Maryland's Congressional Democrats Look Ahead Past Midterms
ANNAPOLIS (WJZ) — Newly re-elected members of Maryland's congressional delegation sat down Wednesday to chew the fat and plan the future.
Sen. Ben Cardin and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, along with Representatives John Sarbanes, Dutch Ruppersberger, Elijah Cummings, newly elected David Trone and Jamie Raskin are five of the seven Democrats serving Marylanders in Congress, all pleased to see Democrats take back the house of representatives, and accepting that Marylanders wanted a Republican in the state house.
"The blue wave was so big and so broad and so strong that it even brought in some Republicans like Larry Hogan," said U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, (D-8th congressional district).
The Democrats did not win back the state house.
"Well I think the voters are very clear that they wanted governor hogan for re-election," Sen. Ben Cardin said. "That's the will of the voters of Maryland. They also decided to elect Democrats to many positions in Maryland including some county execs we didn't hold before and increased our numbers in the Maryland general assembly. So what the voters want is for us to work together,"
There are pledges to do just that.
"The voters dealt Democrats an extremely strong hand in the state legislature, the general assembly and the opportunity is for that Democratic legislature to now work with the Republican governor to achieve good things for the state of Maryland over the next four years," said U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-3rd congressional district).
Nationally, they are looking ahead to the newly installed system of checks and balances, which includes Elijah Cummings as the chairman of the oversight and government reform committee.
They also congratulated Republican Rep. Andy Harris on his re-election in the 1st congressional district.
Follow @WJZ on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook