Photo by Cedric Terrell
When did you know you were ready to run for governor of Maryland?
The energy and momentum and enthusiasm behind my ideas and my vision for the future of Maryland propelled me into this race, and they grow every day.
I spent much of 2012 traveling across Maryland talking to voters about marriage equality, the DREAM Act, and re-electing President Obama, and I was getting a lot of encouragement to take a look at this race. I love this state and I think there’s a lot more we can do to ensure that our government works for all Marylanders. Too many families are settling for less than adequate schools, jobs, and neighborhoods. We need a new kind of governing – one that puts people before politics. At a certain point, I just wasn’t willing to wait in line for a chance to propose a different path forward.
What sets you apart from your colleagues running for office?
It’s time to fundamentally change the way we do business and the way we govern in this state. That starts with a different kind of candidate running a different kind of campaign.
We need to have the courage to take on big challenges with systematic solutions. Take education policy and closing the achievement gap as an example. All three candidates in the Democratic primary have released plans on early childhood education; we’re just going about it differently. My approach is bigger and comprehensive. It needs to be to make a real difference. Instead of just covering 4-year-olds, calling it universal pre-K, and marking off a liberal political checkbox that shows we are for early childhood education, we also expand pre-K to 3-year-olds and strengthen our child-care subsidy program and fund comprehensive after-school and summer programs for our youth. Our approach to closing the achievement gap cannot start at the age of 4 when we know the problems start much earlier.
But it’s not just education. As we continue discussions with the voters over the coming months, you’ll see on issue after issue that I’m really out here, working with Maryland families to make their lives better, while the guys play politics and deliver talking points. I would put both my record and my vision up against any other candidate running for governor.
How can women living in the D.C. area and Delaware support your campaign?
I need your time, your talent, and your treasure. This campaign is not just about me—it’s about what we can do when we all come together. The election won’t be won by special interests, lobbyists, or backroom deals in Annapolis. It comes down to which candidate’s vision creates a large enough movement of people to win on Election Day and then lift our communities up when we govern.
You’ve been a member of the House of Delegates for more than seven years. What accomplishment are you most proud of?
In terms of a specific piece of legislation, it has to be extending health insurance to more children. When I first arrived in Annapolis as a legislator seven years ago, I was frustrated to see that nearly 100,000 children in Maryland were uninsured even though they qualified for the state’s health-care program. I was told we were never going to find a way to reach those families, but I rejected that notion and pushed through a bill called “Kids First,” which puts a checkbox on the state tax forms asking families to report whether their children have health insurance.
We now have two critical pieces of information in one place – how much money a family earns and whether the children are insured. State workers now do rapid outreach and enrollment to these families and as a result, in the past two years, 50,000 more children have received health insurance, and the federal government has rewarded our innovation with nearly $80 million in performance bonus grants.
I’m most proud of the way we have governed. For our district, we have done our best to answer, and when appropriate, act on, every constituent concern that comes our way.
But being in the state legislature is not just about taking care of your own geographical area. As a delegate, I took on challenges all over the state. That’s why I made school construction in Baltimore and opposing fracking in western Maryland such huge priorities. Maryland is one community. Not one part of the state should be settling for just good enough. If we are going to move forward for the better, it has to be as one Maryland.
