History was made Wednesday afternoon in the Maryland House of Delegates — but not the way it was expected to be made.
By a vote of 139-to-0, the House elected Democratic Delegate Adrienne Jones as the first-ever black speaker. In turning to Jones (who is speaker pro tem of the House), Delegates elected someone who had left the race for speaker days before.
Prior to Jones’ return, the race was between two hard-charging contenders: Delegates Maggie McIntosh of Baltimore, who sought to be the first gay speaker, and Derek Davis of Prince George’s County, who would have become the first black speaker.
But, sources in Annapolis told Newsmax, neither McIntosh nor Davis could manage the “magic 71”—the 71 votes needed to make either speaker.
Davis had the endorsement of the 45-Member Black Caucus in the House, but it was not clear how close he would come to getting every one of their votes.
In addition, the 42 House Republicans had agreed in their caucus to support Davis. This was particularly significant, as no Democratic House Speaker has ever assumed the gavel on the strength of Republican votes.
McIntosh, an unabashed member of her party’s progressive wing, clearly had more votes among her fellow Democrats than Davis but could not push it to a majority.
On Wednesday afternoon, with most of the Free State press watching, the Democratic caucus met and, to the surprise of just about everyone, emerged with a unanimous endorsement of Jones — who had been out of the race. A few mintues later, the Republican Caucus emerged and gave its blessings to Jones.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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