Councilmember Will Jawando to Run for U.S. Senate

Councilmember Will Jawando announced today that he is launching a campaign for the U.S. Senate. Yesterday, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, Maryland’s senior senator and Chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, announced that he would not seek re-election at the end of his current term. Statement below courtesy of @willjawando on Twitter:

I don’t accept that one must suffer for another to gain. There’s more than enough for us all, and every American has the right to thrive. I’ve spent the last five years on the Montgomery County Council dismantling the economic and racial barriers that keep too many down.

In middle school, my family went from renting in a working-class neighborhood in Montgomery County to buying a home in Prince George’s County. Each day after school when my classmates headed home or to the basketball courts, I went to my mother’s work in downtown Silver Spring.

Silver Spring, where I spent my afternoons growing up, 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.”

Because I spent my afternoons in a “1% area” for Black boys, I had the chance to go to college, work for President Obama, and now represent over 1 million Marylanders on the Montgomery County Council.
I have a blessed life. My friends say they’re proud of me for “making it.” 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.

Many of the kids I played basketball with weren’t recruited by colleges, but by gangs. I’ve seen the lives and potential of my friends gunned down in our streets. Many still can’t find good jobs and affordable housing.
I will not sit by and accept that for some people to get ahead, everyone else has to be left behind. It’s time for D.C. to learn that, too.

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. pic.twitter.com/hVd5LgB6ub

— Will Jawando (@willjawando) May 2, 2023