House Appropriations Chair Maggie L. McIntosh recently announced that she will retire from the General Assembly next year rather than seek re-election. She announced her retirement through a letter to her constituents that was published by the Baltimore Sun. From the letter,
We are now preparing to begin the last session of our four-year term in the Maryland General Assembly. At the end of this term, I will have served 30 years and been successfully elected seven times to the Maryland House of Delegates. However, my name will not be on the ballot next year. After careful thought and personal reflection, I am looking forward to retiring from the House of Delegates at the end of 2022. Family, friends and community will get my full attention.
The motive for writing this letter is to express how grateful I am to have served in this position. To Baltimore residents: There really are no words to thank you for the honor and privilege to serve you. Your support will always fill my heart. The entire time I served in public office I have lived in a Baltimore neighborhood, Tuscany Canterbury. These neighbors and friends have been the backbone of my success.
Chair McIntosh also shared highlights from her almost 30 year career – “passing the Dream Act, the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, Climate Change Act, expanding health care, and eliminating the death penalty. In the past two years, I was privileged to play a role in passing major K-12 education funding with both the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future (Kirwan) and the Built to Learn Act. Maryland students, especially those with the most need, will benefit from our work. I must also recognize the incredibly talented and dedicated staff that helped with budget and policy guidance. The Maryland legislature has some of the nation’s best. Finally, last year Speaker Jones led us in passing needed police reform and other measures to make Maryland a more just state while we worked with the Senate and Administration to guide us through the pandemic — helping businesses and families alike.
A Maryland Matters article further highlights her career and accomplishments.
McIntosh, 73, was an aide to U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) and a member of the Baltimore City Democratic Central Committee in 1992 when she was appointed to a north Baltimore district to replace former Del. Anne Scarlett Perkins (D), who had resigned to take a teaching job in China. McIntosh quickly moved up through the ranks in the House of Delegates, and racked up several important “firsts” along the way.
In 2001, she became the first woman to serve as House majority leader and then spent a dozen years as the first woman chair of the House Environmental Matters Committee. When then-Del. Norman H. Conway (D-Lower Shore), the Appropriations chair, lost his re-election bid in 2014, she moved over to head that committee, becoming the first woman to chair the powerful budget-writing panel.
Equally significant, McIntosh was the first openly LGBTQ member of the General Assembly, coming out in 2000. She married her longtime partner, Diane Stollenwerk, a health policy expert, in 2013, soon after same-sex marriage was legalized in Maryland.
Coverage from the Baltimore Sun and Maryland Matters
