Continuing our coverage of presidential candidates, we turn our eye to the banjo-playing, former
mayor of Baltimore, and 61st Governor of Maryland: Democrat Martin O’Malley.
The charismatic candidate has long attracted public attention, although not always positive.
So, we wanted to know, who exactly is Martin O’Malley?
O’Malley’s political career has seen its ups and downs.
After losing a State Senate race, the Caucasian candidate was elected mayor of the predominantly
African-American city of Baltimore in 1999.
Although he promised to cut crime, the city continued to suffer from a high homicide rate
and poor education.
However, he did introduce a statistical system of cataloguing crime based on a New York model,
in order to find high crime areas.
This system was later implemented on a state level, and won Harvard University's "Innovations
in American Government" award.
During his tenure, both Esquire and TIME called him one of the country’s best mayors.
In 2007, after being elected the Governor of Maryland, he supported a bill legalizing
same-sex marriage in the state.
It ended up passing, and was the first time in US history that same-sex marriage was legalized
by a popular vote.
He also supports immigration, and called illegal immigrants quote “new Americans”.
In 2011 he signed a law allowing children of illegal immigrants to receive in-state
tuition.
Maryland was also the first state to pass Obama’s DREAM act, which would provide a
conditional path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
O’Malley has generally been supportive of funding abortion rights.
He is also a proponent of Obamacare, and has called health care a “right, not a privilege”.
On the other hand, O’Malley has voiced his opposition to the death penalty, and legalizing
marijuana.
This could be the result of his tenure in the high drug use, high homicide Baltimore.
Although O’Malley is well liked by his Maryland constituents, some have argued that his lack
of experience on a federal level may hurt his presidential chances.
This was particularly relevant when he refused to answer any foreign policy questions during
a visit to the Middle East, saying “I hope you'll respect my right to shy away from answering
them”.
Still, we’ll just have to wait and see how far O’Malley’s popularity and stances
will get him in this race.
If you want to learn more about the candidates of the upcoming 2016 US presidential election,
check out these two about O’Malley’s fellow democrats in the running, the socialist Bernie
Sanders, or his biggest challenge, Hillary clinton.
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