Meet the Newest Members of the General Assembly
The General Assembly session opens Wednesday with one new senator and five new delegates serving in the 188-person legislature.
The senator is a member of the House who will be sworn in Wednesday. The new delegates have been in office anywhere from eight months to one day — but none was serving during the 2019 session.
Here is a look at the six newcomers — even though one isn’t so new:
Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County) was appointed to the Senate late last month by Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) to replace former Sen. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam (D), who resigned in November for health reasons. He will serve on the Judicial Proceedings Committee.
Incoming Sen. Charles E. Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County)
Sydnor, 45, was sworn into the House of Delegates in January 2015, where he served as a member of the Judiciary Committee. He was chairman on the subcommittee for criminal law and procedures, a member of the Legislative Black Caucus and also held the position of House majority deputy whip.
An attorney, Sydnor received his degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 2000. While in the House, Sydnor was a member of a number of criminal justice task forces, including the state commission on criminal sentencing policy and a commission to implement the use of police body cameras.
Sydnor has been a major player in the push for more funding for HBCUs, and is likely to keep that issue a priority during his first session in the Senate.
Del. Carl Jackson (D-Baltimore County)
Jackson, 35, works as an administrative analyst at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and served as a member of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Staff Senate from 2014-19. He says his priorities for the upcoming legislative session surround the implementation of career technical education programming in public schools and financial accountability.
Del. Catherine M. Forbes (D-Baltimore County) became a member of the House of Delegates in late October. She will serve on the House Appropriations Committee and is a member of Women Legislators of Maryland. She took the place of former Del. Stephen W. Lafferty (D), who resigned to take a job with the Baltimore County government.
Del. Catherine Forbes (D-Baltimore County)
Forbes, 54, works as a mediation coordinator and law clerk in the orphans’ court of Baltimore County and founded Towson Families United –– a volunteer-run organization whose mission is to fight overcrowding in Towson-area elementary schools.
This legislative session, she will be looking to help craft a funding formula for the Kirwan Commission, and looking to support the Built to Learn Act concerning facility construction in Maryland public schools.
Del. Nicole Williams (D-Prince George’s)
Williams ran unsuccessfully for a House seat in 2018. Her campaign platform centered around renewable energy, education reform, housing equity and accessible health care.
Sworn in on Tuesday afternoon, Del. Michael Griffith (R-Harford), 42, was appointed to the Maryland House of Delegates late last month by Hogan to replace former Del. Andrew Cassilly (R), who resigned to accept a position as an adviser to the governor.
Del. Michael Griffith (R-Harford)
Griffith served in the Marine Corps as a member of the military police from 1995 to 2002. He is currently the vice president and chief marketing officer of HPS Management –– a commercial real estate company in Havre de Grace. In late 2019 he was appointed to the chairman of the Republican Central Committee of Harford County.
Griffith will join the Judiciary Committee this session.
Still more new lawmakers are on the way. There are currently three vacancies in the legislature — a state Senate seat created by the resignation of former Sen. Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), a House seat created by the resignation of former Del. Cheryl D. Glenn (D-Baltimore City), and the vacancy created when Sydnor was elevated to the Senate.
Dels. Shelly L. Hettleman (D-Baltimore County) and Jon S. Cardin (D-Baltimore County) have applied to replace Zirkin in the Senate. If one of them gets the appointment, that will create yet another vacancy in the House.
Hannah Gaskill
Reporter
Hannah Gaskill was a reporter for Maryland Matters. She left the publication in May 2022. Gaskill received her master’s of journalism degree in December 2019 from the University of Maryland. She previously worked on the print layout design team at The Diamondback, reported on criminal justice in Maryland for Capital News Service and served as a production assistant for The Confluence — the daily news magazine on 90.5 WESA, Pittsburgh’s NPR member station. Gaskill has had bylines in The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune, among other publications. Before pursuing journalism, she received her bachelor’s of fine art degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 2016. She grew up in Ocean City.
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