The Baltimore mayor’s race just picked up another candidate. Attorney Elizabeth Embry became the latest entrant for the city’s top job on Friday morning. One of her first campaign promises: “If you haven’t met me yet – you will.”
Embry, an attorney who currently serves as chief of the Criminal Division in the Maryland Attorney General’s office and formerly worked as Deputy Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s office under Gregg Bernstein, has never run for elected office before. She said her campaign would be one of “hustle and hard work.”
“I know how to lead and manage and inspire, and you do not do that through words and sound bites, but through actions and purpose,” she said.
On the issues, she sought to emphasize policies on criminal justice, saying she would work to “end the blood shed,” and “end the war on drugs and drug addiction.” She said she was against mass arrests and zero tolerance policing. Embry also spoke about reforming schools, and offering economic opportunity. In Baltimore, she said, “Where you’re from matters too much.”
A Waverly resident, Embry is the daughter of Robert Embry, the longtime head of the Abell Foundation. She made the campaign announcement at City College, where she attended high school.
Embry enters an already crowded slate of mayoral candidates in the Democratic primary that includes former mayor Sheila Dixon, City Councilmen Carl Stokes and Nick Mosby, businessman and philanthropist David Warnock and others like Calvin Young and Connor Meek. The race opened up significantly after Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced she is not seeking another term.
While she did not talk directly about the other candidates, she acknowledged that she now faces the task of introducing herself to voters.
“Because I am not a politician, you may not know my name yet. You may not know my story yet. But you will, and that starts today,” she said.
What about Senator Catherine Pugh? Doesn’t she deserve a mention?