Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.) is the 14th Democrat in the House of Representatives who won’t be running for re-election after announcing on Monday a bid to succeed Maryland’s attorney general.
“We’ve made progress over the years, but too many barriers exist for too many Marylanders, from health care and housing to the environment and education, to workplaces, policing and the criminal justice system,” Brown, 59, said in his campaign announcement video. “I’m running for attorney general to dismantle those barriers.”
Maryland’s current attorney general, Democrat Brian Frosh, is retiring in 2022.
Brown represents Maryland’s 4th Congressional District, which is mainly made up of portions of Prince George’s County. He has represented the district since 2017. He easily won re-election in 2020 with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
Brown has had a long career in politics. He was a member of Maryland’s General Assembly before serving at Maryland’s lieutenant governor. He launched a gubernatorial bid that failed before winning his first House race.
Glenn Ivey, a Democrat and former Prince George’s County prosecutor, is planning to run for the seat Brown is leaving.
Brown is the 14th Democrat congressmember to announce they’re not running for another term.
Republicans say the wave signals how the 2022 midterms will break.
“Anthony Brown made the smart decision to seek a different office because House Democrats are going to lose their majority,” Mike Berg, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement.
Democrats currently hold 220 seats. Republicans have 212.
House seats are up for election every two years.
Republicans flipped a net of approximately 15 seats in the 2020 elections in the lower chamber. But they failed to gain the majority and lost the Senate. Democrats enjoy a one-vote majority in the 50-50 Senate because Vice President Kamala Harris can cast tiebreaking votes in her role as president of the upper chamber.
