U.S. Government: Elected Officials

  • U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Landover)

    Congressman Glenn Ivey is an attorney who served on Capitol Hill as chief counsel to the Senate Majority Leader, as counsel to Senator Paul Sarbanes during the Whitewater investigations, Chief Majority Counsel to the Senate Banking Committee, and on the staff of Rep. John Conyers (D-MI). He also worked for U.S. Attorney Eric Holder as an assistant U. S. Attorney, and as chair of Maryland’s Public Service Commission. He was twice elected as State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County where he worked with the Obama Administration to cut crime.

    Congressman Ivey established Ivey & Levetown in 2020, and recently represented a Lafayette Square protestor, arguing that the facial recognition software used to identify him compounds discrimination against dark-skinned people. The Department of Justice threw out the case. As chair of the County Executive Angela Alsobrooks’ Police Reform Taskforce in 2020 Ivey led the committee that examined the police department’s internal policies.

    Ivey grew up in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, where the schools of his hometown were still segregated when he started attending. But he watched his mother, a librarian, desegregate four different white schools, as well as his father, who worked for a federal War on Poverty agency that helped unemployed workers in eastern North Carolina get job training and find jobs.

    It was then Ivey saw the power of public service and the impact that advocates can have on social justice. And ever since, he has been a tireless fighter for our community. As Prince George’s County State’s Attorney, he created a first-of-its-kind Domestic Violence Prosecution Unit and pushed for stronger witness intimidation penalties. When the real estate market went south, he established an award-winning mortgage fraud unit that stood up for homeowners.

    Ivey resides in Prince George’s County with his wife, Jolene, a County Councilmember. He has six kids, one daughter, and five sons. His son, Julian, serves as a Delegate for District 47A in the Maryland House of Delegates. Ivey is a graduate of Princeton University (A.B. 1983) and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1986).

  • U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Athens)

    Congressman Andrew Clyde is a combat veteran, small business owner, and a proud Georgian. After earning his commission from the University of Notre Dame, he served as an U.S. Navy officer for 28 years, which included three combat deployments to Kuwait and Iraq. After receiving an honorable discharge, Congressman Clyde made his home in Athens, Georgia and earned a master’s degree in Corporate Finance and Entrepreneurship from the University of Georgia. He established Clyde Armory in 1991 and grew the company into a nationwide firearms business which currently operates two brick-and-mortar locations in Georgia. Congressman Clyde was first elected to serve Georgia’s Ninth Congressional District in the House of Representatives in November 2020. He currently serves on the House Appropriations Committee. The Congressman and his wife, Jennifer, are residents of Jackson County.

  • Former Rep. David Trone (R-Md.)

    Congressman David Trone was elected in 2018 to serve Maryland’s Sixth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Montgomery, Frederick, Garrett, Allegany, and Washington Counties. David serves on the House Appropriations Committee, Budget Committee, and the Joint Economic Committee, where he is fighting to make progress on issues that matter to Marylanders, including the opioid epidemic, criminal justice reform, mental health, and funding for medical research.

    David grew up on a chicken and hog farm with his mother, a grade school teacher, and his father, a WWII veteran and member of the U.S. Army Reserves. Though the family lost the farm to bankruptcy, David was given an opportunity through education. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Furman University and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Wharton School of Business by taking out student loans.

    It was in graduate school that he met his wife, June, and opened his first store selling soda and beer. Through a lot of hard work and good fortune, that single store grew into a business with more than 200 stores in over 25 states and 10,000 employees nationwide – 800 of whom are in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is this expertise in business and management that David brings to his time in Congress.

    David lives in Montgomery County with his wife June. They have four children: Michelle, Julie, Natalie, and Rob, and two dogs: Lyndon and Hubert.

  • U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)

    Elected to the United States Senate by the people of Maryland in November 2016, Chris Van Hollen is committed to fighting every day to ensure that our state and our country live up to their full promise of equal rights, equal justice, and equal opportunity.

    Senator Van Hollen believes that every child deserves the opportunity to pursue their dreams and benefit from a quality education, and that anyone willing to work hard should be able to find a good job. That’s why his top priorities include creating more and better jobs, strengthening small businesses, and increasing educational and job training opportunities for individuals of all ages and in every community.

    Senator Van Hollen started his time in public service as a member of the Maryland State Legislature, where he became known as a tenacious advocate for everyday Marylanders and someone who was unafraid to take on powerful special interests on behalf of working people. In 2002, he was elected to represent Maryland’s 8th Congressional District. In the House of Representatives, he served as a member of the Democratic leadership and was elected by his colleagues to be the Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee and protect vital interests like Social Security and Medicare.

    A tireless fighter for the people of Maryland, Senator Van Hollen has also become known for working hard to find common sense solutions to difficult national issues. In January 2015, he released a comprehensive plan to address the problem of growing inequality in America and provide a blueprint for building an economy that works for everyone, a goal that he will continue to fight for in the U.S. Senate.

    Senator Van Hollen is proud to have worked successfully with members of both parties to pass bipartisan legislation whenever possible on issues of common concern, including expanding medical research, protecting the Chesapeake Bay, fighting childhood cancer, and passing the ABLE Act to assist families with children with disabilities.

    Chris Van Hollen is a graduate of Swarthmore College, the John F. Kennedy School of Public Policy at Harvard University, and Georgetown University Law Center where he attended night school. He and his wife, Katherine Wilkens, are the proud parents of three children, Anna, Nicholas, and Alexander.

  • Former Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.)

    Senator Cardin believes access to quality, affordable health care should be a right and not a privilege, especially during a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. He continues to be a strong supporter of the Affordable Care Act and has advocated for the addition of a public option for coverage. He led the fight for the Patients’ Bill of Rights and, because of his efforts, the law ensures that individuals in private health insurance plans have the right to choose their primary care provider, women have direct access to an ob/gyn, and patients with medical emergencies are guaranteed coverage for necessary ER visits. He was responsible for the elevation of the National Institute for Minority Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health and has been a strong supporter of increases in funding for federally qualified health care centers and health information technology. Senator Cardin continues to be a leading champion for increased medical research funding for Maryland’s world-class universities, NIH, and our State’s cutting edge biotech industry.
    One of Senator Cardin’s proudest accomplishments was leading the fight to guarantee access to dental care for children in the Children’s Health Insurance Program, following the tragic loss of a 12-year-old Prince George’s County boy who died after complications that followed an untreated tooth infection. He continues to fight for dental coverage for adults and older Americans.

    Senator Cardin has a deep interest in foreign affairs and has worked across party lines to further our national security and protect universal human rights. He has fought to ensure that anti-corruption, transparency and respect for human rights are integrated into our foreign policy. He also has worked to ensure gender equity in national security programs and policies. He has been a Commissioner on the U.S. Helsinki Commission since 1993, serving as Chairman of the Commission in the current 117th, as well as the 113th and 111th Congresses. Since 2015, he has served as the Special Representative on Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Intolerance for the 57-nation Organization Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly. In the current Congress, Senator Cardin is also Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on State Department and USAID Management, International Operations, and Bilateral International Development. He previously has served as the Ranking Member of the SFRC East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cybersecurity Policy Subcommittee, and he is the former Chairman of the International Development and Foreign Assistance Subcommittee.

    Serving as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee during his first four years in the Senate, Senator Cardin also developed a reputation for defending civil rights at home and has sought to find a balance between protection of civil liberties and national security. He is the lead sponsor of legislation to prohibit racial and religious profiling by all levels of law enforcement, restore voting rights for former felons, and remove the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. He has been a proud cosponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

    From 1987-2006, Ben Cardin represented Maryland’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and served for 17 years on the Ways & Means Committee. He was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1967-1986. During his time as Speaker from 1979-1986, he reformed Maryland’s property tax system, the school financing formula and the ethical standards for elected officials.

    A 1967 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law (1st in his class), he earned his B.A. degree in 1964 from the University of Pittsburgh (cum laude). He is a member of the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors, the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies’ National Advisory Board and the St. Mary’s College Advisory Board, Center for Study of Democracy.
    Senator Cardin is married to Myrna Edelman Cardin and his daughter Deborah and son-in-law Jonathan Willis have two daughters, Madeline and Julia.

  • U.S. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Cambridge)

    The son of immigrants who fled communist Eastern Europe immediately after World War II, Dr. Andy Harris was as a physician at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, a medical officer in the Naval Reserve, and a state senator before coming to Congress.

    Born in Brooklyn in 1957, he studied medicine at Hopkins, where he continued to practice as an anesthesiologist for nearly three decades. Andy specialized in obstetric anesthesiology.

    In 1988, Andy answered a recruitment call to fill a critical need for anesthesiologists in the Naval Reserve during the Reagan administration. He went on to establish and command The Johns Hopkins Medical Naval Reserve Unit. In 1990, his unit was called up to active duty in order to assist with Operation Desert Shield (and later Operation Desert Storm) at Bethesda Naval Hospital. Harris attained the rank of Commander (O-5) before leaving the Reserves after seventeen years.

    Unhappy with the status quo in Annapolis, Andy decided to take on the establishment and run for the Maryland State Senate in 1998, where he served for 12 years. Maryland’s First Congressional District first elected Andy to serve in the House of Representatives in 2010. He serves on the Committee on Appropriations and on the Agriculture Subcommittee and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee.

    Andy was married to his late wife, Cookie, for over 33 years, and he is the proud father of five children, stepfather of one, and grandfather to ten. Andy lives with his wife, Nicole, and their dog in Dorchester County. In his free time, he enjoys spending time on the Chesapeake Bay with his family and repairing old cars with his sons.

  • U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-White Plains)

    In the Fifth Congressional District, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer is a tireless fighter for economic development and a leader in creating jobs. He has helped create and save nearly 23,000 jobs by supporting federal facilities and associated businesses located in and around the Fifth District, including NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Patuxent River Naval Air Station, the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Indian Head, the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, the FDA at White Oak, and the future NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park.

    He also works hard to protect our natural resources. In addition to supporting every major piece of environmental legislation while in Congress, he has co-sponsored numerous bills to protect the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, including the “Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act.” He secured more than $10 million in the 1990s to respond to Pfiesteria and to study its effects on humans; helped secure more than $400 million in the 2008 Farm Bill to enable farmers to implement environmental best practices and reduce runoff into the Chesapeake Bay; and championed the efforts to replenish the declining oyster population of the Bay and to restore the Potomac, Patuxent and St. Mary’s rivers.

    Congressman Hoyer works to meet the transportation needs of his constituents by securing funding to maintain and improve local roads, commuter bus systems, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). He also works to keep local communities and the Washington region safe by fighting to fully fund Community Oriented Policing Services, the Assistance for Firefighters Grant Program, and upgrades for first responders’ communications systems.

    Congressman Hoyer is also dedicated to outstanding constituent service. At offices in Washington, D.C., Greenbelt, and Waldorf, he and his staff help constituents cut through red tape and solve problems related to passports, immigration, government services, and a host of other issues.