U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) of Takoma Park was the first Marylander to speak on the convention floor Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
A constitutional law professor, the manager of former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial and a member of the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection, Raskin recalled the terror of the Capitol riot and slung insults about the Republicans’ disdain for democracy.
“Thank you for the beautiful weather, Chicago,” Raskin said at the top of his speech. “It’s been a little difficult on Capitol Hill, where it’s not just the heat, it’s the stupidity.”
Raskin decried “the banana Republicans who have turned Lincoln’s party into a dangerous cult of personality.” He recalled the chants of Jan. 6 insurrectionists: “Hang Mike Pence!”
“Someone should have told Donald Trump that the president’s job under Article 2 of the Constitution is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not that the vice president is executed,” Raskin said. He joked that U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s current running mate, only got his job because the previous occupant, Pence, didn’t want it.
“Do you (Vance) understand why there was a sudden opening for vice president on the GOP ticket?” Raskin said. “They tried to kill your predecessor.”
Raskin reminded the crowd how courts throughout the country rejected Trump’s false claims in 2020 that the election had been stolen, but also rapped the current Supreme Court and exhorted Democrats to action.
“Let’s make it a landslide so big that Donald Trump and his kangaroo court Supreme Court justices cannot even try to steal it,” he said, to thunderous applause.
“Congressman Raskin’s courageous voice and bold defense of our democracy continues to make Marylanders proud,” Maryland Democratic Party Chair Ken Ulman said later.
Historic gathering for Alsobrooks
In the history of this republic, three Black women have served in the U.S. Senate.
One of them is a little busy right now: Kamala Harris.
But the other two, Sen. LaPhonza Butler (D-Calif.) and former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.), are scheduled to appear Tuesday at a fundraiser benefiting two women who are vying to join their very exclusive club next January: U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.
Perhaps fittingly, the historical gathering is set to take place at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center on this city’s South Side.
Both Alsobrooks and Blunt Rochester are bidding to replace veteran lawmakers whose political careers span decades—Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who has spent 18 years in the Senate and first won political office in 1966, and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who has spent 24 years in the Senate and first won political office in 1976.
Although she is not yet the Democratic nominee—the Delaware primary doesn’t take place until Sept. 10—Blunt Rochester is heavily favored to win the Delaware seat. Alsobrooks is considered the favorite in Maryland for now, but faces a tough battle against former Gov. Larry Hogan (R).
Moseley Braun was elected to the Senate in an upset in 1992, but she lost her seat six years later. Democrats won it back in 2004 with a fellow named Barack Obama. Butler, a top policy adviser to Harris’ previous presidential campaign, was appointed to her Senate seat last year, following the death of trailblazing California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D), and will finish up her term in January.
Tuesday’s event was organized by a campaign committee known as the Alsobrooks Blunt Rochester Victory Fund, but it’s a little more complicated than that.
According to the invitation, the proceeds will be split, depending on the size and source of contributions, in a complicated formula that’s explained in the fine print, between the two campaigns and the federal campaign accounts of the Maryland Democratic Party and the Delaware Democratic Party. Blunt Rochester’s proceeds will go first toward her primary campaign and then to the general election.
Phew!
Hogan, meanwhile, came out with three 30-second TV ads Monday. Each touts Hogan’s independence from partisan dogma and spotlights a professional woman (two are Democrats and one is independent) who is voting for Hogan.
“As a welder, I understand heat and pressure,” says Kay Williams in one of the ads. “Larry Hogan understands heat and pressure.”
“He has a common sense ideology,” says nurse Roxanne Thomas in the second ad.
“Hogan was for me the definition of solutions without judgment,” Pam Curtis, a self-described “proud Democrat,” says in the third ad.
But Democrats continue to pound away at Hogan’s preferred narrative that he will be an independent operator in the Senate. That counter-argument was repeated at the Maryland convention delegation’s breakfast Monday morning by none other than U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
One of the charms of the hotel where the Maryland Democrats are staying and meeting is that nine other state delegations are also staying there, and the delegations are gathering in ballrooms that are close to each other. Schumer was drawn into the Maryland breakfast on his way to the Empire State meeting, after hearing whoops following Gov. Wes Moore’s rousing speech.
“Wait a minute, can I join this party?” Schumer said, as he approached the podium, to surprised cheers from the Marylanders.
“I want to make sure that we elect Angela Alsobrooks to the United States Senate,” he began. “Guess who Gov. Hogan will vote for for majority leader. It ain’t Chuck Schumer.
“Angela will do such a great, great job,” Schumer continued. “You have a great state, with Angela Alsobrooks in the U.S. Senate, with Chuck Schumer staying as majority leader, with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the White House.”
Later, Maryland Democratic Chair Ken Ulman noted that under Schumer’s leadership, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee “has been a tremendous partner to the Maryland coordinated campaign. He is really focused on Maryland.”
Also from the podium at Monday’s delegation meeting, Alsobrooks was endorsed by Ryan Boyer, the business manager of the Metropolitan Area of Philadelphia/Baltimore/Washington Laborers’ District Council, the regional affiliate of the Laborers International Union of North America. The union often endorses Democrats — but it did back Hogan when he was seeking a second term as governor in 2018.
“Angela Alsobrooks made history as the first Black women to be elected Prince George’s County executive,” Boyer said. “With our endorsement, we are going to work with her to not only make history again, but make a difference for the working men and women of Maryland.”
Perhaps just as notably, Boyer expressed admiration for Maryland first lady Dawn Moore in a funny way, with a back-handed compliment for her husband.
“I knew he was very intelligent,” Boyer said. “He’s a Rhodes Scholar. But I wasn’t sure until I met the first lady. He’s really a genius!”
Gov. Moore, Ulman, Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D) and U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve in a presidential cabinet, were the other principal speakers at Monday’s delegation breakfast.
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