Making Choices and Honoring Voices in Maryland’s Senate Race

It is five twenty six and I’m driving someone to the airport in less than an hour. So, I’ll make this quick.

This summer I had an opportunity to attend a meet and greet event for Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who is running for the Senate seat which will open when Benjamin Cardin retires. I found her to be experienced, confident, capable, and more than ready to take on the responsibilities of the job. In addition, I’ve been pretty vocal on the blog that Maryland needs more women, especially Black women, in positions of elected leadership.

Why? Because representation matters. Different perspectives matter. When voices are missing then all too often needs and aspirations are overlooked, or worse - - seen and yet still neglected.

I left the event feeling that I’d be happy to support Ms. Alsobrooks.

And yet.

I haven’t said much about this publicly, but I came to know one of the other candidates several years ago, when I taught one of Will Jawando’s children. You don’t evaluate someone as a political candidate if you know them as a school parent. That’s not what that relationship is about.

You see parents mostly at morning drop off, conference days, special school events. The Jawandos are warm and loving. They are supportive parents and place a high value on education and social emotional development. They participated joyfully in the school lives of their children.

All of this is to say that over time I came to like and respect Will Jawando. I began to take an interest in his work on the County Council in Montgomery County. The issues he championed were important ones, and he sometimes took a lot of flak for speaking out. In my opinion, Mr. Jawando is one of the good guys.

His recent statement on the bloodbath in the Middle East was by far the most thoughtful and compassionate I have seen. It will stay will me for a long time.

Four days ago Jawando dropped out of the Senate race and, not long after, publicly endorsed Angela Alsobrooks. That can’t be an easy thing to do. It has got to be excruciating on any number of fronts. His grace in making the transition from a passionate and energized candidate to that endorsement stage in Baltimore speaks volumes about who he is.

Image from Will Jawando’s social media

I’m still happy to support Ms. Alsobrooks. I think she is, by far, the best choice and will do an excellent job representing Maryland in Washington.

But don’t forget Will Jawando. I’m convinced there’s more to his story, more good work in his future, and I’ll be keeping an eye out to see what he does next.

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