6. Climate Leadership, Clean Energy, and Environmental Justice

CORE PROMISE: Protect the Chesapeake Bay, strengthen our shores, and bring clean energy jobs home.

Maryland’s Fifth District sits at the frontline of climate change, and our communities feel the impact every day.

In Prince George’s and Charles Counties, outdated stormwater systems cannot keep up with stronger storms, causing chronic flooding in neighborhoods, roadways, and schools. Communities living near highways and industrial corridors breathe air that harms their health.

In Calvert and St. Mary’s Counties, sea-level rise and storm surge are rapidly eroding our shorelines, threatening homes, small businesses, infrastructure, and entire neighborhoods. Properties are losing land year after year. Waterfront communities are being swallowed by rising tides and stronger storms.

At the same time, the Chesapeake Bay — the environmental, cultural, and economic center of Southern Maryland — is battling:

• declining oxygen levels

• warming waters

• reduced crab and oyster populations

• agricultural runoff

• sediment pollution

• habitat collapse 

These changes directly hurt our watermen — the backbone of Southern Maryland’s maritime heritage — who face shrinking harvests, rising fuel costs, regulatory complexities, and increased competition from large corporate fleets.

Our region has enormous potential to lead the clean-energy transition, but we lack the modern infrastructure, grid resilience, and federal investments needed to unlock those jobs here. Recent development trends have left some communities overburdened by pollution, while others lack access to green space, adequate stormwater management, or clean transit options.

The climate crisis is not a future threat — it is already reshaping MD-05’s economy, environment, and way of life.

HOW I’LL WORK TO FIX IT:

Fund coastal resilience and shoreline protection projects across Southern Maryland

Protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay and local fisheries

Support waterman and the maritime economy with targeted resilience + infrastructure support

Modernize stormwater systems and flood mitigation for stronger storms

Require strict environmental and water-use standards for large facilities (including data centers)

Enforce environmental justice protections for communities overburdened by pollution

Defend and expand the Inflation Reduction Act to upgrade our infrastructure, grow the economy and propel our district into the future

Expand union-built clean energy jobs and grid modernization

Fight to ensure data centers meet strict environmental and water-use standards

MD-05 FOCUS POINT:

I will treat flooding, shoreline loss, and Bay health as here-and-now economic issues, not as an abstract concept

I will vehemently oppose data centers in our district without proper planning, impact analysis, and community buy-in