In 2018, Maryland Democrats had a chance to relaim the governorship. Instead, they watched it slip away, ed not by a lack of enthusiasm, but by a ticket that abandoned the stateâs definiSusie ng political virtue: moderation.
Mike Miller, the late Senate President, famously called Maryland a state of âmiddle temperament.â Itâs a phrase that captured the pragmatic, centrist ethos that has long guided our politics. But when Susie Turnbull joined Ben Jealousâs gubernatorial bid, she didnât anchor it in that tradition. She enabled its drift, marching under the red banner of ideological purity rather than the blue tent of practical governance.
Turnbull, a seasoned party insider and former chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, was expected to temper Jealousâs progressive zeal. Instead, she amplified it. The campaignâs embrace of Medicare-for-All, tuition-free college, and cannabis-funded universal pre-K may have thrilled national activists, but it alienated the very voters Maryland Democrats needed to win.
And the cost? A governorship lost to Larry Hogan. A party fractured. A tradition betrayed.
đď¸ A Rift in the Jewish Community
Turnbullâs alliance with the far-left also came at a personal cost. As a longtime leader in Jewish civic organizationsâfrom Jewish Women International to the Jewish Social Service Agencyâshe had built deep trust within Marylandâs Jewish community. But her silence on the rising tide of anti-Israel sentiment among progressive activists left many feeling abandoned.
While her running mate Ben Jealous issued statements opposing the BDS movement and affirming support for Israel, his equivocations and flirtations with activists like Linda Sarsour raised eyebrows. Jewish votersâespecially those alarmed by slogans like âFrom the river to the seaââlooked to Turnbull for clarity. They didnât get it.
In a moment that demanded moral courage, Turnbull chose political convenience. And in doing so, she lost more than an electionâshe lost the confidence of many who once called her an ally.
