Sarah Elfreth’s head down, policy-first approach helped her win passage of 91 bills in her time as a state senator, including her most prized measure to protect freshwater mussels in the Chesapeake Bay, earning her five “Legislator of the Year” awards.
It’s a workhorse approach she plans to carry into Congress as the aspiring replacement for outgoing Democratic Rep.
“I’ve never been a, you know, for lack of a better term, a shiny object person,” Elfreth said in an interview.
As the general election favorite in the heavily Democratic district, Elfreth could be one of the first women to be a part of Maryland’s congressional delegation in eight years.
Democratic women, especially those on the younger side, have been thrust into the limelight recently as Vice President Kamala Harris has been chosen as the Democratic nominee for president following President Joe Biden’s resignation from the 2024 campaign. Elfreth is running coordinated campaigns with Maryland Democrats Angela Alsobrooks, the Prince George’s County Executive running for US Senate, and former Commerce Department official April McClain Delaney, who is seeking the House seat being vacated by Democratic Rep.
Maryland political strategist and Democratic party member Raymond Glendening says having more women and women of color in Congress will be more representative of the state’s electorate.
“It’s not only out of touch, it’s frankly a little bit embarrassing that we haven’t had a woman in a federal position of power for eight years,” Glendening said.
Elfreth clinched the Democratic nomination in May in a crowded primary that included former US Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, against a violent crowd protesting Donald Trump’s loss in the presidential election.
Dunn’s endorsers included ex-Speaker
The contribution from the nation’s largest pro-Israel group helped give Elfreth an edge in the competitive race with Dunn. It also came as the Biden administration’s Middle East policy has roiled Democrats, with some liberals criticizing Israel’s aggressive military response in Gaza to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
Elfreth “has demonstrated a solid commitment to strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance,” AIPAC spokesman Marshall Wittmann said in an email.
Elfreth said she is “committed to advancing a lasting, two-state solution that works toward permanent peace in the region while also respecting Israel’s right to exist and to defend its citizens from violent acts of terrorism.” Elfreth is an associate member of the Maryland Legislative Jewish Caucus, but said she doesn’t identify as Jewish.
Elfreth, 35, says her perspective as a female legislator of reproductive age lends her an advantage in today’s political climate as Democrats seize on the Supreme Court’s overturning of the 1973 Roe v Wade decision legalizing abortion.
“In a post-Dobbs world, it’s really important to have a lot of officials who can speak to that issue from a personal standpoint,” Elfreth said.
Elfreth also said she would be able to add to the debate on access to contraception and in vitro fertilization, especially as she might need to use IVF as she plans to try for children in the future.
“I can speak to those issues not as a 30,000-foot policy issue, but as something that impacts me and my family in a way that impacts many families in the district,” Elfreth said.
Building Bridges
The district includes the state capital of Annapolis and stretches to the outskirts of the Baltimore and Washington suburbs. It’s bordered on the east by the Chesapeake Bay, whose environmental preservation is dear to Elfreth.
“It’s almost religious, just people’s appreciation for and want to protect and restore the bay,” she said. Toward that end, she’s hoping for a spot on the House Natural Resources Committee.
Rebuilding Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key bridge is another priority for Elfreth and the rest of the Maryland delegation.
“It has global implications for the market if we don’t have a fully functioning Port of Baltimore,” Elfreth said. The bridge was in a neighboring district, and its collapse slowed traffic, likely affected thousands of workers’ incomes, and is predicted to cost Maryland millions in tax revenue.
Should Elfreth win, she would likely be working alongside Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland’s only Republican congressman who, despite his history as a fiscal hawk, has joined the Democrats in the delegation to advocate for federal funds for the bridge.
It was Harris who, 16 years earlier, unintentionally sparked Elfreth’s zest for politics.
At 19, Elfreth and the Towson University student government took the day off classes to testify before the Maryland legislature, including then-State Sen. Harris. She advocated for a bill that would put more polling places on Towson’s campus and make it easier for college students to register to vote.
Harris, she said, accused her of promoting voter fraud and argued that students shouldn’t be able to register to vote in the state where their university is located if they aren’t a permanent resident of that state because they’re present for only nine months of the year.
That experience with Harris “lit a fire” in her, she said.
GOP Chances
Though Sarbanes won by almost 60,000 votes in 2022, this year’s GOP nominee, attorney Rob Steinberger, said he has a chance of besting Elfreth.
He said that, while Elfreth came off as more polished in her campaign speeches, former Capitol policeman Dunn would have been “almost unstoppable” in the general election.
Steinberger said abortion rights should be left up to the states. He also said that, by itself, increasing legislation aimed at restricting access to guns won’t curtail gun violence. He is also prioritizing lowering taxes and cracking down on illegal immigration.
Sarbanes, who has known Elfreth for years, said he admires her direct approach to legislating, attentiveness to constituents, and her passion for the Chesapeake Bay.
“She’s not someone who’s like, you know, looking for attention and credit,” he said. “She just wants to get the job done, and she knows how to kind of pull people together around a project.”
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