Democrat Will Jawando, A Montgomery County Council Member, Will Run For U.S. Senate

SILVER SPRING, MD — The first Democrat to announce a bid for retiring Sen. Ben Cardin's U.S. Senate seat is Will Jawando, a Montgomery County Council member.

Cardin, 79, said Monday that he will not run for re-election in 2024 after more than 50 years serving in public office at the local, state and federal level.

Jawando, who was first elected to an at-large seat on the Montgomery County Council in 2018, made the announcement in a video posted on Twitter on Tuesday morning. (Watch the announcement video at the bottom of this story.)

In the video, Jawando said, "There’s a Big Lie in America — and it’s not about the 2020 election. It’s the idea that for some to get ahead, others have to be left behind. Today, I’m launching a campaign for U.S. Senate because we need more progressive champions to squash the Big Lie and fight for you."

Jawando, who grew up in Silver Spring, said his success as a Black man shouldn't be an anomaly. His neighborhood is what the Census calls a “1% area for Black boys — one of a handful of zip codes in the country where a Black boy is just as likely as a white boy to grow up to be successful," he said.

That gave Jawando the chance to go to college, work for President Barack Obama, and represent over 1 million Marylanders on the Montgomery County Council, he said.

"But I refuse to be 'here' while my friends are not. A story like mine shouldn’t be extraordinary — but until we address inequality, ensure justice, and lift each other up, my story will remain an outlier," the candidate said.

Related: Democrat Ben Cardin Won't Seek Re-Election To Senate In 2024

Maryland Matters reported other Democratic candidates for the Senate seat might include: Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-6th), who have already assembled political teams for Senate campaigns.

Others who are expected to consider the Senate race include U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Montgomery County (D-8th), Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. (D), U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-3rd) and Ben Jealous, the party’s 2018 gubernatorial nominee who is the executive director of the national Sierra Club.

Democrats outnumber Republican voterss 2-1 in Maryland, which has not elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 1980, WTOP reported.

Last year, GOP leadership aggressively tried to recruit then-Gov. Larry Hogan to run against Sen. Chris Van Hollen, but Hogan declined, saying he didn’t “aspire” to be a U.S. senator. The moderate governor, who was term limited, contemplated a run for president in 2024 but said in March he would not seek the nomination.

Related: Larry Hogan Rules Out Presidential Run In 2024