The results (or at least most of them) are in! We used our voices and our votes to elect more women and people of color to offices up and down the ballot, to legalize cannabis, and to affirm our support of democracy! We’re taking some time this week and next to celebrate and to reflect on our 2022 electoral program and the overall election results.

Follow Progressive Maryland's Weekly Memo for updates on these and many other issues and campaigns on behalf of working families' interests.

Democrats in Maryland swept the top state elected offices -- governor, comptroller and attorney general -- and all three now have a long list of promises to keep. They or their campaigns are responding to questions about how to get there from here. Plus health news that could have been buried by 24/7 ballot-counting, and the steady rumble of statewide education policy, gearing up for big changes.

And -- big surprise -- Georgia officials have already come up with a way to excuse voter suppression for the Senate runoff.

The chair of Progressive Maryland's board, Sean Dobson, remembers Del. Sheila Hixson, the longest-serving woman in the General Assembly.  She died in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. last Sunday at 89.

This is it! Election Day is tomorrow! If you or your family members haven’t yet voted, you need to go to the polls tomorrow! Polls open at 7:00 a.m. We strongly recommend that you go in the morning and take care of this important civic duty before getting into the rest of your day. If you’ve received your ballot by mail be sure to drop it at a drop box today or tomorrow before 8:00 p.m.

Questions about voting? Check out this guide. Folks who are not registered can still register to vote and vote in person tomorrow.

This election year, we’re taking our demands for a more just and inclusive Maryland to the ballot box. We have a chance to vote for candidates and ballot measures that will support our communities and protect our democracy. Be sure to vote up and down the ballot: all of these elected officials matter in our day to day lives because of the important decisions they make.

People are voting tomorrow all over the country, every state, “the great mystery of democracy” as a 20^th-century political sage called it will actually happen and the polls will be history, right or wrong. The era of early voting including mail-in has muddled that sense of one-day-settles-all. Here is the morning tally from Pluribus News: More than 40.5 million Americans have voted already this year, according to University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald’s U.S. Elections Project. In the 23 states where voters register by party, Democrats hold a 43%-34% turnout edge.

Also in News You Can Use this week: Election disruption attempts in Maryland and some other states; Congress's "lame duck" session; Wes Moore gets ink; a West Virginia refugee crisis here? Read on.

Hensci (Hello)!

My name is Bee and I am Mvskoke, a Native American tribe located in Oklahoma. In honor of my ancestors, I am writing to you from my home in Annapolis, on stolen Susquehannock and Piscataway land.

We would like to take a moment to honor the legacy-past, present, and future-of the Native American people on this land. It is our responsibility to acknowledge the ongoing effects of settler colonialism, and to recognize that we benefit from the displacement, genocide, and past and present violence against Indigenous people on whose ancestral lands present-day United States, including the state of Maryland, stands. 

We acknowledge the Accohannock Indian Tribe, Assateague Peoples Tribe, Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians, Piscataway Conoy Tribe, Piscataway Indian Nation, Pocomoke Indian Nation and Youghiogheny River Band of Shawnee Indians as the original stewards of Maryland's lands. See the historical boundaries, languages, and treaties of the tribes in Maryland here. 

We acknowledge all Native American peoples in Maryland and on the wider Turtle Island, including those who are displaced and detribalized, who have had their identities and cultures stolen through the larger effects of colonialism and assimilation. 

When we say we are working toward a more just and equitable future for Marylanders, that includes our Indigenous communities. There is so much work to be done—passing federal and state legislation for reparations; formally acknowledging Indigenous history and land rights; and, of course, ensuring that Native residents have affordable healthcare and housing, access to quality education, clean air and drinking water, and the many other basic human rights that everyone deserves. Progressive Maryland is committed to this work.

This month provides an opportunity to celebrate rich and diverse traditions, cultures, and histories and to acknowledge the unique contributions of Native people. Discover ways to appropriately reflect Native values in your life this month, such as finding new ways to be sustainable to the land and resources around you. In honor of my Mvskoke ancestors, I encourage you to not only take today to learn more about Native American history and cultures, but to do more in the fight for Native American people. We promise we will do the same. 

Sincerely,

Bee Van Hall (they/them)
Social Media Coordinator for Progressive Maryland

We’re eight days away from the final day to vote in this critical midterm election. Just in time for the last stretch of the campaign, Progressive Maryland has released a toolkit for voters. Click here to check it out and share with your family and friends, especially those who have not yet voted. We need to show up and show our power this November!

We’ve got good reasons to vote: 

• There are great progressive candidates on the ballot who will work for policies that benefit everyday Marylanders. Here are some of the folks who are running.  
• We can change our failed marijuana policies by voting FOR Question 4 to legalize possession of small quantities of cannabis. Passing the measure means Maryland will join several other states who have modernized cannabis laws.

In order to win we’ve got to keep reaching out to voters! We want to be sure they know about candidates up and down the ballot as well as Ballot Question 4. Take a minute now to sign up for a two hour shift. It’s fun and it makes a difference.

Sign up for a phone banking shift.

Sign up to text bank with us!

See below for more news about our organizing work. Thanks and we hope to see you at the polls or at one of our GOTV events!

A past contract for a vendor to oversee mental health and behavioral care in the state doesn't seem to be working out, and a contract for BWI concessions soon to be up for approval by outgoing officials is looking "rigged" according to some. Plus election news, state life expectancy, schools and their resouirce officers, and allegations of internal bias in state police ranks. It's all here and more in News You Can Use.

"All told, the NAEP results underscore how far our nation and state have to go to fulfill the right of all children to adequate educational opportunity," Kalman Hettleman argues in a response to shocking declines here and nationwide in test scores. "In 1983 the most famous education report in our history, A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform, declared: 'the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.'

"That we have progressed so little over so long may affect forthcoming analyses and renewed education wars over the NAEP scores. But perspective is a starting point. The results didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know, COVID 19 is no excuse, and generations of schoolchildren are innocent victims.

"Still, perspective must inform action. We must immediately react with outrage, act with fresh urgency, and accelerate implementation of the Blueprint. Let’s hope the new governor and General Assembly will lead the way."

Read on, and plan to act. 

We wish everyone who is celebrating, a bright and joyous Diwali! This day is a beautiful reminder that light prevails over darkness. It also gives us a moment to reflect on how fortunate we are to live in one of the most racially and culturally diverse states in the country.

This election season offers a chance to vote for candidates who will better reflect our diversity as a state and our values. It gives us a chance to say yes to prosperity and security for all of our communities; to say yes to rights for women, LGBTQ residents, immigrants, people of color and workers; and to say yes to a more inclusive Maryland.

If you have not yet voted, make your plan to vote by mail, or to vote in person during early voting starting Thursday and running until Thursday, Nov.3, or in person on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

It’s crunch time for reaching and galvanizing voters. Join our amazing team to make calls or knock doors with us.  

Sign up to canvass with us! 

Click here to join our phone banking efforts! 

Donate to support our electoral efforts here

Thank you for helping us build a statewide base of electoral organizing power in 2022 and beyond. Read on for more important election information and updates on our issue campaigns and local organizing.

In solidarity,

The Progressive Maryland Team