In Maryland, Jonathan White — a former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) official — is waging a longshot campaign to unseat two-term Rep. Glenn Ivey via a Democratic primary. And according to Washington Post reporter Dan Diamond, his core message is that fellow Democrats aren't doing enough to fight back against the second Trump Administration.
President Donald Trump was serving his first term when White, then serving in HHS, became an outspoken critic of Trump's family separation policy with immigration. White didn't hold back, yet he managed to keep his HHS position. And he continued to serve in HHS during former President Joe Biden's four years in the White House. But having recently resigned from the agency, White is putting his energy into his congressional campaign.
Diamond reports, "His primary challenge in Maryland's 4th District is a reflection of a deeper undercurrents in American politics. Both parties are grappling with their identities heading into next year's crucial midterm elections, and the energy animating White's campaign is both fueling Democratic hopes and dividing the party, as a groundswell of frustrated voters push their elected representatives to fight Trump's agenda harder or more effectively."
White, according to Diamond, believes that Democrats need to be way more aggressive in pushing back against Trump's second presidency.
The Maryland Democrat told the Post, "We need an opposition party. What we have is a club of people who view these as their offices for life. They have failed, and they must be replaced."
Referencing the right-wing Tea Party movement of the 2010s, White predicted, "I think it's going to be the Tea Party year for the Democrats."
Diamond notes, however, that White's effort to unseat Ivey "faces obvious hurdles."
"He has yet to hire any full-time staff," Diamond reports. "He has no prior political experience. He's a white man running in a congressional district that is majority Black. And he's a bisexual, practicing Wiccan — an identity that he calls 'quite boring,' citing his two-decade marriage to his wife, but leaves him outside the mainstream."
Read Dan Diamond's full Washington Post article at this link (subscription required).
