Thank you for a Great Campaign Launch

Thank you to all who came out and braved the cold for the campaign launch yesterday.

The speakers were great and inspiring. As we get video of the speeches processed we will post them here.

We will update the gallery on this page with more images and videos as we get the processed.

Andy’s speech

This is the text of the remarks Andy gave at the campaign launch event January 4th in Annapolis MD.

Thanks Renee for the intro and for hosting, and thank you to all the speakers out here today! I want to start by thanking a few people.

 Thank you to Christy for all the work on the message, the web site and the social media,  thank you to Brian who is my Treasurer and trusted advisor, thank you to my Dad who has taken many photos, did an interview which is now up on my website and has provided great advice, thank you. Thank you to Ariel, Michelle, Michael and Letty who finished up Green campaigns in November and didn’t miss a beat in stepping up to volunteer for this one.

Thank you to Andrew for sticking with orioles games with me when it was bad and when it was good, thank you for the  good advice, and for bringing the button maker to our movement! Thank you to, hiruy Robert and Nnamdi for planning, theorizing and  strategizing what this new world looks like. Thank you to Jared and Renee for access to your platform. Thank you to Phil, for fighting for environmental justice. Thank you to all the people who have done good work to help us get here and are not able to be here today, Jose, Renaud,Sim, Matt, Mary Rooker and my Mom. 

Thank you to Dana my wife  for being my constant thought partner and loving companion in this project, and thank you to each of you for being out here on this cold annapolis day to kick this off.

My name is Andy Ellis, and I am proud to announce my candidacy for Governor of Maryland. I  am seeking the nomination of the Green Party, and I am incredibly excited to spend the next two years talking to Marylanders about a new kind of politics that works for everyone

These are challenging political times in Maryland, and nationally. Answering back the bigotry, brutality, and narrow-mindedness of another Trump presidential term requires us to prove that love and compassion and justice and cooperation are possible. 

At the same time getting beyond the stay the course safety of the Democratic party demands we do something different. Now more than ever we need a political movement with the courage to imagine, and the power to transform.

We must stand together and demand Power to the People  that is the only way to solve the problems facing our state and our country. We need more democracy, not less. Im talking about the thick, messy, and difficult small “d” democracy. The problem with the Republican and Democratic Parties is that ultimately they cannot empower people, because that's not their purpose, and that is not what their donors want, and they certainly are not in favor of the kind of people and community centered democracy that we really need. 

The 2024 presidential election showed at a national level that more and more people know the current system simply doesn't work. Democrats and Republicans are deeply in the pockets of big corporations and are partners in an increasingly authoritarian government. 

Both parties support Israel's campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people. 

Both parties support indefinite extension  of fossil fuels. 

Both parties support massive military spending.

Both parties support privatization of  public goods.

Both parties work for the corporations, the big money donors, and their party leaders.

It is not that much  different here in Maryland, even though democrats have huge structural advantages. 

In Maryland, Both parties have a decades long record of supporting tough on crime policies and Maryland has some of the  highest Black and Youth Incarceration rates  in the nation.

Both Parties support  regressive taxation, both parties support giveaways to developers and corporations, and  both parties refuse to tax the wealthy, and not surprisingly  we are facing several billion dollars in structural deficit.

Both parties believe that trash is a renewable energy, both parties believe coal belongs in working class neighborhoods not in the ground , and both parties believe polluting industries can regulate themselves.

Both parties support the desecration of Black Cemeteries, both parties have fought to suppress protest, and both parties want to silence any one who would say Palestine must be free and Maryland must not be complicit in genocide. 

I want to be clear here. Maryland is a deep blue state where democrats have a 2:1 registration advantage over republicans, control every statewide executive office, have a decades long  veto proof majority in both houses of the general assembly, and control the 8 most populous counties. So when I say both parties, it doesn't have to be that way, but it is  because the democrats use their structural advantages to consistently move toward the Republicans on every issue I listed.

Now when the legislative session begins on wednesday keep an eye on what the Democrats in charge do, and what the powerless republicans demand, watch what should get done but doesn't, watch what shouldn't get done but somehow  does.  

Watch the donor money, new campaign finance  reports that get turned in this month,that will explain a lot!

Watch whose  wallets are balancing the budget, and which communities have to pay the price for the deficit. 

Watch who lines up to defend tough on crime policies, watch who tells you children are the problem, and watch who tells you that accountability and rehabilitation are best performed by the prison system.

Watch who tells you that now is not the time to address climate change, who tells you that nothing can be done about the coal plants, and watch who defends polluters and corporations over people and communities.

Watch who has power, how they use it, and how they don’t.

When the 90 day general assembly session starts Wednesday,  As always we need to  watch, learn, and act .But we can’t let that be the limit of our political imagination. We also need to keep our eyes on the bigger prize and embrace a politics that can transform maryland.

I am running for governor of Maryland because I know that what we are doing is not working. We are told that only two parties are viable and that we must just accept that. We are told that despite a long standing multiparty democracy, right here in Maryland,  that in reality we have a two party system. 

But, this two party system has  left many Marylanders behind, and struggling to make a living in one of the most expensive states in the country. 

These two choices are insufficient to address the climate crisis, 

to protect our water and our land, to make our communities resiliant and free of toxic pollution

and to move beyond fossil fuels.

 And having just two choices has left nearly a third of the voters in the state entirely disengaged and even more unsatisfied.

 Those two choices proved to be insufficient in stopping genocide, war, and imperialism abroad and cop cities and billion dollar police budgets in Maryland. 

 I think most voters across this country, including most Marylanders, are fed up with the two-party system and want solutions which are not seriously pursued by either party. That frustration leads some  to want to elect their idea of a tough guy to just clean it all up. Others want to get rid of political parties, and still more people just want to walk away from politics altogether. 

We have a different plan. 

We need a new vision and a political party with the courage to imagine something different and the power to transform this vision to reality. 

My campaign goal is to co-create, with all of you, a new approach. An approach that asks you the questions that will shape how we move forward together. 

Questions like, How will a proposed policy affect the most vulnerable of us? 

Are stakeholders and affected community members leading the creation of solutions to the problems that most affect their communities? 

What does it mean to say a policy or solution "works?" 

How do we create and present a budget that prioritizes justice, democracy, peace, and ecology?

How can we, the people assembled here today and those who hear these words in the future, build our  party so we can put these questions at the forefront of our politics?

Before I get into anything more about the campaign I want to tell you a little bit about myself, my Maryland Story, and why Maryland matters to me. My wife and I have both lived in Baltimore for 2 decades, my mom lives in Frederick, my dad and stepmom live in Darnestown, my brother, sister in law and niece live in Germantown. 

Maryland is my home.

like many folks I wasn’t born here though, I moved to Maryland from somewhere else. My mom and  I moved to Maryland from Northern Virginia my Freshman year of high school. She worked for the Federal Government in Emmitsburg, and the Commute around the DC beltway and UP and down 270 every day was just too much. So we moved to Frederick, and I attended and graduated from Governor Thomas Johnson High School. 

It was joining the Debate Team at TJ that changed the course of my life. Debate took me to St. Mary’s college of Maryland  and then Towson University where I competed as a college student, it took me around the country for nearly a decade as a coach, and finally debate brought me back to Maryland in 2005 when I helped launch and coordinate the Baltimore Urban Debate League Middle School Program. 

At this same point, I returned to the Towson Debate team, only this time as a coach. Three years later, two Towson University Students, Dayvon Love and Deven Cooper,  both graduates of Baltimore City Public Schools, won the Cross Examination Debate Association National championship. They were the first team of two Black Students to do so. 

Dayvon and Deven and the Towson Debate team taught me that I could do more than imagine a different world. Towson debate taught me that a strong vision combined with collective action and good policy has the power to transform and make a new reality. 

Dayvon and Deven may have been the first Black Baltimore debaters to celebrate a national championship in that statehouse, but they also ushered in an era of excellence, and nearly a dozen Black Maryland debaters have followed in their championship celebrations.

Debate  taught me that democracy works better when ideas get tested, and when policy is well researched and persuasively presented.Debate taught me that policy rooted in justice can be transformative, and it can not only repair past harms, but change futures.  Finally, Debate taught me that even when it seems like there are only two sides, there are always multiple perspectives and the more of them we hear, the better our decision making. 

I believe public debate about politics, policy, and priorities is essential to building a new and more collaborative form of democracy, and I am excited to announce that today we are launching a campaign to open up the debates in the Governor’s race. Maryland Public television hosts televised debates for state wide elections like governor. Their current editorial policies arbitrarily limit participants in the debate in a way that almost ensures that the only candidates on the debate stage are the representatives of the Two Parties of the status quo. MPT believes that they know best which parties and candidates  Marylanders need to hear from, and they enforce policy to ensure that. We believe Marylanders have a right to hear from every candidate who will appear on their general election ballot, and today we are launching a petition to get MPT to open up the debates. No longer can we accept editorial boards using taxpayer money to prop up the two parties. We need a multiparty system, and a big part of that is making sure Marylanders can hear from all the candidates on the ballot. 

So go to GoGreen2026.Com and fill out the petition today! We want to win this fight and we will need your help to do it.

A strong theme of this campaign is that we need a multiparty system, and the Green Party should be one of those parties. I believe this because I know we must have a party that is rooted in justice, peace, democracy, and ecology. We must build a party that can represent the grassroots, the working class, the people left behind, and the people disenchanted with business as usual. 

I'm seeking the nomination of the Maryland Green Party because I believe all this party has achieved over 25 years in this state will lay the groundwork for what we will do, not just over the next two years, but over the next decade. We  can fundamentally transform Maryland for the better if we take our experience running candidates in every election since 2000, our powerful national platform, and build a party for  the people doing grassroots work in communities. When we do that, work not just as a party but as a people powered movement, we can do anything.

So to that end, here are some of the goals we’ll be pursuing with this campaign:

First, we're going to light a new path forward that expands our imagination about what multiparty democracy  can look like in Maryland.

Second, we will raise issues and solutions ignored and silenced by the current political system.

Third, we're going to run candidates across the state and up and down the ballot.

Fourth, we will build a foundation for local organizing in all 24 counties.

Fifth, we are going to be the first small party in maryland to qualify for public financing for a campaign for governor

Sixth, we are going to make it on the debate stage and every Marylander is going to get to hear how our vision and values lead to better solutions.

Now I am a student of history and political science so I know the odds of winning are slim, but when all is said and done in November of 2026, I believe we will have run the best third party campaign in Maryland since the civil war.  And who knows, with the power of the people behind us, Dana and I might be moving into that Mansion over there in a couple of years.

How we do all this is important. You can't separate the method from the outcome. We are a party with core values that are essential for our communities to survive and our families and neighbors to thrive: justice, peace, democracy, and ecology. These values guide our vision and our actions. 

We must speak clearly, lead with truth, go everywhere and talk to everyone, and run a positive, healthy, fun, and inclusive campaign. We must have the courage to imagine and the power to transform .

And, we need to lead this transformation with distinct  solutions,we need a program and a plan with a clear picture of what needs to end, and what needs to begin. 

There is no justice without racial justice, so we need to stop the cycle of empty promises, and commit to reparation, repair, and reinvestment in our historically oppressed Black communities. We need to invest in community institutions, not more police and prisons, and as long as we have a criminal justice system, we   must make it  the tool of last resort for community safety, not the first, politically convenient choice.

Ecology means we need to stop appeasing the fossil fuel barons, and the politicians in their pockets. We need to add up the cumulative costs that come from pollution, in lives and resources and need to make the polluters pay. We must  declare climate and environment emergencies to build community  resilience,  and then we must repair the damage that has been done, only then can  we reconstruct our economy so it is  truly just and truly green and truly leaves no one behind.

If we want an economy that works for all of us we need to divest from the war, fossil fuels and prison economy, and build in its place a solidarity economy.

 We need to make Maryland Communities not multinational corporations the focus of our economic policy.

We need to reshape education to be a public good, not a capitalist commodity. We must recognize healthcare,  and housing as human rights,  We need to build reliable and accessible mass transit across the state.

We need to  protect the most vulnerable, defend voting rights, and fight for free speech and against censorship.

We need a Maryland that is a refuge for those suffering from war, genocide, austerity economics and climate change, not a Maryland that invests our tax dollars in  joint ventures to support Israeli apartheid and genocide, like the Maryland Israel Development Center.

We need a maryland that respects human rights and international law, not one that supports war crimes, torture and occupation

We need to stop propping up the duopoly, and create a robust and deep multiparty democracy in Maryland. 

We need power in the hands of the people,we need  more public financing, we need better checks on money in politics, and we need more parties on the ballot, on the debate stage, and in the state house.

.

Finally, We need to transform the way that government operates in Maryland, so that residents believe it is designed to work for everyone, not just the well off or the well connected.

That's a lot. It's a political revolution. But we'll never get there without people who are willing to show up. And I'm confident that if there's one thing everyone who knows me will agree on, (whether they like me or don't like me) it's that when I believe in a cause I will show up and tell you about it, and I will have a lot of energy for it! 

I will bring the same energy to showing up in this campaign, and to serving as governor, as I did to the fight against Question H, the Baltimore City Charter Amendment that would have slashed our city council in half. It was paid for by a wealthy right wing media mogul, who thought he could shape Baltimore City government as he saw fit. Conventional wisdom is that he should have succeeded,because as the story goes,  Baltimore City voters do not vote against charter amendments. But we changed that in 2024 and beat question H. We being, a broad coalition of labor,progressive, faith and Black liberation organizations,  plus a cross section of elected officials , political leaders, and a lot of people with no organizational affiliation who got together, defied conventional wisdom and made history by defeating the first ballot question in Baltimore City in 20 years. It was a major win and that victory is a hint of what the future will bring, so I am excited to take that momentum into this campaign.

I will also bring the experience of losses, mistakes, and disappointments. My friend and mentor Kevin Zeese said  this right before his death in  September of 2020

‘ We also have to understand…Zeese Said…that the only path to success is failure. We fail and fail and fail until we win. But every time we try, we build the movement. And we get stronger. We can never tell how close we are to success. It’s like we’re banging on a wall, pounding and pounding, and it’s not until that wall begins to crack and we start to see the light come through that we realize we’re getting close to that breakthrough moment when change can occur. ‘

I believe this is as true as it is today as it was in 2020 and I am ready, with all of you to build the movement, to pound on that wall, and to breakthrough and see the change we all believe in. 

Our volunteer campaign staff has already been hard at work for over a year, and we are ready to take that intentionality and focus into 2025 and 2026. 

As I see us, and all of you, here for this announcement today, I'm reminded of something said by Petra Kelly, one of the founders of the Green Party: "We must learn on our own terms what peace and freedom mean together." On behalf of this campaign and this movement, I'm excited to invite all of you to help us learn. 

Thank you for your support, your passion, and your belief in a better future. Let's make history together. Let's build a Maryland that works for everyone.