Comptroller Peter Franchot became the latest candidate for Governor to Announce a running mate:
The rollout today got overshadowed later in the day by the announcements of tax liens against Anderson-Walker and her husband, Democratic Delegate Jay Walker.
Anderson-Walker is the 6th announced running mate, joining:
Katie Lee (Kyle Sefcik, I)
Christina Logansmith (David Lashar, L)
Minh Thanh Luong (Joe Werner, R)
Nancy Navarro (Rushern Baker, D)
Gordanna Schiffanelli (Dan Cox, R)
L-R: Anderson-Walker, Navarro, Schiffanelli, and Logansmith
The selection of Navarro and Walker-Anderson are interesting since Democratic candidates have already exceeded the number of elected officials who selected as #2’s back in 2018. Only one elected official, then Baltimore City Councilman Brandon Scott, was selected as a running mate and even he was the candidate for a non-elected gubernatorial candidate.
For the Democrats at least, we aren’t asking who are these people like we did back in the 2018 election.
It’s interesting though to see that candidates are selecting running mates this early and that two of them, to date are elected officials. Navarro’s selection was obvious, as she was term-limited on the Montgomery County Council. Anderson-Walker is a more interesting choice since she only served one term on the Prince George’s County Council, though with the redistricting situation with their County Council seats it might have been a good time to try and move up.
All five announced running mates so far are women, an unsurprising development considering that presumptive Republican nominee Kelly Schulz is the only woman running for Governor.
For some candidates, it will be interesting to see who they select as their running mates. Tom Perez, Doug Gansler, Wes Moore, and John King will likely get more prominent running mates than the other remaining candidates.
Jon Baron, Mike Rosenbaum, Ashwani Jain and Robin Ficker will probably take the first person who says yes.
At some point, some prominent candidate will create a ticket from both the Baltimore and Washington area, as opposed to the two Prince Georges and Montgomery County combinations Democrats have so far.
Though I still believe the selection process should be reformed, it will be interesting to see if the early selections continue and whether or not they continue to be those with government experience.