Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) says he will not run for U.S. Senate

“So where can I best serve in this momentous nationwide struggle to defend constitutional democracy and national progress? This is the question I have faced as I consider how best to advance the interests and values of our beloved Maryland while working to safeguard our future as a democratic nation,” Raskin wrote in a more than 1,000-word statement released Friday night. “At this moment, I believe the best way for me to make the greatest difference in American politics in 2024 and beyond is this: to run for reelection to the House of Representatives in Maryland’s extraordinary 8th District.”

Many observers say the four-term congressman would have brought national star power and a liberal record to the contest, boosting the primary election profile and offering a contrast to the Democratic candidates who have so far jumped into the race to fill the rare open seat.

Vying for the seat are Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks, a former prosecutor and a two-term executive of one of the state’s most populous counties and Montgomery County council member Will Jawando, an attorney and author — both of whom would become the first Black person to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate; and U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-Md.), a multimillionaire wine mogul elected to Congress in 2018 to represent Maryland’s 6th Congressional District.

Raskin said in addition to running for reelection, he plans to raise millions for the Democratic Party and expand his Democracy Summer Fellows program with the aim of building Democratic majorities in Congress — and becoming Chair of the House Oversight Committee. In that role, he said he planned to work for civil rights and freedoms, root out corruption and unethical behavior in government, mentor fellow Democrats and teach a nationwide course on constitutional law.

“This is an agenda that — in addition to running what I think is the best constituent service district office in all of Congress — will keep me busy through the campaign and the next Congress and for a long time after that,” Raskin wrote, adding that the political climate and the precariousness of Democratic institutions persuaded him to stay in the House, rather than announce a bid for the Senate.

“If these were normal times, I am pretty sure that this is what I would be announcing now,” he wrote. “But I have a different and more urgent calling right now and I cannot walk away from the center of this fight in the people’s House and in the country. We are still in the fight of our lives, the fight for democracy and freedom and for the survival of humanity.”

The decision comes about two months since Raskin, a two-time cancer survivor, announced that his diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was in remission. Raskin learned of his cancer diagnosis six days after he was voted as the top Democrat of the powerful Oversight Committee. He underwent chemotherapy while continuing his congressional duties, including leading his high-profile committee, while donning bandannas inspired by E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt. In February, the guitarist gifted Raskin a bandanna and thanked him for “giving us hope that there is a politician that cares about justice!” Their tweets went viral.

“His endorsement is going to be coveted, probably second only to the governor,” said Quincey Gamble, a veteran Democratic strategist. “People around the state now have been able to see Jamie on the highest platform, performing admirably. So Democratic voters absolutely trust his value system and what he has worked for and what he believes in.”

With Raskin’s decision to stay in the House, Alsobrooks and Trone are seen as the most formidable candidates in the race so far.

Alsobrooks has raked in a slew of endorsements from top Democratic elected officials, including Reps. Steny H. Hoyer and Kweisi Mfume and county executives Johnny Olszewski and Steuart Pittman of Baltimore and Anne Arundel, respectively. Trone, who could bankroll his own candidacy and spent more than $12 million of his own money in his last election, has already aired multiple television ads.

Raskin said that he began receiving a flurry calls about his political intentions in April, just days after he rang the bell symbolizing the end of his cancer treatment.

Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College, said he’d assume that some of those calls were from supporters of candidates already in the race who wanted Raskin to stay put.

“I think part of the hope on the Alsobrooks’s campaign side is you line up all of these endorsements and it would hopefully discourage someone from getting into the race,” he said.

Several days before Raskin’s announcement, Susie Turnbull, a former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and former chair of the state Democratic Party who is backing Alsobrooks, said if Raskin jumped in the race it would change the dynamic but she was still confident in its outcome — signaling the role identity politics would play in the contest.

Since 2017, Maryland has sent an all-male delegation to the Capitol. Nearly four decades ago, five women were in the 10-member Maryland delegation. Turnbull said Alsobrooks has built wide support from a cadre of political heavy-hitters, elected officials who “want to see a woman and a Black woman in the United States Senate.”

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“Angela Alsobrooks is going to be our next senator regardless if he gets into the race,” said Turnbull, who called Alsobrooks “the future” while expressing admiration for Raskin, describing Trone’s congressional record as “commendable” and Jawando as a “true talent.”

Raskin should continue to make advancements in the House, she said: “Jamie’s role on the Oversight Committee is crucial to our Democracy. His fight in the House is what’s good for him and what’s good for our country.”

In addition to addressing his cancer treatment, Raskin has publicly grieved his son, Tommy, 25, a second-year law student at Harvard Law, who died by suicide on New Year’s Eve 2020. A week later, Raskin returned to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and he and his daughter had to flee a pro-Trump mob.

“He’s been through hell in the last year and half,” former Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh, a longtime friend, said in an interview before learning of Raskin’s decision. “He has to decide whether he wants to go through that. He has a good shot of being committee chair in the House. If he ran [for U.S. Senate], I think he’d win. … And I’m for him, whatever he does.”

Frosh said he does not know anyone more talented and more dedicated to people and policy than Raskin, whose liberal-activist parents were at the 1963 March on Washington. Raskin’s father, Marcus Raskin, a White House national security aide, broke with the Kennedy administration over the Vietnam War and co-founded the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal think tank. His mother, Barbara Raskin, wrote a landmark feminist novel, “Hot Flashes.”

Working with Frosh in the Maryland state Senate, Raskin led floor debates on legislation to legalize same-sex marriage and to ban the death penalty in Maryland.

“He was an all-star,” Frosh said recalling his eloquence. “If he were a baseball player, they’d say he can run, throw, hit and hit for power. He can do all those things. He’s got all the tools, he’s the total package.”

Eberly said people often put greater value on a Senate seat, given that it has become a launchpad for the White House, but that Raskin had a lot to lose for the chance of becoming the nominee.

“What really works to his benefit is he’s got one heck of a great gig anyway,” he said.