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Ben Jealous fell short in his effort to become governor of Maryland when he lost the election on Tuesday night to incumbent Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. NBC News projected Hogan’s win.

The former NAACP president had been leaning on his roots in civil rights in his unsuccessful bid to become the first African-American governor in Maryland.

While Jealous, 45, had been consistently polling behind Hogan, he made some strong moves ahead of Election Day, including recruiting legendary comedian Dave Chappelle to knock on doors and encourage people to vote for him.

One major platform that appealed to Black people, in particular, was Jealous’ plan to increase funding for and bring better academic programs to the states historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

“I’ve put a detailed plan on the table to ensure that we finally treat our state’s HBCUs fairly,” Jealous recently told the AFRO. “We’ve been underfunding public higher education for too long and we need to reorient our state’s priorities back towards making sure we’re preparing our kids for the workforce. As governor, I’m committed to putting an end to this lawsuit and fulfilling the state’s obligations to our HBCUs.”

Jealous won the state’s Democratic primary in late June to add to be one of three Black people running for governor, along with Florida’s Andrew Gillum and Georgia’s Stacey Abrams.

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