On May 30, 2015, in Baltimore’s Federal Hill Park, Martin O’Malley announced his candidacy to run for president. The announcement followed 23 years of serving on the Baltimore City Council, as mayor of Baltimore and as governor of Maryland.
He launched his campaign, joining former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, both of whom were already actively campaigning. O’Malley realized that those well-known names “took a lot of the oxygen in the [Democratic] campaign,” but this did not deter him from entering the race. While recognizing the steep challenge, the governor said he “could not fail to try to make the difference this country needed.”
Being the underdog in a race was nothing new for O’Malley, so it was no surprise he joined the race that already included the formidable Clinton and surging Sanders. In most of his prior political runs, O’Malley started from the back of the pack, and there was no bigger climb than his first race for mayor of Baltimore in 1999. Despite polling well behind his fellow challengers in that Democratic primary, he nonetheless went on to win that primary and then captured the general election.
In his first run for governor in 2006, O’Malley again rose to the challenge by defeating the incumbent, Robert Ehrlich. The ability to meet these stiff challenges appeared to fuel O’Malley’s confidence in not needing to be the early front-runner or heir apparent to a position.
The 2016 election, however, would pose certain unique challenges and reactions from the electorate he could not fully expect in terms of demographics and attitude toward the state of the country. O’Malley noted that he was not surprised by the anger with the current state of the country, but the time on the campaign shone a light into the depth of that anger. In his opinion, the anger was deeply rooted in so many people across the nation believing the government is no longer serving the country and them.
“Within our country there is a lot of discontent, a lot of anger and a lot of frustration,” he said in an interview with The Daily Cardinal. “People are angry with politics and the perception of an economy that’s for the few, by the few.”
While O’Malley recognized the rationale for those feelings, he sought to go beyond just protesting and engage in conversations that result in positive action, a reference to the so-called political revolution that Sanders has attempted to create. O’Malley clearly stated the he firmly believes “anger and fear alone have not been very useful at solving problems.”
Despite hoping his campaign would have resulted in a greater impact on issues being debated, O’Malley’s early exit from the race limited his ability to affect the discourse. He said he strongly believes, however, that he still focused the conversation on substance and avoided the superficial. He also said he respects Sanders and Clinton for how they ran their campaigns, contrasting starkly with those of Republican candidates.
“Our debates were healthier than the Republican party’s debates, which seem to be colored by desire to scapegoat and to blame,” he said. “It is a disservice to the electorate to run a campaign rooted in personal insults and trivial banter while failing to address substantive issues and provide credible plans that will ultimately benefit American families.”
O’Malley saved some of his harshest words for business mogul and Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
“I never dreamed that I would feel compelled to call another person running for the United States presidency a fascist, but his explicit words and half-baked positions earn him that label,” O’Malley said. “When Donald Trump says things like we should maintain a registry of individuals because of the religion they practice, and then we should refuse to let any Muslims enter America, it demeans our great nation and it is a very real and dangerous threat to everything that our country is about ... I believe the enduring symbol of our nation is the Statue of Liberty—not barbwire fences.”
When asked what his next step would be, he laughed lightheartedly and said, “I am moving forward with great optimism.”
Without missing a beat, O’Malley expressed his commitment to impact issues such as gun safety, immigration reform, climate change and affordable education. Despite dropping out without winning a state, O’Malley said he did not regret his presidential run.
“If I had chosen not to run, I would have regretted it,” O’Malley said. “The goal was to win, but the purpose was to improve our country and my campaign was focused on that purpose.”
