On Winning the Public Advocate of the year award-Why This Award Matters for Maryland’s Future
March 24, 2025
By Andy Ellis
This past weekend, I received the Public Advocate of the Year Award from the Cross Examination Debate Association. I was a co-recipient of the award with my longtime friend and colleague, Dayvon Love, Director of Public Policy at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle/ It was presented by Deven Cooper, Director of Forensics at Cal State Long Beach.
Dayvon and I accepted the award for our work with Baltimore for Democracy—an effort that helped defeat Question H, the 2024 charter amendment that would have slashed the size of the Baltimore City Council.
That campaign was about more than one ballot measure. It was about protecting people’s voices in a city where too many are already unheard. And it worked. Voters rejected Question H, marking the first time in more than 20 years that a Baltimore City charter amendment was defeated at the ballot box.
Why did we win? We made a clear, principled argument. We talked to thousands of people. We listened. And we trusted that, given the facts and a chance to be heard, voters would stand up for democracy.
That belief—that arguments matter, that minds can change, that people are persuadable—is something I learned through debate. And it’s part of what’s missing from our politics today.
Debate Changed My Life—and Shaped My Politics
I started debating in high school at Governor Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick. I then went on to compete at Towson University. After my time as a student at Towson I worked with students across the country—from Vermont to New York and at Cal State Long Beach—teaching them not just how to win an argument, but how to ask better questions and listen more carefully.
In 2008, I coached Dayvon and Deven as they made history as the first Black debate team to win the CEDA National Championship. That victory didn’t just change their lives—it changed what others thought was possible, in debate and beyond.
But most debaters never win a national championship, and yet each debate is still important.
Good debate teaches us how to think critically, how to challenge assumptions,how to have empathy for arguments we don’t agree with and how to build arguments that move people. It teaches us that persuasion isn’t magic—it’s a skill. The conventional wisdom in modern politics is that no one changes their mind, but debate taught me that conventional wisdom is wrong.
Once you learn how to change someone’s mind, the world looks different. Things that once seemed impossible start to feel within reach.
Who Gets to Be Heard in Maryland?
As a candidate for Governor in 2026, I believe voters deserve to hear full arguments, real alternatives, and ideas that don’t fit inside the narrow lines drawn by the political establishment. I believe they should have the opportunity to change their mind. I believe that every person on the ballot should have a place on the debate stage, regardless of their political party.
But under the current rules Maryland Public Television - a taxpayer funded media outlet - functionally excludes anyone but the Democratic and Republican candidates. I don’t think that is right and that is why I am organizing a petition to let every candidate on the general election ballot be on the MPT debate stage. Sign the petition today!
Many will say a third-party candidate can’t win.This is surely true, just like not every debater will win a national championship, not every candidate will be governor. But ask yourself: how many times has someone told you change wasn’t possible—until it happened? How many times does that change come from an unexpected place?
In Baltimore, we beat Question H with community organizing, clarity of purpose, and honest debate.
Imagine what we could do if Maryland gave every voter the chance to hear from every candidate. Imagine a politics where persuasion mattered more than money.
Let’s Prove What’s Possible
This award is not about looking back. It’s about moving forward with the same principles that made the question H campaign—and my life’s work with public advocacy—possible.
If we want a government that listens to people, we need to fight for a politics that includes them. That starts with debate. It starts with access. It starts with refusing to accept that the way things are is the way they must remain.
So here’s what I’m asking:
Add your name to our petition to open the gubernatorial debates. If we’re on the ballot, we should be on the stage. gogreen2026.com/debate
Come to one of our events. Meet our team. Ask hard questions. We welcome them. gogreen2026.com
Help us show what’s possible when we trust people—and give them the tools to lead.
We changed what was possible in Baltimore. With your help, we can do it again in Maryland.