The last few posts here have been very focused around the Maryland Green Party officer and bylaws elections. I am happy to say everything and everybody I was advocating for won, and the things I was against lost. I will do some follow up on that soon.
More broadly, I have been very focused on the internal working of my state and local Green Party over the last several or many years. Starting in July I will be shifting my focus to my 2026 Green Party campaign for Governor of Maryland.
I think in the last two years both the state and the local party have really pushed hard to enhance democratic values, create new pathways for member involvement, and get clear on core functions.
I am especially thrilled that after years of struggle over how to regulate the conduct of people in positions of power in the state party, Mary Rooker and Dana Polson were able to put together a code of conduct that is enshrined in the bylaws and passed convincingly. I am even more thrilled that they managed to do so in a way that sets clear expectations for how people in positions of responsibility act AND preserves the right of each individual to public and private dissent. This is a big deal and will help the party grow.
Starting in July It is my intention to step away from day to day Maryland Green Party work I have been engaged in for nearly 7 years. I also intend to begin to wind down my Baltimore City Green Party work toward the end of the year. I will help out where I can, and I will use my rights as a member to propose platform amendments, bylaws etc. but I will be stepping away from the state party listservs and attending meetings as a member and a candidate.
I will continue to serve on the ballot access committee in Maryland (and perhaps at the national level) and I will be happy to help out with things I can directly help with.
Turning to my campaign, over the next 18 months I plan on reaching out to every Green in the State and everyone who has been a Green in the last 5 years and no longer is. I want to know why they joined, what they want from the party, what issues are most important to them and if they are gone, why they left. For too long our party leaders and statewide candidates have been detached from our natural base of registered voters, and I aim to change that .
I will be looking for ways to plug any interested person I meet into Green Party activity either formally at the state and local level, or informally as part of an emerging ecosystem of Greens who operate outside of the central committees. A big focus of this will be identifying and mobilizing volunteers for the Maryland Green Party ballot access efforts for 2024. Beyond that we will be looking for candidates for green party committees, party leadership positions, and public office in 2024 and 2026.
I am really excited to get to focus on this part of the work as we lead up to 2025!
I have identified a campaign manager for this building phase of the campaign and have begun to assemble a great team of people so that in 2025 we can hit the ground running. Regardless of the outcome of the election, it is my goal to build the party, secure public financing, develop a Green political program for Maryland, and secure our ballot access for 2028.
I am excited about the next phases of growth for the Maryland Green Party and the Baltimore City Green Party and I am excited to devote the majority of my Green Party time to my campaign.
If you want to get engaged with my campaign you can get more information at https://www.gogreen2026.com/
You can email me at andy@gogreen2026.com or you can follow me on Twitter @gogreen2026