BALTIMORE — Front stoops in Baltimore’s historic south and southeast neighborhoods are usually decorated for spring with seasonal flowers, string lights and banners supporting the Baltimore Orioles.
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But in the last few months, residents have added new accessories to their front porches: lawn signs supporting the state Senate campaigns of Bill Ferguson, Maryland’s current Senate president, or opponent Bobby LaPin, the first Democratic primary challenger Ferguson has faced in 12 years.
“For prior elections I never even had my own campaign signs, I never had just ‘Ferguson’ campaign signs,” Ferguson told NBC News in an interview at his campaign headquarters in Locust Point, adding that he normally makes and distributes signs that don his name alongside those of the state delegates representing his district.
But this year, Ferguson faces a primary challenge from LaPin, a community activist, small business owner and Army veteran who amassed a following on Instagram promoting his sailing business and his activism well before he launched his bid for the seat last year. Now, LaPin is mounting an insurgent campaign in the wake of Ferguson’s decision last year not to pursue partisan redistricting in Maryland, in a rebuke to national Democratic leaders and Gov. Wes Moore.
The race, which will be decided in a June 23 primary, could be reflective of the anti-establishment sentiment sweeping through Republican and Democratic primaries across the country — this time materializing in Charm City.
Anti-establishment angst
LaPin, who has been knocking on doors in his army green Baltimore Orioles baseball cap, believes voters in the area are fed up with “the establishment” and are seeking a fighter who will stand up for progressive values and lead Maryland’s opposition to President Donald Trump.
“The country is on fire. It is absolutely on fire. It is not okay what’s happening outside, and to have politicians that aren’t fighting tooth and nail, ten toes dug into the ground, face to face, and pushing back, that’s a betrayal to people,” he told NBC News in an interview at a coffee shop in the district’s Federal Hill neighborhood.
One of LaPin’s campaign volunteers, Hadley Anthony, 35, said his candidate’s constant presence at community events, like anti-war protests and vigils for those killed by federal agents earlier this year in Minnesota, is what drew her to the campaign.
“Bobby’s at all these things. Bobby is always there, even at the small protests,” she told NBC News at LaPin’s “Lemonade for Good Change” event in Patterson Park last week. “That’s why I’m out here, in like 95-degree weather, squeezing lemons.”
Ferguson, meanwhile, is also framing the race as one between a member of the establishment and an ambitious upstart, but the 15-year state senator believes that voters will choose him after they hear about his role in delivering policy results from Annapolis that have improved Baltimore schools and driven down local crime rates.
The incumbent called LaPin’s primary challenge a “blessing in disguise” that has given him an opportunity “to think through about how best to communicate with voters about the things that I’ve been able to deliver over the years.”
Ferguson specifically pointed to education and healthcare reforms and a 2021 law he sponsored that put in place Maryland’s first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax, which allows the state to collect hundreds of millions of dollars that are earmarked for an education reform program.
Ferguson also addressed the backlash LaPin has capitalized on against his approach to legislating.
“I understand how angry people are, and I understand why, you know, this idea of fighting fire with fire is so resonant with people,” he said. “The reality is, you don’t fight fire with fire, you fight fire with water. You have to be smart, and you have to be tactical.”
One of Ferguson’s supporters, Rep. Sarah Elfreth, D-Md., also didn’t dispute LaPin’s characterization of Ferguson as an established, longtime politician, touting that fact as a strength for the incumbent.
“I understand people’s frustration with what they may see as a status quo,” Elfreth told NBC News in an interview. “At the same time, I don’t know why experience is discounted in this particular — I hate to call it profession — but experience is really important.”
She added, “You shouldn’t have to ask where the bathrooms are when you get to the statehouse, not understand how a bill becomes a law, or how to compromise and negotiate amongst your own constituents, let alone your colleagues from 46 other Senate districts and the House and the governor. This is a skill set, this is experience that really does matter for any state senator,” added Elfreth, who served alongside Ferguson in the state senate for six years.
Redistricting decision backlash
LaPin jumped into the primary race against Ferguson in November, capitalizing on national and Maryland Democrats’ anger at the state Senate president’s decision to block an effort to redraw Maryland’s congressional maps, amid a push to create a total Democratic majority in the state’s congressional delegation.
Ferguson stuck with his decision for months despite the continued urging of Moore and national figures like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who wanted Maryland to jump into the national partisan redistricting arms race between Democrats and Republicans.
Ferguson said the pro-redistricting push did not have enough votes in his chamber to pass, citing worries that a map that would push the state’s congressional delegation from 7-1 to 8-0 for Democrats could face legal challenges.
In 2022, state Judge Lynne Battaglia struck down Maryland Democrats’ attempt to impose a map that gave their party an advantage in eight congressional districts, a ruling Ferguson said colors his decision-making today but may not affect Moore’s.
“I was in leadership in 2021, you know, the governor was in New York at that time,” Ferguson said.
He added, “You can’t project the future with absolute certainty, and so I can understand the sentiment that even if we would lose in the courts, we should appear to be fighting.” But Ferguson reiterated his fear that a state court could strike down maps passed by the state Legislature and impose its own map, potentially with more GOP-leaning districts than the one they have now.
“The easiest thing in the world to have done would have been to say, ‘I’m going to throw my hands up, we’ll let the courts handle it. If they strike it down and send us backwards, it’s the court’s fault.’ That’s just not who I am. I can’t just shirk responsibility,” Ferguson said.
LaPin has lambasted Ferguson for his position on redistricting, saying it, “highlighted a trend from my opponent that he will only stand with the people when it’s politically safe for him.”
But some voters have looked past his decision on redistricting and pointed to Ferguson’s record of working for residents in the 46th District.
Sandy Dodson, 60, and her husband hung a lawn sign supporting Ferguson in front of their Federal Hill home because they understood he was in a “tight race,” and Dodson said the senate president has always been “supportive” and “responsive” to the needs of the district. On redistricting, Dodson said she maintained her support for Ferguson because of his past work and that she “understood,” why he didn’t pursue redistricting after he publicly explained that it would be a “gamble” in the courts.
Ferguson’s position shifted slightly in May, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision, which ruled that considering race in the drawing of congressional districts was unconstitutional. After the decision, several southern states almost immediately passed new maps eliminating Black-majority, Democratic-leaning districts.
“To see those other states act so swiftly was beyond troubling, and I think was even more frustrating, and devastating than what I imagined could be possible,” Ferguson said. Moving forward, he supports bringing legislators to Annapolis for a special session this summer to prepare a constitutional amendment for Maryland to vote on this year. The amendment would allow for redistricting ahead of the 2028 election if it passed.
LaPin said that he’s supported Maryland’s push to redistrict to a map that favors Democrats in eight seats since he jumped into the race.
“I took a stand because it was right. He took a stand because it was safe and he chose poorly,” LaPin said, adding that Ferguson’s new openness to a special legislative session later this summer is “simply because he realizes he’s losing a race.”
Moore in May welcomed Ferguson’s decision to pursue a special session, but added that Maryland Democrats should “be able to move aggressively on it.” The governor snubbed Ferguson’s reelection campaign in early May, leaving the legislative leader off of a list of campaign endorsements.
Asked about how his relationship with the governor, who is running for a second term this year, has changed in the wake of their disagreement on redistricting, Ferguson alluded to the 2028 presidential election. Moore is widely expected to run for the Democratic nomination, though he told NBC News last year, “I’m not running for president.”
“I think he and I share similar values,” Ferguson said. “We’ve disagreed about approaches at times here, you know. I think he has his eyes on a higher prize, and so that’s a — you know, a feature in a lot of the conversations. I’m focused on delivering for the 46th District and the state of Maryland.”
