March 16, 2022
Delegate Anne Healey
President, Women Legislators of Maryland
361 Taylor House Office Building
6 Bladen Street
Annapolis, MD 21401
Dear Delegate Healey,
In this Golden Jubilee year of the Women’s Caucus of Maryland, the Democrat members of the House and Senate decided to allow the partisan rancor of divisive politics that has long plagued DC to destroy the oldest bipartisan caucus in the United States of America. The majority of the Democrat women decided to break with the normal procedure of having a Republican woman as the President every third year and instead voted to put in place a leadership slate of entirely Democrat women. As such, the Republican Women members of the Women Legislators of Maryland have officially resigned our membership effective immediately and we call on the Women Legislators of Maryland to change the name of their organization.
The current Republican President-elect, Delegate Lauren Arikan from Harford and Baltimore Counties, was slated to be the next President of the Women’s Caucus. She spent the last four years working her way up through leadership and volunteered on the bipartisan Women’s Caucus Legislative Review Committee since being elected to office in 2019. She was committed to leaving the partisanship at the door of the Women’s Caucus to support legislation that reflected the needs of all of the women in the state of Maryland, regardless of political affiliation. Secretary Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, then Delegate, was also skipped over for her role several years ago. After that, an agreement was made between both sides of the aisle to never allow the Republican women to be marginalized again. That agreement came to an end with today’s vote.
We thank the one Democrat woman that stood with us in protest to our exclusion from leadership and stood with us for the long history of bipartisanship. We are sad to see this storied Women’s Caucus come to an end especially during Women’s History Month as the result of members allowing the divisive hyper-partisanship, but look hopefully to the next election and the changes that will bring to the make-up of the legislature.
