I believe we need leadership with imagination and initiative to create a sustainable future for our region. Leadership that does what's right rather than what is personally profitable. I served 23 years in the U.S. Navy, four years in the Civil Service and lost my career as a Senior Executive Service standing up to DOGE to protect the public. I have done my duty for my country, and now I'd like to make a difference in my community. That difference will grow our tax base through small business innovation, and help incentivize jobs in new fields that can turn into careers, reducing dependence on the federal government. Paired with solutions on housing that work at all of life's states, and family support so parents can provide better will make us more resilient, protect our natural resources and help keep Southern Maryland more rural and less industrialized.

I admire Martin Luther King Jr. for the courage of his convictions and his willingness to fight for them despite an uncertain outcome. Perseverance in the face of adversity can not only be difficult, but frightening, to both yourself and your family, but when you sign up to lead, you sign up to take on personal and professional risk, and to put others first.

King didn't just talk, he organized and he marched. Despite surveillance, threats and his eventual assassination, he kept going until his last breath.

I learned a small piece of that lesson at Social Security, in standing up for the safety of the public's data under my own name, and carry a greater admiration for his work and risk as a result, and hope to carry those lessons into public office.

I support a mixed approach, but before increasing personal taxes, I want to examine the revenue we give away every year through credits or exemptions that were sold as job creators but never delivered. Where are the dashboards and the deep data analysis that let's the public better understand the return on investment and the tradeoffs of the myriad big business credits we hand out at the expense of small businesses and Marylanders? Let's take the data center tax break as a clear example. Last year I believe Virginia lost 1.6 Billion in revenue due to a similar credit, and our state is facing similar growing losses year over year. We hand out exemptions for facilities that use enormous power and water and employ a few dozen people. The repeal bill failed this session, but I would bring it back, and I would put evaluate every business tax credit for effectiveness. That is a start, but does not fill the entire gap. Why are high levels of capital gains and vested stock options not taxed as income but spent at such. Those making millions pay a lower tax rate than I do. That's unacceptable. Finally, we DO need real savings in state operations, and that's where having data geeks like me in the legislature can help. I spent my career as a federal data executive finding the waste that spreadsheets hide. I know the difference between cutting fat and cutting the thing people actually need...

Southern Marylanders have felt this especially hard, being so close to the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and still seeing ourselves at the end of the transmission grid with no good near-term options for relief. It is continually galling that we are paying for other people's data centers, and although the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has ordered PJM Interconnection to defend or fix how those costs get spread, Maryland can do more to push for refunds, not just better rules.

Hyperscale data centers are an unacceptable burden on our environment, and we do not need them in Maryland, full stop. I say that as an expert in how federal data needs to be used, and with an understanding of AI modeling and adoption. If they ARE coming, they need thorough planning, vigorous site discussion and at a minimum should be providing their own 100% clean power, not diesel generators.

That said, we need relief faster, and with more long term sustainability. Let's find ways to incentivize community solar on business roofs and car parks. Or Agrivoltaics to let a farm keep grazing sheep or growing crops under paneled space (such as is happening in Charles County right now), while we can extend tax credits in place for farms that do so.

Paired with battery storage a forward looking policy on energy can provide local energy, high paying jobs AND keep our rural character, making us more resilient as a region and as a state.

Maryland has a housing affordability problem statewide, but the legislation that comes out of Annapolis is not written for Southern Maryland.

When I first moved here about three quarters of families here could afford an average home, and now it's closer to half. People did not stop working, we stopped building homes they could afford at each stage of life.

Most of what passed in recent sessions keys off rail proximity, and we have none. Parts of recent housing laws helped here by accident. The one that helps, the Housing Certainty Act, helps because it applies everywhere.

Focus areas of mine that could benefit Southern Maryland:

1) Review and revive the Starter and Silver Homes Act, narrowed to counties with documented shortages, with local design review left intact.

2) Fix the state rehab loan. Today it caps at $50,000 and covers only owner occupied homes, so it can't touch a vacant house. Raise the cap and add a tier small builders can use. Refresh what we have instead of building new.

3) Fund infrastructure improvements. I can't bond bill homes, but I can bond bill pipes. Let's improve water and sewer capacity in designated growth areas.

4) Make the new Accessory Dwelling Unit law work better and broaden it's applicability.

5) Keep our growth tiers intact and the Critical Area strong.

While I'm focused on Southern Maryland, none of these are carve outs. Every rural county in Maryland lives under similar concerns. Fix them and the whole state gains.

I have worked much of my career in high technology, and take no industry money, so I believe I can speak plainly that much of this effort is laudable and necessary, especially for Southern Maryland, but the money and benefits need to be distributed equitably across the state.

Aerospace is on the state's list of target industries, and it's already here in strength in Southern Maryland. Test and evaluation, drones, autonomy and the engineers around Patuxent River are what the state says it wants. We should not pay to build somewhere else what we already have here in Southern Maryland.

Most of the DECADE Act extends credits we already had, but I do not think we understand what value they provide. Evaluate them first. Confirm they work, and that they work for small businesses and local subcontractors. Attach job targets and Key Performance Indicators, so we do not end up spending money we we can't afford to be sure we let out data center tax credits.

This is a good start, but alone it is not enough. Let's stop taxing the things we first subsidize in data centers, and end the 3% tax on IT services that local defense subcontractors in Southern Maryland pay. Let's expand training and apprenticeship programs, and ensure more language supporting them are included in state and local contracts.

Maryland should lead in high technology. That is more likely if the people writing these laws have actually built, operated and understand data, IT and the systems of the future.

I believe what is happening in our immigrant communities is abhorrent. We used to be a nation that prided ourselves on taking in 'your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.' Now these groups are marginalized and terrorized.

We are a nation of immigrants, nearly every one of us, and the data is clear that immigrants commit crimes no more often, and are no more a drain on society, than anyone else. By demonizing them we make ourselves less safe, and we raise the cost of food, crabs and housing. We even cut the Social Security taxes coming in..

Immigration enforcement is necessary, and I have worked in this field, so I do not say that lightly, but I cannot defend ICE as it operates today, and I support ending state cooperation with it. The ban takes away some tools, but leaves others in place. Criminal warrants still work. Violent criminals can still be arrested, violent felons and sex offenders can still be turned over with notification, and ICE can still do its own job with its own officers.

Let's treat this as an opportunity to bring people in from the cold, get them documented, and build trust in our communities. If you think this ban is lemons, it happened. Let's make the best lemonade we can.

Universal. School. Lunches.

Feed kids.

Fed kids pay better attention in school. They learn to read earlier, and the data shows that kids who learn to read at certain age gates have better outcomes. Parents feel less stress, and have extra bandwidth to provide. You want to reduce crime, feed kids. You want a stronger economy, feed kids. You want better citizens, feed kids.

This is not the country of years ago, where one parent working can afford a home and a family. These days, two parents working full time can barely make rent. We cannot expect to be a successful state if we are not supporting families, and for me that starts with supporting children. We fed kids during COVID, we can do it again. Full stop.