2020 Maryland District 7 Primary Election for Congress Voters Guide
Maryland CD7 Special Election - Baltimore
February 04, 2020
Maryland District 7 Primary Election for Congress Voters Guide provides in-depth insight, social media, and platform for each candidate for Maryland’s Congressional Special Election for the Baltimore District.
Vote in Maryland’s special election with ease with kBoulevard’s Baltimore Elections Voters Guide for the 2020 Maryland District 7 Primary Election for Congress.
The Maryland District 7 Primary Election for the Baltimore metro area, was on Tuesday, February 4, 2020. The vacant seat, of the late Honorable Elijah Cummings, will be up for election. Top issues for this election include accountability, economic development, and education. Check out kBoulevard’s Maryland Congressional Special Election for the 7th District Baltimore Elections Voting Guide.
Learn more about the 2020 Maryland District 7 Primary Election and where to vote, visit Maryland Board of Elections.
What does a U.S. Representative do?
Also referred to as a congressman or congresswoman, each representative is elected to a two-year term serving the people of a specific congressional district. Among other duties, representatives introduce bills and resolutions, offer amendments and serve on committees. Check out the lawmakers.org “How Effective is your Legislator” to learn more about effective legislators and where Maryland congress members stand.
Maryland District 7 Primary Election for Republican Congressional Candidates
(Click candidate’s name for website)
No Social Media Available
- Profession: Owns plumbing and heating company in Catonsville
- Education: Loyola University
- Profession: Established R&E Green-Janitorial Cleaning Service
- Experience: Grassroots organization Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development (BUILD)
- Experience: Established Kidz Our.Size, Inc.
- Community: A USTA certified tennis instructor and held the first Tennis Camp at the Robert C Marshall Recreation Center in Baltimore City
- Former Executive Director of the Govanstown Business Association
- Experience: Republican Central Committee member for Baltimore County, District 6
- Profession: Founded Potential Me to assist underserved women with workforce development
- Experience: Field Office Manager for 2012Â Governor Race – Randallstown (Democratic)
- Experience: Republican Party nominee for Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District election in 2018
- Education: University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business
- Education: Howard University School of Law
- Experience: Republican Central Committee member for Baltimore County, District 3
- Experience: Chairman of the Maryland Republican Election Integrity Committee
Candidates listed below do not have a public profile available at the time of publishing. We will continue to update guide as new information is available.Â
Brian Brown
Maryland District 7 Primary Election for Democrat Congressional Candidates
(Click candidate’s name for website)
- Experience: Peace Corps Volunteer
- Experience: Civilian veteran (U.S. Foreign Service)
- Education: Graduated from Virginia Military Institute
- Profession: International Public Health professional
- Experience: Majority Whip in the Maryland House of Delegates for Baltimore City, District 45
- Experience: Member of the Influential Economic Matters Committee
- Experience: Vice Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party from 2010 – 2011
- Education: B.A. in Liberal Studies from Salisbury State College
- Experience: Maryland State Senate for Baltimore City, District 41
- Experience: Served Maryland House of Delegates for Baltimore City, District 41
- Experience: Served as Director of the Office of Civil Rights and Wage Enforcement
- Education: J.D. from University of Baltimore School of Law
- Experience: Served as Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party in 2018 – 2019
- Experience: Legislative Aide for National Urban League and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
- Experience: Legislative Aide for National Urban League and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
Education: Ph.D. in Political Science – Purdue University
- Profession: Director of Intensive Care and Chief of Pulmonary Medicine at Medstar Harbor Hospital
- Education: University of Maryland – Trained for Intensive Care/Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Specialties
- Education: Medical College of Pennsylvania
- Community: Howard County Fair participant
- Profession: Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law
- Profession: Author
- Experience: Former Chair of the Maryland Attorney General’s Task Force On Electronic Weapons
- Education: J.D. from Yale Law School
- Experience: Maryland State Delegate for Baltimore and Howard County, District 12Â
- Profession: Plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Baltimore – 30 years
- Experience: Serves on the Health and Government Operations Committee
- Education: Columbia College of Physicians Surgeons – Medical
- Experience: Maryland House of Delegates for Baltimore County, District 10
- Experience: Serves on the Committee for Environment, Transportation and Housing
- Education: M.D. Harvard University
- Education: John Hopkins University
- Experience: Served as President and CEO of the NAACP – 1996 – 2005
- Experience: Former U.S. Representative from Maryland’s 7th District, 1987 – 1996
- Experience: Serves as Chairman of the Morgan State University Board of Regents
- Education: John Hopkins University – Master’s in Liberal Arts
Â
- Experience: Current Board member with the Coalition for Black Excellence and Words Beats and Life
- Experience: Former Advisor to President Barack Obama’s transition team
- Education: M.D. John Hopkins University
- Education: Baltimore Polytechnic Institute
- Experience: District Director to the late U.S. Representative of the 7th District for Maryland Elijah Cummings
- Experience: Vice President of the Community Assistance Network
- Education: Master’s Public Administration in Public Policy, University of Baltimore
- Education: BA Political Science, Morgan State University
Candidates listed below do not have a public profile available at the time of publishing. We will continue to update guide as new information is available.Â
Anthony Carter Sr.
Alicia D. Brown
Dan Hiegel
Charles Stokes
Jermyn Davidson
Matko L. Chullin III
Paul V. Konka
Jay Fred Cohen
Darryl Gonzalez
Adrian Petrus
Nathaniel M. Costley Sr.
Leslie E. Grant
Charles U. Smith
Maryland Congressional Special Election – Congressional District 7 – has a vacant seat. This voter’s guide is for the Baltimore elections and will compile vital sections of each candidates’ platform, initiative, and social media profiles as well as any pertinent public information.
kBoulevard’s voting guides develop profiles of each candidate for U.S. Representative for Maryland District 7 – Baltimore, and their policies, which are categorized by hot issues such as accountability, economic development, foreign policy, and more. The guide allows voters to identify critical differences between each candidate on issues that matter most.
Candidates for Maryland District 7 Primary Election on the Issues
Candidates for Congressional District 7 on Criminal Justice Reform
- Formulate a policy that provides better quality of education, vocational training for youth, stricter gun control laws, greater investment in the community, providing opportunities for ex-offenders to reduce recidivism
- Juvenile Justice Reforms to curb incarceration, handcuffing, shackling and strip searching of children as young as 7 years old without conviction of any crime
Â
- Supports sentencing reform as well as the end of over-criminalization of our neighborhoods
- Seeks to root out system-wide inequality in the justice system
End mass incarceration with sensible rehabilitative and treatment programs
Sponsor and support legislative initiatives to address criminal justice reform
Candidates for Congressional District 7 on Economic Development
- Lobby the diplomatic community, international businesses, and corporations to locate in the 7th Congressional District
- Encourage and promote the distinctive offerings of our region to the world via tourism and cultural exchanges
- Activist for the Living Wage in Maryland
Â
- Supports raising the wages of teachers so they can achieve the same economic opportunity as the students they are teaching
- Plans to actively support legislation that grows the economy, encourages innovation and protects small businesses
- Supports legislation that relives that raises the minimum wage to $15
- Proponent of a living wage
- Supports boost in teacher pay
- Employment opportunities for citizens and legal immigrants
- Empowerment zones for the redevelopment of distressed areas
- Increase the federal minimum wage to $15
- Create economic opportunities
Candidates for Congressional District 7 on Education
- Hunger–Free Schools Act of 2017 improving the calculation of the number of the students to calculate a specified grant for schools that participate in a specified federal program
- Career Youth and Public Sector Apprenticeship Act authorizing the Board of Education to award school credits to High School students who complete work-based training or classroom instruction at a registered apprenticeship program
- Establishing the James Proctor Scholarship Program at Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase support for students who are residents of the state
- Supports a practical debt amnesty or amortization plan for a sweat equity for debt swap wherein student loan in within a 5 to 7-year period
- Improve quality of public education by addressing inefficiency, corruption, and classism against those from low-income backgrounds
- Supports the Thornton Bill, promoting equitable funding for public education
- Advocates for universal access to Pre-K and childcare so that children can begin getting the education that they need when they need it
- Improve vocational training so workers are prepared for the economy of the future
- Proponent of reducing the burden of student loans
- Supports utilizing a combination of tax incentives, expanded Pell Grants and a streamlined loan application process, to make college education more affordable
- Implement the recommendations of the Kirwan Commission to create a progressive learning environment
- Passed bill that allow student loans waivers for orphans and foster care recipients
- Sponsor and support legislation ensuring the recommendations of the Kirwan Commission would be implemented and become law
- Ensure school funding formula directly addresses the historic inequities suffered by children of Baltimore City
- Ensure equity in education funding from Pre-k to higher education, inclusive of our HBCU’s
Candidates for Congressional District 7 on Environment
- Tax the exportation of crude oil and use those funds to encourage clean energy job creation in our nation’s urban cares
- Use tax credits to incentivize the private sector to create new green technology jobs in hard-hit urban areas
- Reduce our carbon footprint in every sector of our economy, including electricity and transportation
- Seeks to improve public transportation, CO2 scrubbers, and improved battery technology
- Seeks to invest in strategies that reduce reliance on fossil fuels
- Proponent of climate change
- Supports policies like the “Green New Deal”
- Supports climate change
Proponent of strengthen EPA laws
Proponent of legislation to address lead poisoning, water quality, leaking sewage, and air toxins
Candidates for Congressional District 7 on Government Accountability
- Supports holding companies that profit on misleading on safety to pay for improved access to drug addiction counselling and treatment
- Supports adjusting discretionary spending on the military and improve accountability for the amount
- Supports term limits to improve the work done and limit campaigning
Â
Â
- Lobby Congressional colleagues and federal bureaucracy in partnership with local leaders to combat fraud, waste, abuse, and undue taxation and regulation
- Will work diligently with municipal, private, and community faith-based stakeholders to promote the general welfare for Maryland constituents
- Supports making city officials provide restitution for victims of lead poisoning
- Supports the bill: U.S.A Freedom Act – H.R. 3361
- Advocates term-limits
Supports an appointed and independent redistricting commission to determine congressional and legislative boundaries
Reduce corporate influence in government via repealing Citizens United Ruling
Candidates for Congressional District 7 on Health and Human Services
- Supports universal health records, allowing access to your medical history to any hospital or doctor with informed consent, also serving as a social security card and voting registration
- Proponent of reforming prescription drug controls/regulation from the FDA on generic availability, especially for life sustaining big impact drugs
- Supports prescribers of narcotics with better training and Narcan without prescription
- Supports transitioning into a universal, single-payer system
- Supports H.R. 1384 “The Medicare For All Act of 2019”
- The Protection of the Federal Affordable Care Act urging the U.S. Congress to promptly protect provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act that ensure all Marylanders have access to affordable health insurance coverage, free from discriminatory rates and policies
- Creating a Maryland Health Insurance Coverage Protection Commission to ensure Maryland residents are adequately protected considering the continued threats to the Federal Affordable Care Act
- Supports improving and strengthening Obamacare
- Seeks to lower cost of prescription drugs
- Introduced legislation that addresses providing access to HIV prevention medication to minors and ensuring better public and jurisdiction notice of contaminated rivers
- Introduced legislation that addresses improving access to prescription drugs for patients with chronic illnesses
Candidates for Congressional District 7 on Public Safety
- Increasing the penalties for repeat violent offenders who are who are caught wearing, carrying, or transporting a loaded weapon
- Increasing the penalty for obstructing, hindering, or interfering with school bus driver and public transportation workers
- Business Regulation restricting the sale of Tobacco Products and Electronic Smoking Devices to minors
- Supports better training to de-escalate violence, new technology to immobilize without killing and a shift in the relationship with the community where trust has eroded
- Supports controls on ammunition sales without infringing on the second amendment
- Supports universal background checks and banning assault weapons
- Sponsored legislation initiatives banning assault weapons and establishing stalking as a federal crime
- Aided in the passing of legislation strengthened the Equal Credit Opportunity Law
- Supports ban on assault weapons
- Protect First Responders, Fire Fighters and EMTs against physical assaults of injuries in line of duty
- Expedited DNA testing of rape kits to reduce sexual crimes against women
- Use all available federal resources to combat the opioid crisis
- Proponent of decriminalization of drug use for non-violent offenders
- Supports legalization of marijuana and research into medical use
- Advocates for gun control, license and registration to own
Candidates for Congressional District 7 on Senior Citizens
- Include a citizen option for mutual fund and other stock options to personalize Social Security portfolio
- Proponent to expand access to ACA, allowing coverage from a buy in to those aged over 55 years old
- Supports changing the limits to contributions for Social Security from the top 1%
- Supports increasing or eliminating the Social Security cap on taxable wages and increasing Social Security payroll tax rates
- Helped recover more than $900,000 in retroactive benefits for families from the Social Security Administration
- Proponent of strengthening Social Security for today’s and future beneficiaries
- Supports prescription drug benefits for vulnerable senior citizens
- Supports access to and proper care in nursing homes
Introduced legislation that addresses funding mechanisms to assist seniors wishing to age in place
Candidates for Congressional District 7 on Tax Reform
- Increasing refundable amount of the percentage of the federal earned income credit used for determining the amount that an individual may claim as a refundable credit under the Maryland earned income credit (2014)
- Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief extending by 2 years specified termination provisions relating to an income tax subtraction modification for mortgage forgiveness debt relief (2014)
- Providing property tax credit for disabled or fallen law enforcement officers, rescue workers, and public safety officers (2016)
Opposes corporate tax credits
Lower taxes for small businesses
- Supports repealing the 2017 Republican tax law
Candidates for Congressional District 7 on Transportation
Demand regional transportation for Baltimore – Maryland residents pay disproportionately more taxes than they receive, it’s our turn for funding
- Support the creation of a special funding agency that could provide low-interest loans to states and cities to help finance crucial projects like roads and transit systems, taking politics out of efforts to rebuild infrastructure
- Supports interconnectivity of a comprehensive Baltimore city transportation system with expanded bus, rail,
 subway access using a complete streets model
Plans to push for new investments that revitalize roads and provide needed funds for improvements to public transportation
Advocates improving transportation and infrastructure
Check out our previous voter guides for the DC Metro elections here.
Did you find our Election Guides helpful?
Let us know how you feel about our guides!
We'll let you know when it's time to vote!