A Senator’s Quiet Knife: How Cory McCray Ended Stephanie Smith‘s Career in the 45th
There are primaries decided by ideas, and there are primaries decided by power. Baltimore's 45th District just had one of the second kind.
McCray Held All the Cards, and He Played Them
Sen. Cory McCray represents District 45 in the State Senate, and he ran unopposed this cycle. That meant he had nothing to lose and, apparently, plenty of time on his hands. Rather than sit out the House of Delegates race, McCray assembled and endorsed a full slate for the three delegate seats: incumbents Jackie Addison and Caylin Young, plus a third name that mattered more than any policy paper — Chanel Branch, the woman two-term Delegate Stephanie Smith would have to beat to keep her seat.
Smith didn't. She finished fourth, about 300 votes behind Branch, out of the race entirely (Patch).
Smith Didn't Mince Words About Why She Lost
Two days after the polls closed, with the race still uncertified and Smith trailing by 440 votes, she was blunt about who she thought was responsible. Asked about McCray, she didn't pretend this was simple bad luck.
"I have no problem with him, but he is willing, as a person running unopposed, to dedicate his free time to assemble a slate of people that he knows have either not had a history of being as effective as me, or not poised to be as effective," Smith told Maryland Matters. She went further, calling it "an organized effort to push me out" (Maryland Daily Record).
That is about as direct as an accusation gets in Annapolis politics — a sitting delegate naming her own district's senator as the architect of her defeat, on the record, before the votes were even final.
The Grudge Reportedly Went Back to How Smith Voted
Reporting from the AFRO points to a specific grievance: McCray felt Smith was "bright but didn't vote for his agenda," which he said caused him to distance himself from her. He was noticeably more supportive of Addison and Young, delegates he described as "willing" to work with him (AFRO American Newspapers; NNPA). For her part, Smith said she remained willing to work with McCray going forward, for the sake of the district — a gracious note given the circumstances.
When Smith Lost, She Still Left Standing
Whatever bitterness the campaign produced, Smith's exit was dignified. Once the outcome was clear, she posted a statement thanking her constituents rather than attacking her rivals. "Service is a lifestyle and it never rests in any one title," she wrote. "While this is not the desired outcome, I am excited about new possibilities to serve" (Patch).
Branch Herself Isn't the Villain Here
It's worth separating the senator's maneuvering from the woman who benefited from it. Chanel Branch didn't force McCray's hand — she simply had the résumé, the roots, and the timing to be the alternative he wanted. She'd already served in the seat once before, appointed in 2020 after Delegate Cheryl Glenn resigned amid federal bribery charges, and she lost her bid for a full term in 2022 (Ballotpedia). This year, she simply ran again — and had the district's senator quietly clearing her path.
Which Brings Us to Her Father, Talmadge
No conversation about the Branch name in the 45th is complete without Talmadge Branch, Chanel's father, who represented the district in the House of Delegates from 1995 until his retirement in 2023 — one of the longest tenures in the chamber's modern history, and long enough to become the House's Majority Whip, the third-ranking position in the House of Delegates (Wikipedia; AFRO American Newspapers). He also chaired the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland and founded its charitable foundation — the kind of institutional footprint that outlasts any single election (Wikipedia).
To answer the question directly: yes, Talmadge Branch is alive. He's retired from elected office and, as of a few years ago, working in lobbying and consulting in the Baltimore area (Maryland Matters).
He Once Reached for Congress, and Fell Short With Grace
It's also worth remembering that Talmadge Branch didn't spend his whole career content with a House seat. When Congressman Elijah Cummings died in October 2019, Branch jumped into the crowded Democratic field to succeed him in Maryland's 7th Congressional District, running against a small army of contenders that included NAACP legend Kweisi Mfume and Cummings' widow, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings (CBS News). Branch finished with just over 1 percent of the vote in the special primary and withdrew from the overlapping regular election shortly after (Ballotpedia). Mfume, the seat's former occupant, went on to reclaim it decisively.
It was not Talmadge Branch's finest electoral hour, but nobody who watched his three decades in Annapolis mistook that congressional stumble for the measure of the man. He remained, and remains, one of East Baltimore's most respected political figures — which is precisely why his daughter never had to introduce herself to voters in the 45th. She only had to remind them who she was.
The Real Story Isn't Branch. It's McCray.
Strip away the family narrative and what's left is a straightforward, almost old-fashioned power play: an unopposed state senator with free time and a grudge decided which of his House colleagues would keep their jobs, and used his own political capital to make it happen. Stephanie Smith saw it coming, said so publicly, and lost anyway. That's not a story about a famous last name overcoming an underdog. It's a story about what happens when a senator with nothing to lose decides exactly who he wants sitting next to him in Annapolis.