Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-MD) announcement Monday that she wouldn’t run for a sixth term in the U.S. Senate didn’t set off a panic among Democrats about who could replace her.
Instead, it resulted in knee-jerk shortlists of who could run, with Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) getting mentioned a lot.
Mikulski, during her press conference where she announced that she wouldn’t run for re-election in 2016, refused to offer names of who could run for her seat but hinted that the Democratic primary field could be big.
“Maryland has a lot of talent,” Mikulski said. “And they’ll be telling you about it within the next ten minutes.”
She did say that she’d be supporting whoever becomes the Democratic nominee.
Van Hollen, ranking member of the House Budget Committee, who’s mentioned as a top candidate for some kind of higher position in Congress —maybe Speaker of the House if Democrats were ever to retake control of the chamber— got multiple mentions as a potential candidate for Mikulski’s seat. Like virtually every other possible candidate, his office stayed mum, only praising Mikulski’s tenure as the longest serving woman in the Senate.
“She was the first Democratic woman Senator elected in her own right and the longest serving woman Senator in U.S. history,” Van Hollen said in a statement.
Even if Democrats do keep the seat, Mikulski’s retirement creates a few potential paradigm shifts. Many of the names of potential candidates mentioned by Democrats to TPM are men: Reps. Elijah Cummings, John Delaney, and John Sarbanes. If one of them ran and won, it would mean the total number of women in the Senate could shrink from its current 20.
On Monday afternoon Delaney said he was interested in exploring possibly running for Mikulski’s seat.
I’m in public service to get things done and will explore a race for Senate. MD families want jobs, economic opportunity & real solutions.
— John Delaney (@JDelaneyforMD) March 2, 2015
Reps. Donna Edwards, former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Heather Mizeur, and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) were also mentioned as potential women candidates. No one was hinting at future plans Monday, just praising Mikulski’s near-three decades in the Senate.
There’s also the specter of another upset similar to what happened in 2014 governor’s race when Larry Hogan (R) defeated Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (D) in a state widely considered a Democratic stronghold. A GOP campaign official offered former Gov. Bob Ehrlich, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), and Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford (R) as possible names.
Then there’s former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) who’s shown strong interest in running for president in 2016 but has lagged behind former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) in polling of potential candidates.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to get in early and clear the field,” a former top Democratic campaign operative told TPM. “It would be a good off-ramp for him for running for the presidency. He’s known statewide, he’s run twice statewide but the issue with him is whether there’s O’Malley fatigue in the state and I think there’s evidence that there might be, given his handpicked successor got trounced in the last governor’s race.”
Still, O’Malley would be a top-tier Democratic candidate. O’Malley spokeswoman Lis Smith released a statement only saying that it’s too soon to start thinking about who could run for Mikulski’s seat.
“Today is a day to reflect on Senator Mikulski’s service to the people of Maryland, not engage in political speculation,” Smith said in a statement.
Rep. Van Hollen is a star.
Gov. O’Malley, not so much.
Absolutely agree. Van Hollen.
Coming from a Maryland Independent voter.
Donna Edwards. Took out corrupt DINO Wynn in the primary.
Three necessary qualifications: Fiery, female, and under five feet tall.