Political Notes: Jones Endorses Brown, Mikulski to be Honored in Capitol

Maryland House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) announced her endorsement of Congressman Anthony G. Brown (D) for Maryland attorney general Wednesday afternoon.

Jones, who is the first woman and first Black speaker in Maryland history, has been a delegate since 1997. She said in a statement that Brown would be a good partner for legislators if he’s elected.

“The General Assembly has improved the lives of working families and defended the rights of all Marylanders. To maintain that progress, we need an Attorney General who will continue to be an effective partner in our efforts to enact real change. Anthony Brown will be that Attorney General for our state,” Jones said in a written statement.

She also praised Brown’s track record in public service.

“He served with integrity in the military, the Maryland House of Delegates, as Lieutenant Governor, and as a member of Congress,” Jones said. “He has the experience needed to enforce our laws and champion reform for all Marylanders.”

In a University of Baltimore/Baltimore Sun poll released earlier this week, Brown led in the Democratic primary against retired Baltimore City District Court Judge Katie Curran O’Malley 42% to 29% among likely Democratic voters. Twenty-seven percent of those polled between May 27 and June 2 were undecided.

The poll’s margin of error was 4.1 points.

To see a full list of endorsements in the race, click here.

A dedicated space

U.S. senators are scheduled to gather this evening to dedicate two rooms at the U.S. Capitol to trailblazing women in the Senate, including Maryland’s longest-serving senator in history, Barbara Mikulski, who retired in 2017.

The dedication comes after the Senate passed a resolution in 2020 to honor Mikulski and the late Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine), who became the first woman to serve in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in 1949.

S-115, a meeting room that’s the site of frequent press conferences and policy events, will be renamed the U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski Room.

Room S-124 will be dedicated in honor of Chase Smith.

Out of more than 540 rooms in the Capitol, these are the first two rooms to be named in honor of women senators, lawmakers have said.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) led the effort to pass the resolution in 2020.

The resolution, which passed the Senate unanimously, recognized Mikulski as the “Dean of the Women Senators” and credited her for fostering bipartisan cooperation and friendship among the women of the Senate.

Mikulski, by the way, endorsed O’Malley in the attorney general’s race. The full list of endorsements, again, is here.

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