State Del. Sara Love (D-Dist. 16) is likely to fill a General Assembly Senate seat vacated by Sen. Ariana Kelly (D-Dist. 16) after she was nominated for the position Monday by the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC).
Love’s expected departure from the House of Delegates will create another vacancy for the committee to fill.
Kelly announced in March that she would be leaving the General Assembly to become executive director of the Maryland Commission for Women. Her resignation from the Senate was effective May 5.
The state constitution requires the political party of the lawmaker vacating a seat to nominate a person to fill the vacancy within 30 days after it occurs and submit the nominee’s name to the governor. Gov. Wes Moore (D) is expected to appoint the MCDCC’s nominee, who will serve the rest of Kelly’s unexpired term ending in January 2027.
Love, 57, was the only candidate to be interviewed Monday by the MCDCC as an eligible finalist for the role. It is unclear if other candidates applied.
“I hope to … carry on a very strong tradition of District 16 in the Senate and to take what I have done in the House, relationships that I’ve built in the House, over to the Senate to continue to learn and to grow and to represent my constituents and the state of Maryland to the best of my ability,” Love said Monday.
District 16, which includes most of the Bethesda and North Bethesda area, is also represented by Love’s fellow Democrats Dels. Marc Korman and Sarah Wolek. Both of Love’s colleagues endorsed her for the Senate seat.
Love was first elected to the General Assembly in 2018 and assumed office in 2019. She was re-elected to her second term in 2022. She currently serves on the Environment and Transportation Committee.
The proportion of Montgomery County’s legislative delegation placed by the appointment process skyrocketed from about 25% (nine members) of the 35-seat delegation to more than 40% (14 members) in 2023. None of Montgomery County’s seats are held by Republicans. The MCDCC was tasked with filling five vacancies after Moore appointed several General Assembly members to his cabinet upon his election in 2022. There are 24 members of the committee.
While constitutional, the appointment process has been criticized by some state legislators and good-governance advocates as undemocratic because it offers entry into office without the months of fund-raising, coalition building, campaigning or scrutiny of a traditional electoral effort. Several measures that would have reformed the process were introduced during this year’s General Assembly session, but most of them didn’t make it out of committee.
Love was a co-sponsor of a bill sponsored by Del. Linda Foley (D-Dist. 15) in the 2024 legislative session that would require legislators appointed early in a four-year legislative term to stand for election at the term’s midpoint. However, it did not pass through by the end of the session.
When asked by committee members about the legislative vacancy process Monday, Love said she believes the appointment process “has a lot of value in that it has provided the opportunity for some folks to enter the legislature who might not otherwise have that opportunity.”
However, she said she also understands the concerns surrounding voters not being able to choose their legislators, which is why she supports Foley’s bill.
“I think that bill is a good compromise position,” she said.
The MCDCC has made several appointments for seats representing District 16 in the last couple of years. While Kelly was elected to her initial General Assembly seat as a delegate in 2010, she was appointed by the MCDCC to her Senate seat in 2023 after departing Sen. Susan Lee was appointed by Moore as Maryland secretary of state.
Wolek was appointed in 2023 to fill Kelly’s delegate seat after Kelly was appointed to the vacant Senate seat.
MCDCC has not yet shared the timeline for filling Love’s seat, which has a term ending in January 2027. Chair Saman Qadeer Ahmad said Monday that Love will have to formally submit her resignation to the House before the committee can begin that process.
