Rep. Chris Van Hollen and Del. Kathy Szeliga, who are both vying for retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s seat this November, traveled border to border campaigning across the Old Line State this summer.
Van Hollen, who’s held a seat in Congress since 2002, spent his summer making stops at colleges across the state, including Frostburg University, Salisbury University and the University of Maryland.
“We’ve been crisscrossing the state of Maryland from Garrett County to the Eastern Shore,” said Van Hollen, whose campaign is focused on building a strong economy, making sure there is access to affordable education and ending gun violence.
Van Hollen is also aiming to make college more affordable, supporting an increase in Pell Grants and President Obama’s free community college plan. He’s also continuing to support immigrant legislation such as the DREAM Act, UMD College Democrats President Jake Polce wrote in an email.
“We have found Congressman Van Hollen’s commitment to speaking about issues that directly affect college students to be extremely impressive,” Polce, a junior government and politics major, wrote.
Van Hollen’s campaign interns have been working diligently to get the word out about the election, Van Hollen said, and will be teaming up with the Hillary Clinton campaign for the First Look Fair. He was also on the university’s campus earlier this year for an April 21 visit to the Startup Shell co-working space.
“College Dems has already began working with the Maryland Coordinated Campaign this fall to help get members out into local neighborhoods canvassing for Chris Van Hollen and other democrats,” Polce wrote. The organization has endorsed Van Hollen for the election.
Van Hollen ran against Rep. Donna Edwards in a primary that was neck and neck for most of the season, but he ended up clinching the nomination by more than 14 percentage points.
Szeliga also traveled across the state this summer, learning more about the challenges and successes businesses have been facing while working on a program called Project JumpStart, which focuses on helping individuals find trade-focused apprenticeships.
“She’s looking at policies that are going to be most effective for everyone,” College Republicans president Jacob Veitch said.
Szeliga has been Minority Whip in the state House of Representatives since 2013, and clinched a little more than 35 percent of the primary vote, beating out Republican Chris Chaffee, who won about 14 percent of the vote.
During her campaign, Szeliga has also been tackling the issue of college debt and how it’s limiting the future of students.
“We need an audit and a serious look at the cost of college, and no one seems to want to,” Szeliga said.
Although College Republicans isn’t offering an endorsement to Szeliga or any candidate this fall, Veitch said Szeliga’s campaign promise to promote jobs would be beneficial for college students.
“A big part of that is job growth; we want college students to be able to graduate and be able to have a job available,” the junior government and international business major said, noting that the organization is focusing on leg work of grassroots campaigning for Szeliga.
Despite being from different parties, job growth and student loan debt is something both Szeliga and Van Hollen said they plan to focus on if elected.
“[The campaign is] going to continue to fight for more affordable college options including debt-free college,” Van Hollen said. “It was a huge part of the primary.”
He added that it is “important to develop partnerships between businesses in the area of innovation, especially among students.”
Over the past few decades, Maryland Senate seats have been held by Democrats. Paul Sarbanes took over the seat in 1977 from Republican Sen. John Beall, and Mikulski won the state’s other seat in 1986 after Republican Charles Mathias retired.
Mikulski is serving her 30th year in the Senate this year.
