After months of buildup, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, state Delegate Kathy Szeliga (R-7) officially announced her candidacy for United States Senate in 2016.
“Isn’t it time for new voices in Washington, D.C.?” she asked the crowd of supporters, to enthusiastic agreement.
The 54-year-old Minority Whip is hoping to build on the statewide success of Larry Hogan in 2014’s gubernatorial race and win the seat currently occupied by the retiring Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat.
Tuesday's announcement puts Szeliga into a field that already includes two other Republicans and two Democrats.
“I want to serve the US Senate to champion those forgotten Americans who get up and work hard, pay the bills and raise their family,” she declared.
In her kick-off speech, Szeliga detailed her background as a working mom starting from the bottom with her husband, hitchhiking to work as a laborer and maid before becoming a housekeeping manager at a resort. She attended night school while her children were young to earn a degree in early childhood education from Towson University, and eventually used those skills to help in the family’s construction business.
“I wanted to take those life skills and put them to work fixing some problems that I saw,” she said, winning a seat in the House of Delegates in 2010.
With Hogan’s election and the new crop of state-level Republicans in Annapolis, “Things in Maryland seem to be getting better. Now my focus shifts to Washington,” she concluded.
As senator, Szeliga said she would focus on improving quality of life- for example, by updating roads, upgrading airplane technology and making healthcare more affordable- improving national security through making the US more of a global leader on that front, and improving the nation’s schools.
“I have a little different angle on that,” she said of education reform. “I believe our schools have become factories that turn out kids who think their only future is a four-year college.”
Szeliga would work to expand vocational education through trade schools and degree programs, taking the example of eastside schools like Eastern Tech. However, she opposes the Common Core and would instead incentivize high schools to begin vocational training programs.
This would also help keep urban male youth in school and off the street, she said.
“I’m not naive. I don’t think I’m going to ride in on a white horse and fix everything by myself,” she said, but she believes her experience working across the aisle in Annapolis gives her an edge in accomplishing those goals.
“There used to be a time when we could agree to disagree, and do it agreeably. We didn’t have to call each other names and denigrate others because of their ideas,” she said. “That’s the kind of atmosphere we have in Annapolis. I might disagree with you, but we can still have a drink together.”
Szeliga says that as a working mom, she became very good at multitasking, which will allow her to pursue this Senate seat without shirking her duties as House Minority Whip. Her experience in Annapolis has also given her qualifications beyond those of the other Republicans in the field, attorney Chrys Kefalas and Navy veteran teacher Anthony Seda, she said.
“I’ve been elected to office; I’m the highest-ranking Republican woman in Maryland,” she asserted. “I have a built-in campaign structure with the 50 house members and 15 senate members, most of whom are supporting me.”
Several of those caucus members were on hand to support her at the kick-off, including House Minority Leader Nich Kipke, District 6 Delegate bob Long and District 8 Delegate John Cluster.
“I think she’s the right person for this job at this time. She’s the kind of person we need in D.C.,” Cluster told the East County Times.
Other supporters included Szeliga’s mentor and “fairy godmother” Ellen Sauerbrey and Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Shuh.
“She is a Republican. She is a mainstream conservative who believes the rightful role of government is a limited government,” Shuh declared. “Government has gotten too big, too distant and too gridlocked,” Szeliga declared. “Yet DC still finds the time to chip away at our liberties, spending more of our dollars while driving up the debt. But I think I’m a commonsense citizen legislator.”
No comments:
Post a Comment