FAQs about Forward Candidates
To stay updated about who Maryland Forward Party is supporting and affiliated with, visit our Candidates & Affiliates page.
Maryland Forward Party is willing to meet with any elected official or candidate interested in talking more with us.
We have a standard process that includes an initial meet & greet, typically with a Board Member or County Lead. After this first meeting, should the prospective candidate meet the aligned expectations of the Forward member, then we will typically schedule a meeting with the prospective candidate and the board to review a list of standard questions and learn more from the candidate regarding their goals and priorities.
After this meeting the board will take a week to further review any relevant information and then will vote on whether to support the candidate as an affiliate. If it is decided to support the candidate, we then ask that the candidate signs, along with us, our Candidate Pledge.
We use this pledge (and an almost identical pledge for board members) to hold ourselves and our candidates and elected officials accountable. It establishes a list of agreed upon shared values and code of conduct. With this signed, we formally establish a partnership affiliation with the candidate, to help support their efforts to have their campaigns help to support ours.
In 2024, Maryland Forward Party endorsed Larry Hogan for his campaign for the US Senate. Larry Hogan had reached out and engaged the Maryland Forward Party requesting the endorsement. The Maryland Forward Party then scheduled a meeting with Larry Hogan and interviewed him, as we standardly do for any potential candidate endorsement.
We also reached out to the Angela Alsobrooks campaign, four times over the course of a month, to hopefully schedule a similar meeting and never heard back. Our meeting with Larry Hogan was very positive and we believed that he authentically represented our shared values for more collaboration, less tribal conflict, more creative problem-solving and a devotion to maintaining and protecting our democracy.
Going into this election, Maryland Forward Party identified a threat to our national democracy as a legitimate and high priority concern. Months prior to the November election it was clear to many that West Virginia and Montana would revert to Republican wins and that the Senate was guaranteed to be in MAGA control by the end of the election cycle, regardless of Maryland or any additional state.
With this understanding we believed that Larry Hogan, who had bravely stood up to President Trump in the past, would represent an influential and strong moderating voice on the majority side of the Senate. Anglea Alsobrooks, while also a strong pro-democracy choice, would therefore be on the minority side of the Senate and with a less influential opportunity.
Within this context, our board voted to proudly support Larry Hogan, as our best opportunity to protect America’s democracy.
For similar reasons as the previous question, in 2024 Maryland Forward Party believed that Democracy was under a major threat and that the Democratic Candidate would be the best opportunity to curb a dangerous MAGA agenda to destabilize our democracy. This means we showed initial support for Joe Biden, though we disapprove of the lack of primary election options and competition supported by the Democratic Party. We also then supported Kamala Harris, when she took on the nomination.