BALTIMORE — When Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rushern Baker III launched his first television ad of Maryland’s 2022 campaign, he chose to focus on murders in Baltimore, telling viewers “nobody in power gives a damn” about the carnage because the victims are Black and vowing to “stop the slaughter of young Black men.”
And it’s not just Baker, a former Prince George’s County executive, who’s been talking about crime and policing on the campaign trail.
Former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler has tried to make crime-fighting a central plank of his campaign, saying at a recent news conference outside City Hall that crime in Baltimore is “the one issue on everyone’s mind.” And fellow Democrat Wes Moore dedicated a recent campaign event to Baltimore’s persistently high homicide rate, and sought to pin part of the blame on outgoing Republican Gov. Larry Hogan over staffing shortages at the state’s probation and parole agency.
