In honor of Women’s History Month, let’s take a look at the outstanding women who are now taking elective office in Maryland. When it comes to electing women to political office, the Free State has had a less than progressive record. Until last November, Maryland has never had a female comptroller, and it still has never had a female governor or attorney general. Currently there are no women in Maryland’s congressional delegation.
However, a number of qualified and experienced women were elected and are hoping that they can play a role in “changing the tide” to see more women succeed in elective office in the not-too-distant future. Here are a few of these leaders:
Aruna Miller, Lieutenant Governor
Aruna Miller, the running mate of gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore, was elected lieutenant governor of Maryland when the Moore-Miller ticket won the general election last November. Miller holds the distinction of being the first South Asian woman elected lieutenant governor in the United States as well as the first Asian American lieutenant governor and the first immigrant to hold statewide office in Maryland. A transportation engineer, she worked for more than 25-years in Montgomery County. She previously served two terms in the House of Delegates, representing District 15, as the first Indian-American woman in the Maryland legislature. Miller and her college sweetheart, David Miller, have three adult daughters.
Brooke Lierman, Attorney, Maryland Comptroller
Brooke Lierman, a civil rights attorney, is Maryland’s first female comptroller and is the first woman independently-elected to state office in Maryland without being connected to a male candidate. As a delegate she served on several committees, including the Appropriations Committee and on the Environment and Transportation Committee. As the state’s chief financial officer, Lierman has vowed to work to help Maryland residents achieve financial resilience and advance policy priorities such as climate sustainability. She is married and the mother of two young children, and lives in the Fells Point area of Baltimore.
Melony Ghee Griffith, Member of the Maryland Senate
Melony G. Griffith currently represents District 25, Prince George's County, in the Maryland State Senate. In 2020, Senator Griffith become the first African-American woman elected as President Pro Tempore for the Maryland Senate. In this role, Griffith serves as the leader of the Senate chamber in the absence of Senate President Bill Ferguson. In addition to serving as President Pro Tempore, Senator Griffith also serves as the Chair of the Budget and Taxation Committee’s Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. She is a valued member of the Maryland Senate senior leadership team, providing input and guidance on major policy initiatives.
April Fleming Miller, Member of the Maryland House of Delegates
April Fleming Miller represents District 4 in Frederick County. An optometrist, Miller served two terms on the Frederick County Board of Education. She has said that direction of education is one of the biggest concerns in Frederick and she hopes to bring her experience on the board of education to work with other delegates in considering the impact on students and teachers. She would like the General Assembly to pause implementing the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a comprehensive K-12 education reform bill passed in 2021, a plan she believes because it was pre-COVID doesn’t reflect the changes in education in the past several years. As a Republican she is in the minority in Annapolis, but believes that there is common ground with both Republicans and Democrats and there is much they can accomplish together.
Locally, the recent election was historic for the Montgomery County Council. The county council, which plays a key role in planning and development decisions, now has six new members who are all women and this is the first time in its history that the council will be governed by a female majority. This is also the first time that the body is expanding from nine to 11 members.
Marilyn Balcombe, PhD, Member of the Montgomery County Council
Marilyn Balcombe won election to represent District 2 on the County Council. Her years of experience as a community activist in upper Montgomery County included a stint as the President and CEO of the Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce, service to the Montgomery County Small Business Recovery Workgroup and service to the Upcounty COVID Community Committee. A strong advocate for building the Germantown Library and Town Center Park, she also served as the first executive director of Germantown's BlackRock Center for the Arts. She earned a degree in accounting and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology. She and husband Jonathan are parents to daughter Emily, a graduate of Northwest High School in Germantown.
Laurie-Anne Sayles, Member of the Montgomery County Council
Laurie-Anne Sayles is a first-generation Jamaican-American. Born and raised in Maryland she is the first person of color elected to the Gaithersburg City Council. She ran successfully for an at-large seat on the Montgomery County Council on what she calls a "S.M.A.R.T." platform, an acronym for a policy of strengthening learning for students, creating more affordable housing, advancing local food production, revitalizing the economy, and finding better solutions for transportation. As a representative of northern Montgomery County she represents a change in leadership from the previous council, where at-large delegates were always from the down county area. As a young, single mother to her daughter, Sayles managed to graduate from high school, college and earn a master's degree in public administration.
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Changing the tide to see more women succeed in elective office in Maryland.
