Senator Sarah Elfreth Contact information

Sarah Kelly Elfreth is a Democratic member of the Maryland Senate representing the 30th district. She was born on September 9, 1988, and raised in Barrington, New Jersey, where her stepfather worked as a locomotive engineer and her mother worked as a probation officer.

Elfreth graduated from Haddon Heights High School in 2006 and attended Towson University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 2010. She submitted a thesis on how having students participate in governing boards can make them more effective. In 2012, Elfreth earned her Master of Science degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University, where she worked as a research assistant in the Office of Government and Community Affairs from 2010 to 2012. Elfreth serves as an adjunct professor for Towson University’s Honors College.

Elfreth became active in politics while attending Towson University, when she became involved with student government and began traveling to Annapolis to lobby the Maryland General Assembly. In 2009, Maryland governor Martin O’Malley appointed Elfreth to be the student member of the University System Board of Regents. She didn’t become involved with electoral politics until her senior year at Towson, after hearing a speech by former Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin. She briefly served in the office of House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer before working as the Government Affairs Director at the National Aquarium of Baltimore.

After moving to Annapolis, Elfreth became involved with local politics, becoming a member of the Ward 1 Residents Association and serving on the District 30 Democratic Club. In June 2017, Elfreth filed to run for Maryland Senate, seeking to succeed state Senator John Astle, who did not seek re-election to run for Mayor of Annapolis. During the Democratic primary, she ran on a slate with House Speaker Michael E. Busch. Elfreth was elected to the Maryland Senate with 53.8 percent of the vote against former Delegate Ron George.

Elfreth was sworn into the Maryland Senate on January 9, 2019. She is currently the youngest woman ever to serve in the Maryland Senate. Elfreth is a member of the Budget and Taxation Committee—including as the chair of its Pensions and Public Safety, Transportation, and Environment subcommittee and as a member of its Capital Budget subcommittee—and is the chair of the Joint Committee on the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bay Critical Areas and Joint Subcommittee on Program Open Space and Agricultural Land Preservation.