Senator Benjamin Kramer Contact information

Benjamin F. Kramer, born on March 5, 1957, is an American politician who has been serving as a member of the Maryland Senate representing District 19 since 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to his tenure in the Senate, Kramer represented the same district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2007 to 2019.

Kramer was born in Wheaton, Maryland. He was one of three children born to Sidney Kramer, who would later serve as a state senator and Montgomery County Executive, and Betty Mae. Kramer’s sister, Rona, would later serve as a state senator and as Maryland Secretary of Aging from 2015 to 2023.

He attended Montgomery County public schools, graduating from John F. Kennedy High School, and later attended the University of Maryland, College Park, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in law enforcement in 1979. Kramer owns the Wheaton Speedy Car Wash and a real estate business. He was a member of the Montgomery County Liquor Control Task Force and the Montgomery County Police Department Citizens Advisory Board.

In 1994, Kramer unsuccessfully ran for the Montgomery County Council, losing to incumbent Republican county councilwoman Nancy Dacek in the general election. He ran for an at-large seat on the county council in 1998, during which he was defeated in the Democratic primary, placing seventh in the eight-way primary.

In 2006, Kramer ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 19. He won the Democratic primary on September 12, placing third with 14 percent of the vote and edging out his opponent, Paul Griffin, by a margin of 307 votes. He was sworn in on January 10, 2007. Kramer was a member of the Judiciary Committee from 2007 to 2010, afterwards serving in the Economic Matters Committee for the remainder of his tenure.

In 2009, Kramer unsuccessfully ran in the Montgomery County Council District 4 special election, in which he was defeated by Nancy Navarro. In August 2017, a day after state Senator Roger Manno announced that he would run for Congress in Maryland’s 6th congressional district in 2018, Kramer announced that he would seek to succeed Manno in the Maryland Senate. He ran unopposed in both the primary and defeated Green Party nominee David Jeang general election, and was sworn in on January 9, 2019.