Author: zach

A 28-year-old lawyer from Derwood is running for the Democratic nomination for a District 19 seat in the House of Delegates, thinking his White House policy expertise and his work ethic make him a good fit for Annapolis.

“I’m running I have the both the policy chops and the work ethic to be an effective delegate to get things done in Annapolis,” Vaughn Stewart said.

District 19 is currently represented by Bonnie Cullison, Marice Morales and Benjamin Kramer. Kramer has filed with the Maryland State Board of Elections to run for the state Senate seat now held by Roger Manno, who is running for the 6th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. John Delaney. Cullison and Morales, both of Silver Spring, have filed for re-election.

Two others have filed to run in the District 19 Democratic primary: Brian Crider of Rockville and Jade Wiles Jr. of Silver Spring.

District 19 takes in a central sliver of Montgomery County, east of Rockville and Gaithersburg, but west of Olney. It includes parts of Silver Spring, Wheaton, Leisure World, Laytonsville, Derwood, Aspen Hill and Kemp Mill.

Stewart’s policy expertise includes a stint in the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Obama as well as serving as Rep. Jamie Raskin’s policy director for his 2016 congressional campaign.

He said he wants to serve as a delegate because he can make a difference in state government.

“I think with the buffoon we have in the White House, the prospect of progress is minimal,” Stewart said.

He also said he is a two-time cancer survivor, going through four rounds of chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells, over the spring and summer. As of June 16, he said, his cancer is fully in remission.

“Going through that experience gives you a newfound appreciation for the injustices of our health care system,” Stewart said.

A proposal he’d advance in the House of Delegates would be to treat pharmaceutical companies like utilities. A board of relevant experts would set prices for prescription drugs that allows companies to make a profit but doesn’t gouge consumers, he said.

Stewart said he’d model it after the all-payer model that regulates hospital charges.

He said he also wanted the state to make “smart” investments in infrastructure, including all-day MARC service and extending Metro’s Red Line from Glenmont to Olney with stops in Leisure World and Aspen Hill.

“You’re not only giving commuters alternatives to traffic congestion, you’re helping to combat climate change, and finally you’re investing in the clean energy economy in creating good paying green-collar jobs,” he said.

Stewart has gained an endorsement from a progressive leader from Maryland’s political past: Stephen Sachs, the former attorney general who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1986, losing to Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer.

“Vaughn has the policy savvy and the work ethic necessary to be an incredibly effective Delegate,” Sachs said in a news release issued by Stewart’s campaign. “He is exactly the kind of tireless advocate we need in Annapolis.”

Sachs formerly was a lawyer for WilmerHale, where Stewart now works as a regulatory attorney.

The field of candidates vying to become a delegate in District 19, with Ben Kramer leaving, is growing.

This month, Derwood attorney Vaughn Stewart filed with the state’s Board of Elections to run for delegate in the district, which includes portions of Silver Spring and Rockville.

On Monday, Marlin Jenkins, a Silver Spring labor attorney and major in the Maryland National Guard, announced he would run, too.

Six Democrats, including two incumbents and Stewart, have filed to run for three delegate seats in next year’s elections. No Republicans have filed.

Kramer is running for state Senate in the district after the incumbent senator, Roger Manno, announced he would pursue the District 6 congressional seat. Incumbent Dels. Bonnie Cullison and Marice Morales both are seeking seek re-election.

Stewart, 28, is an attorney at the Washington, D.C., law firm WilmerHale and represents refugees pro bono, according to his campaign website bio.

In a press release last week, he said he would work to improve the state’s health care system, lower prescription drug prices and ease traffic congestion in the area as a delegate.

“Quality health care, affordable prescription drugs, and paid sick leave should be rights of every single Marylander,” Stewart said in a statement.

This year, he was diagnosed as having non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but it is in remission, his campaign website says. He has previously said his two battles with cancer in the last 10 years have given him insight into health care policy and the need to improve options for patients.

Stewart worked as a policy director for Rep. Jamie Raskin’s congressional campaign and served on the boards of the Action Committee for Transit and the Montgomery County Renters Alliance.

His campaign bio says he served on a Domestic Policy Council under the Obama administration.

He grew up in Anniston, Alabama, where his father served as both a judge and a mayor, according to his website. Stewart received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and law degree from New York University.

He is the treasurer of the District 19 Democratic Club.

In a phone interview Monday, Jenkins, 35, likened his personal story to that of Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett. He said he grew up poor in Vidalia, Louisiana, a town of about 3,000 people. His high school graduating class had 70 students. He attended Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge while serving in the Louisiana National Guard.

As a soldier, he was deployed to help Hurricane Katrina victims and on humanitarian missions building infrastructure in Guatemala, Honduras and Belize. He said he earned a Bronze Star Medal in Iraq.

After returning from Iraq, he graduated from law school at North Carolina Central University in 2012. He moved to Silver Spring to work at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and landed his current job as a labor attorney for the American Federation of Government Employees.

During the 2017 General Assembly session, he volunteered in Manno’s office, assisting with labor and veteran-related legislation.

Jenkins said he has attended cookouts at Leggett’s home, but the county executive has not encouraged him to run or endorsed him. Leggett and Jenkins grew up in towns about 30 minutes apart in Louisiana—during different time periods, as Leggett is 73—and attended the same undergraduate university, Jenkins noted. Leggett also served in the military, as an Army captain during the Vietnam War.

Jenkins said he is running to provide other people with opportunities he received. He noted that as a Louisiana National Guard member, he received free college tuition—a policy he’d like to bring to Maryland, which offers a waiver up to 50 percent for college students serving in the National Guard. He said he was enrolled in Head Start as a child, which prepared him for school and helped his mother raise three boys on her own.

“I think my starting point from one of the poorest areas in the country to using the opportunities provided to me are a demonstration of what the American story is,” Jenkins said. “My story is what happens when opportunities are provided to people.”

Jenkins is a member of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee.

Other Democrats who have filed to run in the district include software developer Brian Crider, of Rockville; former health care operations manager Jade Wiles Jr., of Silver Spring; and education policy consultant Justin Dayhoff, of Derwood.

On June 22, 2015, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced that he had been diagnosed with late stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Hogan spent the next several months fighting the rare and aggressive cancer – gaining countless friends and well-wishers along the way.

Vaughn Stewart, a young attorney, was diagnosed with the same kind of cancer two years later. Now, after just being given a clean bill of health following four rounds of chemotherapy, he’s seeking a seat in the House of Delegates from Montgomery County’s District 19.

Stewart, a 28-year-old Democrat, is running in a largely Democratic area that takes in portions of Silver Spring and Rockville, including Leisure World. He may look like a shoo-in from the outside but with so many other Democrats running he will, after fighting cancer, face another battle — differentiating himself from the pack. His story may help him do just that.

“I actually got cancer for the first time when I was 18 years old,” Stewart said. “At that time I thought, we’re really not guaranteed tomorrow, I should really try to do the best I can to make a difference.”

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An Alabama native who currently works for the Washington, D.C., law firm WilmerHale, Stewart attended the University of Pennsylvania for his undergraduate degree, and while there he taught debating skills to underprivileged kids. He then went to New York University Law School. At WilmerHale, he focuses on government litigation and investigations, but also does pro bono work assisting refugees.

Several months ago, Stewart was diagnosed with cancer again. With a similar mindset, he began thinking about what he was going to do this time around to make a difference.

During his chemotherapy treatments, he studied health care policy.

“I remember receiving the chemo cocktail in my right arm while holding my iPhone in my left hand and reading about the congressional Republicans trying to gut care for those of us with pre-existing conditions,” he said.

Stewart is not only critical of congressional Republicans and their health care agenda but Hogan as well.

“As you might imagine, my experience has not ingratiated me to the governor’s position on sick leave or congressional Republicans’ eagerness to slash protections for those of us with preexisting conditions,” he said.

Stewart, who served as policy director to Rep. Jamie Raskin’s (D-Md.) congressional campaign, is advancing proposals to regulate generic prescription drug manufacturers like public utilities and to create Maryland’s own universal health care system.

As Hogan was after his treatment, Stewart is currently bald. On his campaign announcement video, he jokes that his baldness “is not a fashion statement.”

Hogan in an interview last week said he had not heard of Stewart, but wished him well.

“My thoughts and prayers go out to him as a fellow cancer survivor,” the governor said. “We’re all part of the same club.”

Hogan said even after going into remission it’s tough to be in the public eye right away.

“It takes a while to get your strength back and it’s really grueling,” he said.

(Hogan was not apprised of Stewart’s policy criticisms during the interview and did not have an opportunity to respond.)

Stewart credits his socioeconomic status for his successful fight against cancer.

“I live in Montgomery County, I live in one of the wealthiest counties in one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest country of all time, and yet there are people who die from diseases like I had because they didn’t have health insurance,” he said.

Stewart is one of several candidates who have officially entered the race for three seats in the House of Delegates. With state Sen. Roger Manno (D) now running for Congress, Del. Ben Kramer (D) is looking to move up to the Senate. Del. Marice Morales (D) and Del. Bonnie Cullison (D) are running for re-election.

Also running for the House as Democrats are political novices Brian Crider, a software developer, and Jade Wiles, who is getting a doctorate in health administration.

Charlotte Crutchfield, chairwoman of the Montgomery County Merit Systems Protection Board, and Marlin Jenkins, an attorney with the American Federation of Government Employees, are also pondering the Democratic race.

Stewart acknowledges that his interest in running is not solely a result of his cancer battle.

“The truth is, since I was a kid I’ve always been interested in public service,” he said. “I think I’ve got a unique perspective on the precariousness of life and how close death is and I think most importantly the absurdity of our health care system.”

A few weeks ago, Vaughn Stewart III was in a hospital treatment room receiving a round of chemo and surfing the web with his iPhone to help pass the time. He read up on news reports about the health care bickering in Washington, D.C., and was especially concerned about the talk of pre-existing conditions and lifetime insurance caps.

At the time, the Anniston native and current Maryland resident was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, marking his second battle with the C-word.

His first came in 2007 shortly after graduating from The Donoho School. He was diagnosed with acinic cell carcinoma — cancer of the salivary gland. After surgery, he underwent a series of scans; when each one came back clean, he considered it to be “another bullet dodged.”

Vaughn went on to attend the University of Pennsylvania, double-majoring in political science and sociology, and then to New York University School of Law, where he was an editor of the NYU Law Review. During that time, he served as a White House intern. After graduating, he clerked for the Hon. John T. Nixon in Nashville, Tenn. (Nixon had started his career as Anniston’s city attorney, where he knew Vaughn’s grandfather.)

Today, Vaughn is a regulatory attorney at WilmerHale, a large corporate firm in Washington. It is where he met Alex, the woman who would later become his wife, when both were working as summer associates.

One of his favorite memories from that time was when the summer associates took a Segway tour of D.C. It was such a hot day that they each took turns driving over a water hose for some quick relief. Alex decided to impress the others with her ability to maneuver the Segway backwards, not realizing how slowly it traveled in reverse. Once she came off the hose, she was drenched! Vaughn took the opportunity to whisk her away, giving them time alone to talk and get to know each other.

Some 18 months and many conversations later, Vaughn took Alex to the Lincoln Memorial on the ruse that they were meeting friends. His real intent was a marriage proposal. He had hired a photographer to snap photos of the event, and when he and Alex reached the top of the monument steps, he dropped to one knee.

Before he could actually say the words, however, Alex noticed the photographer and, thinking he was a tourist, apologized for getting in his shot. By the time Vaughn was able to pop the question, a crowd of actual tourists had gathered and were also taking pictures, cheering loudly when Alex happily accepted.

The two were married last summer in a beautiful ceremony in Chevy Chase, Md., but before they could celebrate their first anniversary, Vaughn discovered a swollen lymph node on the side of his neck. The doctor confirmed his worst fears: It was cancer.

Fortunately, the illness was caught in Stage 1, which his doctor explained was not a death sentence, but more like a lousy summer. After four rounds of chemo, Vaughn is now in remission and getting his life back to normal.

While he appreciates the sentiment behind those who congratulate him for “beating cancer,” he feels his recovery is the result of other factors such as early diagnosis, connections to renowned facilities and excellent health insurance.

“I owe my life to my fortunate socio-economic circumstance,” he said. “I live in one of the wealthiest counties in one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest country of all time, yet there are people who die because they can’t afford health insurance.”

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