Candace B. Hollingsworth, mayor of Hyattsville from 2015 to 2020, announced on Feb. 8 that she is running for lieutenant governor for the state of Maryland. She is running with the Democratic candidate for governor Doug Gansler.
The Gansler/Hollingsworth ticket will be one of several choices available to Democratic voters in Maryland’s June 28 primaries. Rushern L. Baker, former Prince George’s County executive, is among those also running in the crowded field.
Hollingsworth, now 39, was Hyattsville’s first Black mayor. She ran for Prince George’s County Council in 2018, losing narrowly to incumbent Deni Taveras. Hollingsworth stepped down as mayor on Dec. 31, 2020, to focus on a political organization she co-founded called Our Black Party.
Hollingsworth said that she has felt blessed by the support of many Hyattsville residents who understood her drive to look further, in her political work, than the City of Hyattsville.
“I want people to know that I would not have joined this ticket if I didn’t believe there was absolute synergy with what we care about, what the people I serve care about,” she said.
Hollingsworth told the Hyattsville Life & Times that the areas in which she would plan to take leadership would be community and economic development, housing, education, as well as diversity, equity and inclusion.
Doug Gansler, Hollingsworth’s running-mate, ran for governor in 2014, losing the democratic primary to Anthony G. Brown, who then lost to Republican Larry Hogan. Gansler served as attorney general for the State of Maryland from 2007 to 2015. In that role, he worked to stop pollution of the Chesapeake Bay and to protect homeowners from mortgage fraud.
