Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) Secretary Teresa Woorman will be sworn in Monday as the new District 16 delegate to the Maryland General Assembly, following her July appointment by the committee to fill a General Assembly delegate seat vacated by now-state Sen. Sara Love (D-Dist. 16).
Woorman confirmed in an email to MoCo360 Monday that she will be sworn in by Speaker of the House Adrienne Jones (D-Dist. 10), who represents Baltimore County. The ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. in the House chambers of the Maryland State House in Annapolis.
A spokesperson for Gov. Wes Moore (D) confirmed in an email to MoCo360 last week that the governor’s commission of Woorman had been submitted to the speaker’s office. According to the state constitution, the governor must make the appointment within 15 days of receiving the submission from the central committee. It is unclear when MCDCC submitted their nomination of Woorman.
One of nine candidates for the seat, Woorman, 32, won the nomination on July 11 after three rounds of voting by the 24-member central committee.
She has been a member of the MCDCC representing District 16 since April 2022, when she was selected by the committee to fill a departing member’s term. She was re-elected to the role by voters in July 2022 and elected secretary by the committee in December 2022.
The appointment process was not held without controversy. Diana Conway, another candidate for the position, came under a spotlight after a Maryland Matters article about a “whisper campaign” by an unknown individual that distributed 10-year old court documents about a DUI charge against Conway was published.
In 2014, Conway was charged with driving while intoxicated, two counts of assault and two counts of malicious destruction of property related to an incident at a Frederick County car dealership. She plead guilty.
Conway owned up to the offenses in an interview with Maryland Matters and said the incident is why she sought help for recovering from alcoholism and other mental health issues.
Woorman will serve the rest of Love’s unexpired term ending in January 2027 and will be required to resign from the central committee to assume the seat in the General Assembly.
In an interview with MoCo360 after winning the nomination, Woorman said she wants to focus on assessing and improving constituent services and hopes that she will be placed on the House Health and Government Operations Committee.
Woorman has worked as a public information officer for the Montgomery County government since 2023, according to her resume. She previously served as County Executive Marc Elrich’s campaign manager and worked for several Maryland General Assembly members. She was elected in the May 2024 primary election to serve as a delegate later this month at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Love was nominated for the Senate seat by the MCDCC on June 3 and sworn in on June 14, filling a vacancy created by the departure of Sen. Ariana Kelly (D-Dist. 16). Kelly announced in March that she would be leaving the General Assembly to become executive director of the Maryland Commission for Women. Her resignation from the Senate was effective May 5.
Love’s departure from the House left a vacancy to be filled. The state constitution requires the political party of the lawmaker vacating a seat to nominate a person to fill the vacancy within 30 days after it occurs and to submit the nominee’s name to the governor.
District 16, which includes most of the Bethesda and North Bethesda area, is also represented by Democratic Dels. Marc Korman and Sarah Wolek.
While constitutional, the appointment process has been criticized by some state legislators and good-governance advocates as undemocratic because it offers entry into office without the months of fund-raising, coalition building, campaigning or scrutiny of a traditional electoral effort. Several measures that would have reformed the process were introduced during this year’s General Assembly session, but most of them didn’t make it out of committee.
During the appointment process, Woorman chose to recuse herself from voting since she was running. However, the state constitution does not require central committee members running to fill a vacancy to recuse themselves from participating in the voting process.