Senator Mary Washington Contact information

Mary Lynn Washington was born on May 20, 1962, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is the oldest of six children and was raised in West Philadelphia. After graduating from the Philadelphia High School for Girls, she attended Antioch University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in human services in 1989.

In 1992, Washington moved to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins University. There, she earned Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in sociology. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the United States census’ influence on national identity.

Before entering politics, Washington worked as an assistant professor at Lehigh University from 1995 to 2002. She then served as a research fellow for the University of Pennsylvania. From 2002 to 2005, she was the director of the Baltimore Housing Authority’s HousingStat office.

Washington first got involved in politics in 2006, when she ran unsuccessfully for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 43. However, she ran again in 2010 and won the Democratic primary, placing third with 25.1 percent of the vote. She ran unopposed in the general election and was sworn into the Maryland House of Delegates on January 12, 2011. Upon her swearing in, she became the first openly lesbian African-American elected official in the state.

In 2017, Washington announced her candidacy for the Maryland Senate in District 43 in 2018, challenging incumbent state senator Joan Carter Conway. She defeated Conway in the Democratic primary in an upset on June 26, 2018, by a margin of 492 votes, and ran unopposed in the general election. She assumed office as a member of the Maryland Senate from District 43 on January 9, 2019.

Throughout her political career, Washington has served on various committees, including the Education, Energy and the Environment Committee, the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review, and the Joint Committee on the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Critical Area. She has also been involved in work groups and task forces focused on issues such as ending homelessness, studying crime classification and penalties, and studying shelter and supportive services for unaccompanied homeless minors.

Washington continues to serve as a member of the Maryland Senate from District 43, representing the interests of her constituents and working towards progressive change.