If you’ve been following our posts over the last several weeks, you know that we’ve been issuing endorsements in a number of races for the upcoming primary election! Now, we want to compile all of our recommendations in one place, so you can easily refer to them, share them, and get ready to go vote. So, without further ado, we’re thrilled to present the Charm City Indivisible 2026 Primary Election Voter Guide!

Our voter guide includes two types of candidate recommendations:

🟦 Endorsed — our strongest recommendation, following a comprehensive evaluation.
🟩 Aligned — a lighter recommendation based on the public record.
(Full methodology at the bottom.)

United States Congress

🟩 ALIGNED: Mark Conway, District 7

Mark Conway is a Baltimore City Councilmember and chair of its Public Safety and Government Operations Committee, now running for Congress in Maryland’s 7th District. We consider him aligned based on his council record on police accountability and climate, his push for an evidence-based response to the city’s overdose crisis, and his call for a new generation of leadership. 

Visit Mark Conway’s website to learn more about his campaign.

Maryland State Senate

🟦 ENDORSED: Malcolm Ruff, District 41

Malcolm Ruff is currently a Delegate and chair of the House capital budget subcommittee; he turned that powerful seat into more than $12 million for District 41’s most overlooked neighborhoods. His deep record on criminal justice, housing, and immigration impressed us, and we’re thrilled to endorse him for State Senate.

Read our full endorsement post for Delegate Ruff, share our Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky posts with your friends, and visit his website to learn more and support the campaign.

🟦 ENDORSED: Bobby LaPin, District 46

Bobby LaPin was born in Southwest Baltimore and has spent his life in service—as a veteran, a public school teacher, and a volunteer firefighter—and is now running for State Senate in District 46. He impressed us with deep, research-driven progressive policy and a rare selflessness: he runs a fully PAC-free, small-dollar campaign and fought to pass immigrant protections even when the win would strengthen a rival. We’re proud to endorse him.

Read our full endorsement post for Bobby, share our Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky posts with your friends, and visit his website to learn more and support the campaign.

Maryland House of Delegates

🟦 ENDORSED: Dianté Edwards, District 40

Dianté Edwards is a Navy veteran and former Pigtown neighborhood-association president running for Delegate in District 40. He won us over by pairing real ambition with a rare intellectual honesty about what he’s still working out, and a broadly progressive platform on labor, education, and the environment. He also runs a corporate- and PAC-free campaign, powered by grassroots volunteers and long days talking to neighbors, which we are delighted to endorse.

Read our full endorsement post for Dianté, share our Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky posts with your friends, and visit his website to learn more and support the campaign.

🟦 ENDORSED: Melissa Wells, District 40

Melissa Wells is a District 40 Delegate and Chair of the Baltimore City Delegation, seeking reelection on a deep equity record—automatic expungement, a 90-day rent-increase notice law now on the books, and strong labor protections drawn from her seven years as Regional Director of the Baltimore-DC Building Trades Unions. She impressed us as a systemic thinker who legislates from community rather than at it, pairing big structural goals with the practical reforms that protect people right now, and we are honored to endorse her.

Read our full endorsement post for Delegate Wells, share our Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky posts with your friends, and visit her website to learn more and support the campaign.

🟦 ENDORSED: Tiffany Welch, District 40

Tiffany Welch is a West Baltimore native and community organizer running for Delegate in District 40. In a neighborhood no supermarket would touch, she built a community-run produce store from a borrowed van and a pop-up—the kind of hands-on, close-the-gap work that convinced us, alongside her clear-eyed plan to address the vacancy crisis and a real humility about what she’s still learning. She’s running on a slate with several sitting legislators who know what the job takes and are confident she has it—and we’re proud to add our endorsement to their strong support.

Read our full endorsement post for Tiffany, share our Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky posts with your friends, and visit her website to learn more and support the campaign.

🟦 ENDORSED: Chezia Cager, District 41

Chezia Cager is a third-generation District 41 resident with more than 20 years inside federal, state, and city government, now running for Delegate. What set her apart for us was her focus on the how of governing—she helped rewrite the regulations that kept the Affordable Care Act from collapsing on launch. We’re proud to endorse her, because we know she understands that good implementation is just as important as good policy when it comes to actually making a difference.

Read our full endorsement post for Chezia, share our Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky posts with your friends, and visit her website to learn more and support the campaign.

🟩 ALIGNED: Ryan Turner, District 41

Ryan Turner has spent his career expanding youth development programs and is now running for Delegate in District 41. We consider him aligned based on a platform centered on economic security, a prevention-focused approach to public safety, and his strong endorsements from organizations we trust, including Progressive Maryland and a broad coalition of labor unions.

Visit Ryan Turner’s website to learn more about his campaign.

🟩 ALIGNED: Stephanie Smith, District 45

Delegate Stephanie Smith is currently running for her third term representing District 45. We consider her aligned based on a deep legislative record—primary sponsor of dozens of bills across education, economic inclusion, environmental protection, and public safety, including the CROWN Act banning natural-hair discrimination—and her endorsements from valued partner organizations including CASA in Action.

Visit Delegate Smith’s website to learn more about her campaign.

Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners

Note: Board of School Commissioners is a non-partisan race, so everyone can vote in it, regardless of party affiliation!

🟦 ENDORSED: Ashley Esposito

Ashley Esposito is a Baltimore City school board commissioner running for reelection, and the first mom ever elected to the board. A former foster youth turned data analyst, she knows firsthand how much it matters when adults show up for vulnerable kids—and she pairs that conviction with real systems expertise, working to build that support into the district by design so it reaches every student who needs it. With a deep commitment to transparency and being a voice for the community, she’s exactly the kind of board member Baltimore’s kids need, and we are honored to endorse her.

Read our full endorsement post for Ashley, share our Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky posts with your friends, and visit her website to learn more and support the campaign.

🟦 ENDORSED: Domonique Flowers

Domonique Flowers is an education attorney and 25-year youth advocate running for Baltimore City school board. He’s spent his career winning students with disabilities the support the law owes them, and he pairs that frontline expertise with a genuinely thoughtful approach to the hardest questions, from discipline to school safety, grounded in his own experience as a struggling student whose life was turned around by the right youth intervention program at the right time. He’s spent his life showing up for students, and we’re proud to endorse him to continue doing exactly that!

Read our full endorsement post for Domonique, share our Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky posts with your friends, and visit his website to learn more and support the campaign.

We encourage you to get out and vote for all of our recommended candidates!

Some notes on process:

As indicated above, our guide includes two levels of recommendation.

Endorsed candidates are candidates who went through a formal review process — including a written questionnaire (or, for some incumbents, a thorough review of their legislative record) and an hour-long interview — and impressed us throughout. Endorsed candidates meet our highest standards and therefore receive our strongest recommendation.

Aligned candidates are candidates who are broadly aligned with our values, but who we did not formally review. Alignment is based on things like policy platforms, public statements, voting records, and partner organization endorsements. Alignment is a real recommendation, but a lighter one, as it rests on less scrutiny than a full endorsement.

As a small, volunteer-led organization with limited resources, we are not able to weigh in on all races, and have therefore focused our efforts on ones where we feel our opinion is most valuable: typically, contested races where we see a real difference between the candidates. A recommendation does the most work precisely where the choice is hardest—so these are the races where we think our scrutiny earns its keep. Races where you see no designation are simply ones we did not take up—it is not a judgment on the candidates. For guidance on those other races, we encourage you to consult other resources, such as endorsements from other local progressive organizations, nonpartisan voter guides such as those from the League of Women Voters and the Baltimore Banner, and the candidates’ own websites.

Importantly, while a candidate’s shortcomings may inform our decision to weigh in on a race, they will not play a part in the designation given to their opponent. Candidates are considered for endorsement and/or alignment based on their own strengths, not the weaknesses of their opponent(s), and a candidate who does not meet our standards does not receive a recommendation, even if they are the best option in their race. Both endorsed and aligned candidates must meet our minimum eligibility criteria for endorsement, including not accepting funding from disqualifying sources as outlined in our full endorsement policy. And it is also our policy not to recommend—by endorsement or alignment—more candidates than there are seats available in a given race.

Finally, we recognize that not all members of our organization will agree with all of our recommendations, and that’s fine! We see this as a feature, not a bug: it means our recommendations reflect real deliberation, not a party line. We don’t go looking for controversial calls—but a slate that never produced a single one would worry us, because it would suggest we were only weighing in on races where the answer was already obvious, rather than taking on the genuinely contested ones. The candidates we put forward have been tested by exactly the kind of scrutiny we hope voters will apply themselves. Our endorsement committee believes the candidates we are recommending to be the strongest in their respective races, but we encourage all voters to do their own research, consider each candidate on their own merits, and make the decisions that most align with their own values.

Early voting is June 11 through 18; Election Day is June 23. See you at the polls!