Jill P. Carter facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jill P. Carter
Member of the Maryland Senate from the 41st district
Incumbent
Assumed office May 4, 2018
Appointed by	Larry Hogan
Preceded by	Nathaniel T. Oaks
Member of the Maryland House of Delegates from the 41st district
In office January 8, 2003 – January 2, 2017 Serving with Nathaniel T. Oaks, Samuel I. Rosenberg
Preceded by	Wendell F. Phillips
Succeeded by	Bilal Ali
Personal details
Born	(1964-06-18) June 18, 1964 (age 59) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Parent	Walter P. Carter (father)
Education	Loyola University Maryland (BA) University of Baltimore (JD)
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Website

Jill Priscilla Carter (born June 18, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who has served as a member of the Maryland Senate since 2018, representing the 41st district in Baltimore. She previously represented the district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2003 until her resignation in 2017.

Early life and education

Carter is the daughter of the late Walter P. Carter, a civil rights activist and leader in the desegregation movement in Maryland in the 1960s and early 1970s. Her mother, Zerita Joy Carter, was a public school teacher specializing in Early Childhood Education. Carter graduated Western High School in Baltimore. Carter received her B.A. in English from Loyola College in Maryland in 1988 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1992.

Career

After graduating from the University of Baltimore, Carter served as a clerk to Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Kenneth L. Johnson until 1993, afterwards working at various law firms before practicing law as a sole practitioner in 1998. In the same year, she also founded the Walter P. Carter Foundation.

Political involvement

Carter has been involved in politics since she was young, when she campaigned for Parren Mitchell.

Maryland House of Delegates

Carter speaks at the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland breakfast, 2015

In 2002, Carter ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 41. She won the Democratic primary in September 2002, placing first with 18.2 percent and ousting incumbent state delegate Wendell F. Phillips. She won the general election and was sworn in on January 8, 2003. During her tenure in the House of Delegates, she was a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Carter has often been referred to as a lone voice in the wilderness for her challenges to established politicians on matters of adequate housing for the poor, lead poisoning of children, to adequately fund public education, both in the legislature, and in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, and, in 2007, calling for a special session of the legislature to deal with the BGE utility rate increase.

In 2016, Carter served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, pledged to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. Following the convention, she endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, saying that the prospect of a Trump presidency left her with no other option.

On December 30, 2016, Carter resigned from the Maryland House of Delegates to become the director of the Baltimore Office of Civil Rights and Wage Enforcement under Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh. In this capacity, she handled citizens' law enforcement-related complaints and oversaw the implementation of the Civilian Review Board.

2007 Baltimore mayoral campaign

On January 16, 2007, Carter announced her candidacy in the 2007 Baltimore mayoral election, seeking to succeed Martin O'Malley following his election as governor of Maryland. Her platform included promises to replace the entire police command staff within the Baltimore Police Department, increase the city's education funding to 20 percent of its budget, and creating an advisory panel of former police commissioners. Carter was defeated by incumbent mayor Sheila Dixon in the Democratic primary on September 11, 2007, placing fourth with 2.8 percent of the vote.

Maryland Senate

In February 2018, Carter filed to run for the Maryland Senate in District 41, challenging incumbent state senator Nathaniel T. Oaks, who had been indicted on federal corruption charges. In the primary election, she sought to position herself as an outsider and an "independent voice" in the legislature, citing her participation in the "Take a Hike, Mike" rally outside the Maryland State House opposing Senate president Thomas V. Miller Jr. Her campaign was backed by Catherine Pugh, Bernard C. Young, and various local pastors and labor unions.

After Oaks resigned from the state senate in March 2018, Carter applied and was nominated alongside central committee member Joyce J. Smith by the Baltimore City Democratic Central Committee to fill the remainder of his term. She was appointed by Governor Larry Hogan on April 30, 2018, and sworn in on May 4 after resigning as director of the Office of Civil Rights and Wage Enforcement. She won the Democratic primary in June 2018, defeating J. D. Merrill, the son-in-law of former Governor Martin O'Malley with 54.9 percent of the vote.

Carter is a member of the Judicial Proceedings Committee.

2020 7th congressional district elections

On November 18, 2019, Carter announced her candidacy in the 2020 Maryland's 7th congressional district special election to succeed U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings after his death in October 2019. During the Democratic primary, she sought to position herself a progressive, running on a platform that included Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and ending U.S. involvement in foreign wars. She was defeated in the Democratic primary by former U.S. Representative Kweisi Mfume, placing third with 16 percent of the vote. Following her defeat, she said she would run in the regular election for the district, in which she again placed third with 8.7 percent of the vote.

Political positions

Education

During the 2004 legislative session, Carter introduced a bill to expand the Baltimore school board from nine members to thirteen, including five appointed members and seven elected members.

Gun control

In March 2013, Carter said she supported Governor Martin O'Malley's bill to ban assault-type rifles and require a license to purchase a handgun.

In April 2016, after the Baltimore police shot a 14-year-old boy carrying a BB gun that resembled a pistol, Carter introduced legislation to ban the manufacture and sale of imitation guns.

During the 2023 legislative session, Carter opposed an Ivan Bates-backed bill to increase penalties for illegal gun possession. During debate on the bill, she introduced an amendment to allow people convicted on illegal gun possession charges to apply for probation before judgment, which initially passed before being removed from the bill following a motion for reconsideration.

Health care

During the 2009 legislative session, Carter introduced legislation to prohibit the closure of the Walter P Carter Center psychiatric hospital.

Carter supports Medicare for All. In 2020, she and state delegate Gabriel Acevero introduced a bill to establish a universal single-payer health care system in Maryland.

Social issues

In October 2002, Carter appeared in an ad to support Question P, a referendum to reduce the size of the Baltimore City Council.

During the 2011 legislative session, Carter co-sponsored the Civil Marriage Protection Act, which would legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland. However, she staged a walkout during a committee vote on the bill, which she said was to draw attention to "more important, or at least equally important" issues of education funding cuts in Baltimore and child custody in divorces. She did not co-sponsor the bill when it was reintroduced in 2012, but voted for it when it came up for a vote in the House. .....

In June 2015, Carter signed onto a letter calling for the renaming of Robert E. Lee Park. In 2016, Carter introduced a bill to destroy the Roger B. Taney Monument at the Maryland State House. She later amended the bill to send the statue to the Maryland State Archives.

During the 2019 legislative session, Carter introduced a bill to prohibit University of Maryland Medical System board members from holding no-bid contracts with the system. The bill helped prompt the Baltimore Sun's investigation, which found that nine UMMS board members, including Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh, had business deals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with the hospital network, the bill unanimously passed the Maryland General Assembly and was signed into law by Governor Larry Hogan. After Pugh resigned amid the UMMS contracts controversy, Carter said that she had made a "mistake" in endorsing Pugh in 2016.

..... She later voted against the bill on the Senate floor, which she called a difficult vote but added that she felt that "our law in its current form is enough".

Electoral history