Gov. Larry Hogan has signed off on Linda Foley, the chair of Montgomery County’s Democratic Central Committee, to fill a state delegate vacancy in District 15.
Hogan announced Tuesday that he had appointed Foley, two weeks after the central committee nominated her through a vote.
She defeated five challengers to win the county party’s nomination. She received 20 of the 22 votes cast during a Nov. 30 public meeting online.
Saqib Ali and Michael Schrier each received one vote. The three other contenders — Amy Frieder, David Griffith and Colin Richard — did not receive any votes.
Foley recused herself from voting, but said she was allowed to vote if she wanted to.
“I am confident that Ms. Foley will represent the citizens of Montgomery County admirably in her new role as delegate,” Hogan said in a press release on Tuesday afternoon.
Foley is a former journalist and a former union leader.
The press release says she founded and served more than 20 years as the president of the Berger-Marks Foundation, “a nonprofit that promoted young women as union leaders and social justice advocates.”
The vacancy came when Hogan appointed Kathleen Dumais as a Montgomery County circuit judge.
Dumais was in her fifth four-year term as a delegate. Her current term ends in January 2023.
Because Dumais is a Democrat, the party’s central committee in Montgomery County got to recommend to Hogan a Democrat to succeed her.
Foley already has said she plans to run next year for a full four-year term.
Foley will join the other District 15 Democratic state lawmakers for the 2022 session that starts in January — Dels. Lily Qi and David Fraser-Hidalgo and Sen. Brian Feldman.
District 15 stretches from Potomac in the south to Clarksburg in the north and includes Darnestown and Germantown, but not Rockville.
