Sean Stinnett is sworn in by House Speaker Pro Tem Dana Stein (D-Baltimore County) as the newest Democrat to represent the 41st District in Baltimore City. Stinnett was one of two new delegates sworn in Monday during back-to-back ceremonies. (Photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)
For the first time since the start of the 2025 General Assembly session in January, there was a chance Monday that all 188 names on the House and Senate vote boards could light up.
That’s because the swearings-in Monday of Del. Sean Stinnett (D-Baltimore City) and Del. Kim Ross (D-Baltimore County) finally gives the House its full complement of 141 voting members.
The Senate got its 47th, and final, senator last month, when Del. Carl Jackson (D-Baltimore County) was elevated to the seat that had long been held by Kathy Klausmeier, who left the Senate to become Baltimore County Executive in January.
With just five weeks left in the legislative session, the latest appointments end a long-running game of legislative musical chairs in Annapolis this session. Three senators left and their seats were filled by three delegates from their respective districts, creating three House vacancies in turn that needed to be filled.
In Baltimore County’s 8th District, Ross was filling Jackson’s seat, who had moved on to fill Klausmeier’s seat. In the 41st District, Stinnett is taking the seat vacated by Dalya Attar, who replaced Sen. Jill Carter after she resigned to take a job on the state Board of Contract Appeals.
And in District 30, Del. Dylan Behler (D-Anne Arundel) was sworn in last month to replace Shaneka Henson (D-Anne Arundel) after Henson was elevated to the Senate to fill the seat of Sarah Elfreth, who is now a member of Congress representing the state’s 3rd Congressional District.
They were just some of the new members who were appointed to vacancies in the legislature for this session. In the House, Dels. Teresa Woorman (D-Montgomery), Barry Beauchamp (R-Wicomico), Matthew Schindler (D-Washington) and LaToya Nkongolo (R-Anne Arundel) are all new to the legislature this year. In the Senate, Sara Love (D-Anne Arundel) was appointed in June to start in January.
According to a tally by the League of Women Voters of Maryland, 32 current House members and 16 senators — about 25% of the General Assembly — were initially appointed to their seats. While many of them were subsequently elected to the job they were holding, that puts a lot of authority in the hands of the political party central committees that make the appointments — and takes power away from voters, said Nikki Tyree, executive director of the league.
Tyree said that because voters will often only vote the top of the ticket and not bother with the names and races down-ballot, in what’s known as undervoting, the central committee members making those legislative appointments rarely face scrutiny by voters.
Tyree said that many of those appointed go on to do excellent jobs as legislators, but that the vast majority of Marylanders would prefer a special election be held to fill a vacant elected office, instead of turning the decision over to the local central committee to make an appointment.
“We can recognize that we’ve gotten some great legislators out of this,” she said. “But … at some point, you either believe in democracy or you don’t. And democracy means you have to let people vote.”
The Senate last week gave overwhelming approval to Senate Bill 2. It would require that anyone appointed to fill a vacancy in the first half of a four-year term, stand for special election to be held on the regular primary and general election dates of the midterm election. Anyone appointed in the second half of a four-year term could serve out the term.
A companion bill has been filed in the House, but has not moved since getting a hearing in January before the House Ways and Means Committee. Tyree said that for the past several years, similar special election bills have stalled in House committees.