Political Notebook: Moore endorses Alsobrooks for Senate; Martinez visits striking UAW

Governor, lieutenant governor endorses Angela Alsobrooks for Senate

At a rally last week, Gov. Wes Moore and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller threw their support behind Montgomery County Executive Angela Alsobrooks in her bid to replace Ben Cardin who is retiring from the U.S. Senate.

Moore and Miller made their announcement Oct 23 during a United for Maryland Rally in Baltimore.

“The world needs America’s leadership now more than ever; the country needs Maryland’s leadership now more than ever; and that leader is Angela Alsobrooks!" Moore said in a news release announcing the endorsement. "Angela is a fighter. Angela is a leader. Angela is a public servant in every beautiful sense of that phrase. I believe that if you never forget who you are fighting for, you will never stop fighting. I believe that if you never forget why you do the work, the work will never exhaust you. And to understand why Angela is so good at what she does, you have to know her story. Because for Angela, this work isn’t political. It’s personal."

Also endorsing Alsobrooks was Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando, who recently dropped out of the Senate race, among several others including sitting members of Congress and members of the state Legislature, among others.

Facing Alsobrooks on the Democratic ballot is U.S. Rep. David Trone, D-6th, who currently represents Washington County; Marcellus Crews, an IT service provider from Prince George's County; Juan Dominguez, a business man and former Army officer from Anne Arundel County; Brian E. Frydenborg, a writer from Montgomery County; Steven Henry Seuferer, from Montgomery County; and Andrew Jaye Wildman, from Carroll County.

Trone stops by UAW picket line on Friday

U.S. Rep. David Trone, D-6th, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Maryland's next U.S. senator, paid a visit Friday to the striking United Auto Workers Local 171 at the Volvo/Mack plant outside Hagerstown.

The local UAW workers joined about 4,000 other Mack Trucks workers at plants in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida in going on strike Oct. 9 after voting down a tentative five-year contract agreement that negotiators had reached with the company.

Trone brought the strikers coffee and donuts, according to a news release from his office. The congressman recently joined the newly relaunched Labor Caucus in Congress. He also touted a 100% lifetime voting record with the AFL-CIO, according to the release.

He was joined by several Hagerstown area elected officials, including Hagerstown Mayor Tekesha Martinez; Hagerstown City Council Members Matthew Schindler and Tiara Burnett; state Del. Brooke Grossman, D-Washington; and field representatives for U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen.

Hagerstown mayor, candidate for 6th Congressional District, also visits striking UAW members

Before joining Trone on Friday, Hagerstown Mayor Tekesha Martinez and members of her team on Tuesday spoke to the striking members of the United Auto Workers Local 171 on the picket line at Volvo Group Trucks powertrain facility north of Hagerstown.

"We learned a lot there about how strong the bonds between union members and their families are, and we stand with all of UAW’s striking workers in their fight for a fair contract," Martinez said in a weekly email from her campaign. "Their rising tide lifts all our boats."

McClain Delaney enters Democratic field for congressional seat, once held by her husband

The latest entrant to the field for Maryland’s Sixth Congressional District seat is no stranger to Washington (having left the Biden Administration last month) or to the state’s western most congressional district (her husband held the seat for most of last decade).

Now, April McClain Delaney, a lawyer who left the U.S. Department of Commerce as a deputy assistant secretary in late September, is looking to return to the nation’s capital on her own terms.

“I want to serve the Sixth District because we all need to stand up for our democracy,” said McClain Delaney, in a roughly 90-second online ad, announcing her candidacy for Congress. The ad included her familial background as the daughter of an Idaho potato farmer and a wife.

Her husband, John, a multi-millionaire who left his congressional seat in 2019 after declaring a bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination several years prior, occupied the seat for three terms. The district has been significantly reshaped since the decennial census in 2020.

Prior to McClain Delaney’s position in the Commerce Department, where she worked on a portfolio that included broadband issues, she was the Washington director for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit focused on how technology affects children. She joins a Democratic field that includes a pair of Montgomery County state delegates, Hagerstown’s mayor, and several other aspirants. The primary election is scheduled for May 14.

— Dwight A. Weingarten

McDow suspends campaign for 6th District, moves out of Maryland

Stephen R. McDow II announced last week that he was suspecting his campaign for Congress to return to Massachusetts.

"It is with sadness I suspend my efforts to seek the Maryland 6th Congressional seat currently held by Representative David Trone," McDow wrote in an email from his campaign. "The needs in the district are real and unlike all the other candidates we listened to the people of the 6th. Together we developed 24 policy objectives and know we are well positioned to win.

"The needs in the 6th are not about left versus right. Rather, they are about widening educational access points; supporting and uplifting small businesses, stamping out human trafficking, and more!"

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Wes Moore backs Angela Alsobrooks in U.S. Senate race