siena College Sept. 3-6 found that 47% of voters favored Harris over Trump, who polled in at 48%.

A new poll of 719 voters conducted Sept. 10 and 11 by SoCal Strategies shows Harris at 48% and Trump at 45%.

In the 2020 presidential election, President Joe Biden swept Trump in Maryland with 65.4% of the vote to his opponent’s 32.2%.

Dozens gathered at a state Democratic watch party in Wheaton chanting “Kamala! Kamala!” during Tuesday night’s debate.

“She did beautifully,” Cathy Winter, a retired Montgomery County high school teacher, said at the Democrats’ party. “She did better than I ever expected. She spoke calmly, carefully and accurately — much better than Biden would have done.”

Harris’ performance pushed her fellow Democrat, Senate President Bill Ferguson, to make another donation to the Harris-Walz campaign, according to his X account.

“I’ve seen enough, VP @KamalaHarris has proved without doubt that she’s the President our country deserves,” Ferguson, who represents South Baltimore, posted on X nearly 20 minutes before Trump and Harris delivered their respective closing statements Tuesday. “She’s strong, smart, tough, and compassionate. She gives me hope.”

Ken Ulman, the chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, said in a statement issued after the debate that Harris offered “a fresh vision for moving our country forward,” saying that it’s incumbent upon Marylanders to head to the polls in November to vote for her and Democratic Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks to secure freedoms and protect Democracy.

“Now, it’s on Maryland to deliver Vice President Harris the Democratic Senate majority she needs to get the job done,” Ulman said. “That means rejecting Mitch McConnell’s handpicked U.S. Senate candidate and proud, self-described ‘lifelong Republican’ Larry Hogan and keeping the Senate in Democratic hands by electing Democrat Angela Alsobrooks.”

A poll of 820 likely voters was conducted Aug. 24 through Aug. 30 by the Annapolis-based Gonzales Research & Media Services found that Alsobrooks is leading Hogan by 5 percentage points.

Alsobrooks, who is friends with Harris, said Tuesday evening that she was “proud” of her for speaking on issues most important to Democrats, like reproductive freedom, the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court and the threat of climate change.

“But make no mistake: The vision Kamala Harris painted for us tonight, a vision for a future that strengthens our democracy and where our freedoms are protected and our families can thrive, is a vision that we know is only possible with a Democratic majority in the Senate,” Alsobrooks said.

Republicans were less impressed — with both candidates.

“I don’t think either candidate performed particularly well,” Maryland Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey, a representative of the upper Eastern Shore, told The Baltimore Sun in a text message, pointing to how neither Trump nor Harris went particularly deep on policy points during the 90-minute event. “There was no new information last night, it was simply a childish rehashing of each other’s past performances.”

Some Republicans felt the same way as they watched the debate Tuesday, and grew frustrated when Trump rambled off topic.

“Stop, Trump, stop!” one person yelled at the Maryland GOP’s debate watch party in Fells Point on Tuesday when the former president mentioned the unverified report that immigrants in Ohio are capturing and eating their neighbors’ pets.

Hogan said he wished there was more discussion of the issues and less of both candidates calling each other “liars.”

“I just thought, you know, it was not a good debate performance, at all,” he said at an endorsement event outside of Route One Apparel in Towson on Wednesday. “I didn’t really like either one of the candidates. I’m sorry I watched it.”

Buckel said he was “disappointed” that Trump seemed “agitated” by these secondary issues, “but the format wasn’t in his favor and it affected his performance.”

“He was strong on asking why hasn’t Harris done the things she says she will while already vice-president, and pointing out her numerous flip-flops on issues where she’s been far to the left of American voters in the past,” Buckel said via text.