In 43 Days We Can Send A Fighting Progressive To Congress... Or Settle For A Garden Variety Democrat

Maryland's 7th congressional district-- plus the suburbs and small towns to the west and to the north of the city including Ellicott City, Cooksville and Columbia-- is so blue (D+26) that the election that matters is not in November but 43 days from today-- primary day in Maryland. Whichever Democrat wins on that day, will be the next Congress member. The choice isn't between a Democrat and a Republican. The choice is between any number of run of the mill corporate careerist Democrats or a real live, bold progressive.

Among the three top contenders, there are 2 establishment Democrats, Kwesi Mfume and Maya Cummings and one-rarin' to go progressive, Jill Carter, who Blue America is endorsing today. Jill is a state senator and a 2016 Bernie delegate. Please take a look at the endorsement video former NAACP president Ben Jealous cut for her last week:





Jill's platform is entirely oriented towards working families (backing positions like Medicare-for-All, the Green New Deal and free state colleges) and in the state Senate, she has a reputation as a strong independent voice-- something that scares establishment organizations like the DCCC-- and is known as the "People's Champion." Our Revolution Maryland has also endorsed her.

Jill's dad, Walter P. Carter, a legendary Baltimore civil rights activist, committed himself completely to the movement and raised Jill with a social consciousness. "When I was seven years old," he told me recently, "he abruptly died, while giving a speech to the Black United Front, having just won a legal battle against Baltimore’s most notorious slumlord, Morris Goldseker. I spent much of my younger life distraught over his death and always in search of him. He, and Parren J. Mitchell, the first black congressman to represent the district, are two of the greatest men I’ve ever known. They courageously, and selflessly, fought for equality of opportunity for black people, wanting nothing for themselves."

Jill, then an attorney, was one of the first black women elected to the Maryland legislature. "During that time,' she said, "Baltimore’s mayor was executing a policy of mass arrests that violated our constitutional and human rights. I fought against the policy of en masse illegal arrests. The entire Democrat establishment chose to ignore the hard data and cry of the people in favor of defending the then mayor. I was labeled a renegade and treated as a pariah. I became disenchanted with the Democratic leadership and party. Their contempt for poor people, black people, and for me, was palpable. For three and a half terms, I was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates always as the highest vote getter of all delegates in the city. I relentlessly advocated for criminal justice reform, juvenile justice reform, law enforcement reform, lead paint poison prevention and justice for victims, and economic justice. The mayor became the governor and I was marginalized as a legislator. It was then that I realized I no longer had to search for my father because he lived within me."

In 2016, Jill resigned from the House of Delegates to take a job as Baltimore City Director of Civil Rights and Wage Enforcement and then, in 2019 was elected to the state Senate. "I sponsored a bill that exposed the self-dealing and political corruption of members of the University of Maryland Medical System board," she told us. "Nine of the members were awarding multi-million dollar contracts to themselves and the board purchased $500,000 books from the mayor, also a board member, some of which had not yet been printed. Fallout from the legislation caused the entire board of directors to be removed or resign, the president stepped down and the mayor resigned from office. For the first time in my political career, I was allowed to function as a legislator without legislative leaders seeking to malign me.

Since she had been a Bernie delegate in 2016, I asked her how she came to endorse Marianne Williamson in 2019. She told me she had read a number of Marianne's books and then listened to numerous lectures. "I also often rely upon her guided meditation to ground myself. I believe in her authenticity. She has written and talked about a politics of love. Put simply, Marianne operates on a higher plane that most people and all politicians. With her as the moral leader of the country, I believe our individual and collective energy would be elevated. She is a deep thinker who started her campaign saying, 'Why should I get shallow for you. It’s time for you to get deep with me' and 'it’s time for the people to step in.'  That resonated with me because campaign 'experts' encourage candidates to synthesize complex issues into sound bytes. Marianne understands that we need, not only a deeper conversation, but that issues and plans mean nothing without the ability reaching into people’s hearts. She understands the interconnectedness between environment and health, and that we have a system of sick care not healthcare. She also understands that affirmative action programs are inadequate to close the racial divide and heal America without acknowledging the root cause of the divide which is America’s original sin of slavery followed by legal discrimination. While I love Bernie and believe we need a political revolution, Marianne championed a political and societal evolution."