Rushern Baker IV
A university fine arts lecturer who is the son of Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker III is chasing a seat in the state House of Delegates.
Rushern Baker IV, a 26-year-old graduate of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and Cheverly native, announced Tuesday he’ll join the race for one of three delegate seats in the state’s 22nd district. All three incumbent delegates are Democrats who have worked with Baker’s father and are set to run in the next election, but Baker said he would bring new ideas to Annapolis, including a focus on the arts.
“I’ve known the delegates for a long time, and we’re all friends, but at the end of the day I think my vision and my ideas are really great ideas, and I think I deserve to have a shot at one of these three seats,” said Baker, who’s also a Democrat.
This is the younger Baker’s first bid for public office, as he seeks to represent a district in the heart of a county his father has led since late 2010.
“I always knew that at some point, I wanted to get involved in public service,” Baker said. “I’ve been involved in some capacity my entire life.”
Baker’s first political involvement, he said, was working on a campaign for his father as a 6-year-old. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Cooper Union in New York, Baker attended Yale University, where he earned a master’s degree in fine arts. He teaches fine arts part-time on the campus and said he would tap into his artistic background if elected.
“It’s a really exciting time for me because you really get to influence the way [students] think about the world, and you have really profound conversations about art but also about the way you look at everything around you, and I think that’s really important,” Baker said.
If he wins the election, which is still more than a year away, Baker said he will continue teaching at the university while advocating in Annapolis for government funding for the arts. This funding can “spark an economic development” by broadening tax bases to help fund other infrastructure, such as police, education and health care, he said.
“I’ve come to this realization that the creative aspects of our country are what make it so exceptional,” he said.
Annie Wells, Baker’s campaign communications director, said the arts are an integral part of both the candidate’s past and present.
“It’s completely who he is,” she said.
Baker’s experience as an artist and instructor would help him in politics, said W.C. Richardson, the university art department chair.
“I do think that some of the interpersonal skills that you develop in teaching are very helpful at communicating to the public,” Richardson said. “You’re trying to communicate a process and a set of concepts to a wide range of students.”
When Baker told Richardson he planned to run for a delegate seat, Richardson said he was surprised, despite Baker’s political lineage.
“I don’t think of artists and politicians as coming from the same sort of sector of society,” Richardson said. “I think that most artists that I know that are good artists have authority issues.”
Baker said he has been interested in running for public office for years, but he felt this was the right time to launch a campaign, citing economic progress in the county and a heightened focus on the arts.
“I think it’s time to capitalize on the momentum that we’ve been making in the county as a whole,” he said.
Although Baker’s father represented the same district before going on to lead a county of nearly a million people, Baker said he has not thought beyond a position as delegate.
“I basically grew up in Annapolis, watching my father in Annapolis. It’s something I’ve always been interested in,” he said.
From an outside perspective, Baker’s interest in political office could appear to be a “family business,” Richardson said, but his father’s role in politics is not Baker’s sole motivation.
“There’s got to be an element of civic duty, civic responsibility and giving back to the community, and I think that’s admirable,” Richardson said.
He noted Baker could have chosen to be an activist through his artwork, but instead took a more difficult path by stepping into the world of politics.
“In a way, he’s putting his money where his mouth is,” Richardson said. “It’s not an easy row to hoe.”
Baker, who teaches drawing and two-dimensional design courses, said he wants to make the county more of a “destination point” — and that his generation, including many of the students he teaches, needs to drive the change.
“There’s certainly some bright ideas out there, and the idea that we can all kind of work together to make change happen is definitely a possibility and something that a lot of my students are very interested in,” Baker said.