At the conclusion of a segment of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” early last week, during which Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) was questioned about several international conflicts, the long-time Senate Foreign Relations Committee member was wished well in retirement by host Mika Brzezinski.
Cardin quickly moved to correct her. “I’ve announced I’m not running for re-election, not my retirement,” he responded. “I’ll still be here.”
Cardin’s unbroken streak in elected office makes him one of the longest-serving such officials in U.S. history, let alone that of his home state. When he leaves the U.S. Senate in January 2025, he will be 81 years old: He was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1966, as a 23-year-old law student. He spent two decades in the U.S. House of Representatives prior to his 2006 election to the Senate.
“Next year, God willing, will be my 58th consecutive year in legislative office,” Cardin mused Thursday evening to the Democratic Club of Leisure World north of Silver Spring. “And I don’t plan to retire, from the point of view of not being actively engaged in our community.”
In an interview just prior to speaking to a packed ballroom, Cardin–noting that he has more than a year and a half left in his term–said he hadn’t made specific plans yet for remaining active once he leaves the Senate. But he indicated he intends to remain active on several issues with which he has long been associated: human rights and environmental protection.
“Where I have pursued my interests and passion is on human rights. I will continue to deal with promoting global human rights issues as well as tolerance in our own community,” he said.
One of Cardin’s high-profile legislative accomplishments came in 2012 with passage of the so-called Magnitsky Act. Named for a lawyer who died in the custody of Russian authorities, the law normalized trade relations with Russia after 40 years–but also required the United States to freeze the assets of, and deny visas to, Russians implicated in human rights abuses.
What became known widely as the “Cardin List” made him a bete noire among Russian authorities. “My name is well-known in Russia, some places better than in Maryland,” Cardin has quipped in recent years. In 2016, the Global Magnitsky Act–which Cardin co-sponsored with the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain–authorized similar sanctions for human rights abuses by nations other than Russia.
Closer to home, Cardin’s involvement in environmental protection–particularly regarding reducing pollution in the Chesapeake Bay–dates to 1978, when at the age of 35, Cardin became the youngest person ever elected speaker of the Maryland House. Several years later, he worked with then-Gov. Harry Hughes (D) to establish the Chesapeake Bay Program, now comprising the six states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and supported by more than $90 million in annual funding from the federal government.
The 40-year-old program devoted to cleaning up the Western Hemisphere’s largest estuary “has really grown to be the model of the world [for] dealing with a multi-jurisdictional body of water,” Cardin, now a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told the Leisure World Democrats. Growing up in Baltimore, he added, “I remember when…my parents wouldn’t even let me get near the Inner Harbor of Baltimore it was so dirty, and now people are fishing in the Inner Harbor. So we’re making progress.”
Cardin’s May 1 announcement that he would not seek another six-year Senate term was preceded by months of speculation in state political circles regarding his plans.
“It was made more difficult because people I respect greatly urged me to run,” Cardin said during last week’s interview, noting that several Maryland officeholders who were eyeing running if he didn’t “told me to take as much time as I want, and that they would support me if I was going to run for reelection. So it was a comfortable political situation in our state, and…that made it more difficult. But I’m very comfortable with my decision.”
Had he run for and won re-election, Cardin would have been 87 upon leaving office. “It’s an eight-year decision—two years of the election cycle, plus a six-year term,” he explained. “I know how it was eight years ago when I was skiing and hiking mountains. I’m not quite doing the same thing today.”
He doesn’t anticipate making an endorsement or otherwise intervening in the Democratic primary to succeed him. “The only reason I would get involved is that if I thought there was a need for harmony,” he said. “At this point, I’m very pleased with the quality of the people who are running [or] who are interested in running.”
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, U.S. Rep. David Trone of Potomac, and Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando of Silver Spring are announced candidates, while U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Takoma Park is considering a run.
Democrats are heavily favored to hold onto Cardin’s Senate seat – in a state with a 2-1 Democratic registration – unless popular former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan opts to run. So far, Hogan has reiterated past statements indicating a lack of interest in serving in the Senate.
If the aging process played a role in his decision to leave public office, Cardin isn’t second-guessing the decision by President Joe Biden–who would be 86 at the end of a second term in the White House–to run again. “It’s a four-year term versus a six-year term,” Cardin said of the presidency. “Every person is different, and each person must make their own decisions. So no, I would have not at all given him any advice in that regard.”
Biden, then a Delaware senator, chaired the Foreign Relations Committee when Cardin first joined the panel in early 2007. “I do talk to the president now and then. I’ve talked to him since I made my decision. He respected my decision,” Cardin said, while adding, “I think that he wanted me to run again.” Cardin spent much of his nearly hour-long appearance in front of the Leisure World Democratic Club delivering a full-throated endorsement of Biden’s re-election.
While available ratings during his Senate career have shown Cardin with a solidly liberal voting record, he has been consistently successful in finding areas of agreement with Republican colleagues: A notable example has been legislative initiatives co-authored with a political centrist, Ohio Republican Rob Portman, to strengthen the private pension system over a 20-year period in the House and Senate. Their efforts authorized increases in the amounts individuals could contribute to individual retirement accounts as well as 401(k) accounts, and, more recently, a law that automatically enrolls an individual in a company’s pension plan unless than individual expressly chooses to opt out.
Reflecting on his congressional career, Cardin said, “I think what I’m most proud of is the respect for the system, to listen, [to practice] civility, trying to get things done, working across party lines.” Nonetheless, his usually low-key, amiable manner gave way to pointed rhetoric during Donald Trump’s four years in the White House.
The initial mention of Trump’s name in a reporter’s question last week immediately prompted Cardin to interject: “He wasn’t qualified to be president of the United States. …What Donald Trump did as president was jeopardize our country. And he cost people their lives.” Similar comments aimed at the once and aspiring future president continued, as Cardin fielded questions from the Leisure World Democratic Club.
“Since World War II, you’ve seen leaders around the world speak up against hate. And the major exception was Donald Trump,” Cardin declared. “Donald Trump gave oxygen to people who hate. And he gave them the legitimacy to act out their hate—and literally kill people.”
Later, blaming what he characterized as “disinformation…particularly on the far right,” for impeding efforts to reform the nation’s immigration system, Cardin asserted: “Make no mistake about it–a large part of this is a view that has been given oxygen by Donald Trump that America is basically a white country. And that is causing the challenges that we’re having today.”
While Baltimore has been Cardin’s home and political base, he has paid particular attention to populous Montgomery County–and the Leisure World community in particular–since first running for Senate.
“Yes, I’ve been here many times: Leisure World is voter rich, there’s no question about it,” he told the audience at the outset of Thursday evening’s remarks. Alluding to Leisure World’s reputation for one of the largest turnouts in Maryland on Primary Day, Cardin wisecracked. “I get more voters in Leisure World than I do in many counties in the state.”
And although the need to woo voters is now behind him, Cardin showed little signs of slowing down—excusing himself to the Leisure World audience a little before 8 p.m. to head to the annual dinner of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce in North Bethesda. “I’m supposed to be there at 8:15. I’m trying not to get a speeding ticket,” he explained to laughter.
And he will be back in the county this weekend–as the featured guest at the major spring fundraising event for the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee hosted by former County Executive Ike Leggett.
