Mason for the Eastern Shore: First Congressional District Candidate Speaks on the Issues, Part 1
Peter Heck & Jane Jewell • September 29, 2020
Mia Mason, the Democratic candidate for the Maryland District 1 seat in Congress, spoke to Common Sense for the Eastern Shore (CSES) in a telephone interview, Sept. 14. The 40-minute interview covered a wide range of subjects. This is the first of two articles summarizing the interview, which we hope will give our readers a better picture of the candidate CSES has endorsed in the upcoming election.
Mason told CSES that she grew up in Hampton Roads, Va. — “It was a military town,” she said. “My family wasn’t really military. My dad had four years in the Air Force. And my grandfather was a P.O.W. — he was shot down in a B-17” in World War II. In contrast, Mason herself carved out a 20-year career in the services — first in the U.S. Navy, then in the U.S. Army, and finally in the Washington D.C. National Guard, which she left in 2018. She moved to Maryland, which she described as “a wonderful place to work.” Mason was also enthusiastic about the recreational activities in her new home state, including visits to state parks and sailing with her family.
At that point in 2018, she had a choice: “either continue my [consulting] business or continue politics,” which she had been active in as an advocate for veterans and service members. She said, “The hardest thing was when Trump got elected. This happened on Day One, back in 2017. He decided to go after people on their race, their LGBT status, their religion, and started out by attacking people based on their national origin.” Because of this, “I decided to speak up and tell my story at the Women’s March in 2018 to warn others and get women to run. Because he’s also coming after people of color, and continued to do so... attacking our civil rights on a daily basis. And he’s still doing it to this day. He does it to our medical community and our scientific community by sustaining this pandemic.”
Mason also became aware that “folks in our First Congressional District need better representation.” She noted that incumbent Rep. Andy Harris has “voted against our health care workers, against our veterans, against our women. He’s voted against the Affordable Care Act, and the Child Care Act. He voted against the CARES Act, then changed his mind on it. Now he’s voted against the HEROES Act [including the stimulus package in response to the covid-19 outbreak]. He just did a “No” vote on the 911 Victims’ Fund... He could have supported this, and supported our veterans, and supported our victims, and yet he decided not to. This is the reason I am running for office, to make sure that our community is better represented in Washington D.C.”
But Mason’s campaign goes farther than just opposing Harris. She said of the First District, “We have a lot of big issues here. The top three are going to be our healthcare, our environmental change — which I call climate recovery now — and of course our infrastructure. I want to make sure that we get our Medicare for All bill passed so that we can get more funding for our rural healthcare centers. We want to make sure that everyone has health care that they can afford.”
“On climate change,” she said, “we definitely support the Green New Deal. Joe Biden has started an energy revolution to make sure that we invest in these jobs and opportunities that are easily available to us on the Eastern Shore. We understand that right now our Eastern Shore is suffering from erosion and high water levels. And we must stop any kind of offshore drilling and bring those high-paying jobs more into our district, for wind and solar and battery storage.”
As for infrastructure, Mason said, “We need to be able to make sure that our broadband access project that is scheduled to start in 2021 can start sooner rather than later, because our broadband right now for our students is kind of scarce. I know that Talbot County, Kent County, and Caroline County have had severe issues with their virtual schooling. Even in Harford in the northern section, they’ve had terrible issues relying on their internet, because they have limited broadband access. We need to be sure that this access moves forward.” To that end, she supports HR2, a bill to support improved broadband access nationwide.
In her conversation with CSES, Mason also talked about a number of national issues, including the impact of covid-19 and the associated economic slump. Check our next issue for Part 2 of the interview to learn more about these issues, Mia Mason, and her hopes to represent the Eastern Shore in Congress.
Mia Mason’s website is at https://miadmason.us/
Peter Heck is a Chestertown-based writer and editor, who spent 10 years at the Kent County News and three more with the Chestertown Spy. He is the author of 10 novels and co-author of four plays, a book reviewer for Asimov’s and Kirkus Reviews, and an incorrigible guitarist.
Jane Jewell is a writer, editor, photographer, and teacher. She has worked in news, publishing, and as the director of a national writer's group. She lives in Chestertown with her husband Peter Heck, a ginger cat named Riley, and a lot of books.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
The 447th legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on April 8. This End of Session Report highlights the work Shore Progress has done to fight for working families and bring real results home to the Shore. Over the 90-day session, lawmakers debated 1,901 bills and passed 878 into law. Shore Progress and members supported legislation that delivers for the Eastern Shore, protecting our environment, expanding access to housing and healthcare, strengthening workers’ rights, and more. Shore Progress Supported Legislation By The Numbers: Over 60 pieces of our backed legislation were passed. Another 15 passed in one Chamber but not the other. Legislation details are below, past the budget section. The 2026 Maryland State Budget How We Got Here: Maryland’s budget problems didn’t start overnight. They began under Governor Larry Hogan. Governor Hogan expanded the state budget yearly but blocked the legislature from moving money around or making common-sense changes. Instead of fixing the structural issues, Hogan used federal covid relief funds to hide the cracks and drained our state’s savings from $5.5 billion to $2.3 billion to boost his image before leaving office. How Trump/Musk Made It Worse: Maryland is facing a new fiscal crisis driven by the Trump–Musk administration, whose trade wars, tariff policies, and deep federal cuts have hit us harder than most, costing the state over 30,000 jobs, shuttering offices, and erasing promised investments. A University of Maryland study estimates Trump’s tariffs alone could cost us $2 billion, and those federal cuts have already added $300 million to our budget deficit. Covid aid gave us a short-term boost and even created a fake surplus under Hogan, but that money is gone, while housing, healthcare, and college prices keep rising. The Trump–Musk White House is only making things worse by slashing funding, gutting services, and eliminating research that Marylanders rely on. How The State Budget Fixes These Issues: This year, Maryland faced a $3 billion budget gap, and the General Assembly fixed it with a smart mix of cuts and fair new revenue, while protecting working families, schools, and health care. The 2025 Budget cuts $1.9 billion ($400 million less than last year) without gutting services people rely on. The General Assembly raised $1.2 billion in fair new revenue, mostly from the wealthiest Marylanders. The Budget ended with a $350 million surplus, plus $2.4 billion saved in the Rainy Day Fund (more than 9% of general fund revenue), which came in $7 million above what the Spending Affordability Committee called for. The budget protects funding for our schools, health care, transit, and public workers. The budget delivers real wins: $800 million more annually for transit and infrastructure, plus $500 million for long-term transportation needs. It invests $9.7 billion in public schools and boosts local education aid by $572.5 million, a 7% increase. If current revenue trends hold, no new taxes will be needed next session. Even better, 94% of Marylanders will see a tax cut or no change, while only the wealthiest 5% will finally pay their fair share. The tax system is smarter now. We’re: Taxing IT and data services like Texas and D.C. do; Raising taxes on cannabis and sports betting, not groceries or medicine; and Letting counties adjust income taxes. The budget also restores critical funding: $122 million for teacher planning $15 million for cancer research $11 million for crime victims $7 million for local business zones, and Continued support for public TV, the arts, and BCCC The budget invests in People with disabilities, with $181 million in services Growing private-sector jobs with $139 million in funding, including $27.5 million for quantum tech, $16 million for the Sunny Day Fund, and $10 million for infrastructure loans. Health care is protected for 1.5 million Marylanders, with $15.6 billion for Medicaid and higher provider pay. Public safety is getting a boost too, with $60 million for victim services, $5.5 million for juvenile services, and $5 million for parole and probation staffing. This budget also tackles climate change with $100 million for clean energy and solar projects, and $200 million in potential ratepayer relief. Public workers get a well-deserved raise, with $200 million in salary increases, including a 1% COLA and ~2.5% raises for union workers. The ultra-wealthy will finally chip in to pay for it: People earning over $750,000 will pay more, Millionaires will pay 6.5%, and Capital gains over $350,000 get a 2% surcharge. Deductions are capped for high earners, but working families can still deduct student loans, medical debt, and donations. This budget is bold, fair, and built to last. That’s why Shore Progress proudly supports it. Click on the arrows below for details in each section.
