The rally drew a modest crowd of supporters- including many families with young children- as well as protesters, who objected to O’Malley’s policies as mayor and governor.
“I believe O’Malley is not concerned about what is good for the people and is only concerned with furthering his own career,” said Andrew Fair, who was at the rally with a large sign that read “NO’Malley.” “As a Maryland native, I’ve experienced him in many offices in the state, and I think he left the city, as mayor, in bad shape and left the state in bad shape as governor.”
Another organized protest involved a group of African-American residents of the city who were objecting to the zero-tolerance policing policies O’Malley instituted as mayor that they claim led to the current tensions in the city. “What about police brutality? What about Freddie Gray?” protesters shouted over O’Malley’s prepared remarks.
Robert Fain, a Washington, D.C., resident who came up to the Baltimore event with a friend, was more positive. “It’s good to see other Democrats putting their hat in the ring,” he said. “I liked what I heard but I would like to see more, especially about the issue of race relations.”
The candidate did touch on the recent unrest in Baltimore City, attempting to tie the events into his larger campaign theme of rebuilding the American dream.
“It was a heartbreaking night in the life of our city. But there is something to be learned from that night, and there is something to be offered to our country out of those flames,” he said. “For what took place here was not only about race, not only about policing in America, it was about everything it is supposed to mean to be an American. The scourge of hopelessness that happened to ignite here that evening transcends race or geography.” He said that a lack of economic opportunity was at the root of much of the city’s- and country’s- troubles.
The supporters who introduced O’Malley onstage, including Yvette Lewis, who was Maryland Democratic Party chair until March 2015, praised the former governor for championing marriage equality in the state, getting the DREAM Act passed and keeping state college tuition from rising.
O’Malley himself took an urgent tone, lamenting the state of the economy, the political and economic inequality between elites and everyday citizens, and more. “There is a growing injustice in our country today. It is the gap between the strong and just country our children need for us to be and the country we are in danger of becoming,” he opined.
“This is the urgent work calling us forward today: to rebuild the truth of the American dream for all Americans. And to begin right now.”
He announced that his agenda would include strengthening the middle class through a higher minimum wage, more overtime pay and stronger unions; a jobs agenda focused on renewable energy; comprehensive immigration reform; new national security strategies that include stronger alliances with other nations in our hemisphere and a more engaged, collaborative foreign policy globally; reinstating Glass-Steagall (legislation from 1932 repealed in 1999 that separated the activities of commercial and investment banks), breaking up “too big to fail” banks and prosecuting those on Wall Street who are engaged in illegal activities; and rebuilding American cities.
“Whether the American dream becomes a lie, or becomes an ongoing truth that our children can enjoy, can build upon, can live, is really up to you and me,” O’Malley declared.
After the Baltimore rally, O’Malley traveled to an event in the early primary state of Iowa, where polling shows him trailing Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton by 55 points and Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont by 14.
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