MCYD’s Political Advocacy Director Kathleen Bender manages MCYD’s advocacy campaigns and premier leadership & advocacy development efforts. Below are some of the recent issues we worked on last year.

MCYD’s 2021 Campaigns included:

  • Aid to people harmed by COVID-19
  • Welcoming refugees and urging the Biden administration to admit more refugees
  • Environmental protection and reducing climate change
  • Canceling student loan debt
  • Affordable housing and renters’ rights
  • Racial justice and policing reform

MCYD’s 2017 Campaigns included:

  • Increased School Construction Funding
  • Paid Family Leave
  • Fair Scheduling
  • Statewide Fracking Ban
  • Bail Reform
  • #FightFor$15
  • Maryland Trust Act
  • Criminal Justice Reform
  • Support For Bus Rapid Transit

MCYD’s 2016 Campaigns include:

  • Police Accountability
  • Family Economic Agenda
  • Clean Energy & Environmental Protections
  • Criminal Justice Reform (bail, solitary confinement, & marijuana policy reform)
  • Campaign Finance & Fair Elections
  • Affordable Housing
  • College Affordability

MCYD’s 2015 Advocacy Campaigns

  • Police Accountability Measures – 17 bills appeared before the General Assembly, passed reporting bill giving the ethnicity of drivers who are pulled over; passed reporting bill on deaths while in police custody; passed a civil asset forfeiture bill (vetoed by Governor Hogan)
  • Local Fracking Bans – passed ban on fracking until 2017
  • County & State Earned Safe & Sick Leave – passed in Montgomery County, but failed in the state level
  • Intern Protections – passed protections for unpaid interns in the event of sexual harassment or discrimination
  • Transit Funding
  • Marijuana Policy Reform – passed decriminalization of marijuana paraphernalia (vetoed by Governor Hogan)

To learn more about MCYD’s position on various issues, check out the Young Democrats of Maryland’s 2014-2016 platform.

For more information, please email politicaladvocacy@mcyd.org.