(BALTIMORE – June 14, 2026) – The 41st District is about 63% Black.
Keep that number in mind.
Because this election is about more than who wins a Senate seat. It is about who gets to decide the future of a majority-Black district — and whether the people who live there get to make that decision for themselves.
The Map Tells a Story
The Baltimore Banner recently highlighted something many people would rather ignore. Several precincts within the 41st District gave Donald Trump majority support in 2024.
Chestwold — 55% Trump.
Cross Country — 57% Trump.
The Glenn — 57% Trump.
Whether you call it MAGA, Trumpism, conservatism, or something else entirely, the point is simple: the political forces reshaping America are not absent from Baltimore. They are here.
Who Is Trying to Decide This Race?
At the same time, the Baltimore Banner reported that a Baltimore-area rabbinical organization called Vaad Harabbonim encouraged members to switch political parties in order to participate in the June 23 Democratic primary.
In a district that is 63% Black.
Malcolm Ruff responded directly: “Encouraging voters to switch parties sends the message that the leaders of the orthodox community are resolute in trying to elect a federally indicted legislator by any means necessary.”
Dayvon Love, director of public policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, added: “The math doesn’t work for them in general. So they need to do something to inflate their numbers in order to get a better path toward victory.”
Those statements are on the record.
And according to the Baltimore Brew, central committee member Alex Friedman — who voted to put Dalya Attar in the Senate over Malcolm Ruff — is the son of Howard Friedman, a former chairman of the board of AIPAC who also sits on the board of the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns or operates 185 television stations nationwide. Alex Friedman ran on an all-Orthodox slate with City Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer and campaigned directly for Dalya Attar.
Draw your own conclusions.
The Indictment
So is this on the record: the sitting senator for the 41st District, Dalya Attar, is under federal indictment on charges including extortion and conspiracy. Prosecutors allege she and her co-defendants secretly recorded a political consultant in a private setting — cameras hidden in smoke detectors — then threatened to expose her unless she stayed away from the race.
Attar has publicly acknowledged that her family had the consultant followed and that a recording was made.
An indictment is not a conviction. But it is not nothing. And voters have every right to consider it.
There is also a question of consistency. When former 41st District Senator Nathaniel Oaks — a Black man — was indicted, he was stripped of his committee assignments immediately. Attar, who is white, has kept hers throughout her indictment.
A voter said it plainly at the polls this week: “I’m sick of you. We don’t do our Black women like this.”
If She Wins and Cannot Serve
Here is what few people are discussing.
If Attar wins this election and later cannot serve, voters will not choose her replacement. Eight central committee members will.
The last time that committee voted on this Senate seat, Malcolm Ruff lost 5-3. Two Black women — Angela Gibson and Lakesha Brown Wright-El — voted with the majority to put a now-indicted senator in power over a civil rights attorney from Park Heights. Wright-El had previously indicated support for Malcolm Ruff. BMORENews was the only outlet with the courage to report why she flipped.
A majority-Black district. Thousands of voters. And eight insiders who could ultimately determine who represents this community.
That should concern everyone.
Your Ballot Is Under Attack
Trump’s U.S. Postal Service has proposed a new rule that would allow it to refuse to deliver mail-in ballots in states that don’t hand over voter rolls to the federal government. The Supreme Court is also considering a Republican challenge that could invalidate mail-in ballots nationwide.
Do not risk it. Vote in person. Early voting runs through June 18. Election Day is June 23.
What Would Malik Think?
Sean Stinnett is a Sunni Muslim. So was Malik Rahman. Those same Muslim brothers — most of whom are Black Americans — who traveled from Northwest Baltimore all the way to the State House in Annapolis to watch that swearing-in are watching right now. And what they see is Sean standing on the other side of the street, standing on the wrong side of history and friendship.
Malik Rahman is doing backward somersaults in his grave.
Sean and I shared that brother. We both knew what he stood for, like being the biggest advocate for the formerly incarcerated in Maryland. And the question this community is asking — quietly, and not so quietly — is how do you look Malik Rahman’s memory in the face and explain choosing power over principles?
When did that become noble?
The Governor Already Told You
Governor Wes Moore put it on the mailer himself. In his own words:
Delegate Malcolm P. Ruff has spent his career fighting for Marylanders in the courtroom and in Annapolis. Now he’s running for the State Senate to protect Maryland from Donald Trump and deliver for Baltimore.
That is not our argument. That is the Governor of Maryland.
Learn more at malcolmpruff.com
The Decision Belongs to You
This election is not about hating anybody. It is about accountability. It is about representation. It is about whether the people of the 41st District make this decision for themselves — or whether somebody else makes it for them.
Our elders survived Reconstruction. They thought we were free. They watched Barack Obama get elected and believed we had turned a corner. Now they are watching it all come back — everything their grandmothers marched for, everything their fathers bled for, everything a 101-year-old Herb Brown held onto hope for until his very last breath.
The 41st District is 63% Black. The choice belongs to those 63%. Not to eight committee members. Not to outside political forces. Not to anybody else.
Use your vote. While it still counts. While it is still yours to cast.
Vote Malcolm Ruff for State Senate, 41st District. Vote Chezia Cager and Ryan Turner for Delegates.
Vote in person. Early voting through June 18. Election Day is June 23.
Doni Glover is the founder and publisher of BMORENews.com, now in its 24th year of covering Black Baltimore, and the founder of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards, now in its 15th year. He is also the host of the Emmy-nominated Doni Glover podcast and The Doni Glover Show on WMAR-TV 2.
