Del. Shaneka Henson (D-Anne Arundel). Photo by Bryan P. Sears.
An Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee divided almost completely by race voted Saturday to recommend Del. Shaneka Henson (D) for the county’s vacant District 30 state Senate seat.
Henson prevailed by a 10-9 vote over her fellow District 30A delegate, Dana Jones (D), and her name will be forwarded to Gov. Wes Moore (D), who gets to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Sarah K. Elfreth’s election to Congress.
Elfreth was sworn into her new office on Friday. If appointed, Henson would become the first Black woman to represent Anne Arundel County in the state Senate.
Meanwhile, the Anne Arundel County Republican Central Committee on Friday night voted to recommend LaToya Nkongolo, a behavioral health professional who has twice run unsuccessfully for office, to fill the vacancy created by Republican Del. Rachel Muñoz’s recent resignation in District 31.
The Jones-Henson contest inflamed passions among Anne Arundel political activists, and was marked by differences over reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights and other issues. It spotlighted racial tensions in the community and featured reverberations from Henson’s rebuke from the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics in 2024. Assuming Moore elevates Henson to the Senate, Jones may challenge her for the seat in the 2026 Democratic primary.
Saturday’s Democratic central committee meeting, at a library in Annapolis named for the late House Speaker Michael Busch (D-Anne Arundel), lasted almost four hours, including an hour-long deliberation by committee members behind closed doors. When they emerged, the vote was almost entirely along racial lines, with 10 of the 11 members of color present voting for Henson, and the eight white members present voting for Jones, who is white.
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One Black central committee member, Geonta Simmons, sided with Jones. Two other members, one Black and one white, were not present.
The meeting started with interviews of the three candidates — Henson, Jones and Robert Leonard, a south county Democratic activist who vowed to serve only through the end of Elfreth’s Senate term, in January 2027.
Interviewed first, Henson touted her accomplishments in the legislature and as an Annapolis alderwoman, and said she would lift up communities that are often ignored by county officials and Democratic leaders. She called herself “the most qualified” candidate.
“At my core, I am a woman that serves my community with my whole heart,” Henson said.
Henson also said that Democrats’ emphasis on issues like abortion and LGBTQ+ rights may be turning off core supporters.
“Far too often as a party we drift all the way over to the far left. … Our party has placed a hyper-focus on issues that don’t address people’s bottom lines,” she said.
At the end of her presentation, Henson dramatically asked community activists, clergy, church members, members of “Divine Nine” Black fraternities and sororities, political supporters and fellow elected officials to stand up behind her.
“What I want you to see is that I am not alone,” Henson told the members of the central committee, as her supporters cheered. She said the people standing in support “are often the people who are ignored, they are often the people who are taken for granted by the Democrat Party.”
Jones described herself as the candidate with the greatest fealty to Democratic values like abortion rights and said she had the relationships and trust of colleagues in the State House to deliver for the district.
“I’m not good at political theater, but I am good at being honest,” she said.
Both candidates were asked similar questions about their positions on a number of issues, how they’d work with legislative leaders and help fellow Democrats at the ballot box, why Democrats lost key supporters during the recent election, and how they planned to reach out to voters in the more conservative and rural part of the Senate district that they don’t represent in the House.
But both were asked more pointed and targeted questions.
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Henson was queried about the ethics probe that found she misled colleagues about her involvement in seeking state funds for a church of which she is a member — and resulted in her being removed from the House Appropriations Committee. Henson chalked it up to “an issue of communication.”
“I have learned from that process, and I assure you, I have become a much stronger communicator,” she added.
Jones was asked whether she once held a fundraiser at the Annapolis Maritime Museum without having to pay for it, after securing $150,000 in state funds for the facility. She asserted she had in fact paid to rent the space.
Jones was also asked whether she had been sufficiently supportive of residents of Annapolis public housing complexes following murders and other crimes at the buildings. She insisted she had, but had once deferred to Henson after her colleague told her that a victim’s family didn’t want publicity.
Henson, 41, is a lawyer who spent a year and a half on the Annapolis City Council before being appointed to fill Busch’s House seat after he died in 2019. Busch’s wife, Cindy, was among the Democrats who endorsed Henson’s Senate bid this year.
Jones, 48, who was appointed to her House seat in 2020, is a former political operative who has worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and for EMILY’s List, among other organizations. She was a leading advocate for the ballot initiative that passed in November enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution.
Assuming Moore ratifies the central committee’s choice and appoints Henson to the Senate, another central committee nominating process will have to take place to fill Henson’s House seat. Annapolis Alderman Brooks Schandelmeier (D), and Dylan Behler, a former county Democratic chair and director of legislative and constituent services at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, are seen as likely applicants for the appointment.
Republicans’ choice
For the House vacancy in District 31, Anne Arundel Republicans turned to Nkongolo, who runs a business that trains behavioral health care professionals.
The GOP central committee did not release the results, which were taken by paper ballot during the meeting Friday night at the Eastern District Police Headquarters in Pasadena, but indicated Nkongolo hit or surpassed the eight-vote mark needed to win the recommendation. Her name will be forwarded to Moore for consideration.
Nkongolo, who has run unsuccessfully for a District 31 House seat and for a seat on the county Board of Education, prevailed over Jason DuBois, a former state public health official, and Corine Frank, a former school board member and one time executive director of the Maryland Republican Party who is firmly rooted in the county’s GOP establishment.
“Governor Moore should render his decision in a timely manner,” the GOP central committee said in a website posting Friday night.
Muñoz, who was also appointed to the House seat, in 2021, resigned for personal reasons. If Moore appoints Nkongolo to the legislature, she’ll join Dels. Brian Chisholm (R) and Nicholaus R. Kipke (R) in the District 31 House delegation.
Moore will have to move quickly to fill the two vacancies before the start of the General Assembly session on Wednesday.