Vignarajah to announce mayoral bid
Former prosecutor planning ‘different’ campaign in 2nd try for the Baltimore office
Pledging to run a “different” kind of campaign, Thiru Vignarajah, a former prosecutor and past candidate for Baltimore mayor, will announce a second bid for the office Wednesday.
The campaign, which Vignarajah will make official at a morning news conference, will be his fourth in six years for a citywide office. In addition to a failed bid in 2020 for the Democratic nomination for mayor, Vignarajah unsuccessfully sought the party’s nomination for state’s attorney in 2018 and 2022. His past efforts, while well-financed, were dogged by allegations that he was an cruel boss who punished subordinates for perceived disloyalty.
In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Vignarajah, who was recently named a managing partner at the national law firm of Sanford Heisler Sharp, said he was compelled to run again for mayor by a lack of public enthusiasm for the current field of candidates, evidenced by what he said was “underwhelming” fundraising on their behalf.
“I’ve watched, waited. I’ve been patient, hoping we would hear echoes of William Donald Schaefer from someone,” Vignarajah
said, sitting in his 19th-floor office overlooking the Inner Harbor. “Whether it was Brandon [Scott] growing into that role or Sheila [Dixon] being inspired by that kind of vision. And it’s clear that’s not what the current choices are presenting.”
The late Schaefer, who served as Democratic mayor of Baltimore from 1971 to 1986
before becoming governor, was a relentless, enthusiastic promoter of his hometown, renowned for a “Do it now!” philosophy of resolving constituent concerns as well as pushing for the development of projects such as Oriole Park at Camden Yards and
But in a deeply conservative state where Trump is exceedingly popular, those ambitions may be tough to realize and a home-state loss could prove politically devastating.
New Hampshire Democrats, in defiance of the national party, moved forward with a primary in which Biden didn’t campaign. But most of the focus was on the Republican side and whether Trump’s march to the nomination could be slowed.
Trump’s position in the contest is remarkable considering he faces 91 criminal charges related to everything from seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election to mishandling classified documents and arranging payoffs to a porn actress. He left the White House in 2021 in the grim aftermath of an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol led by his supporters who sought to stop the certification of Biden’s win. And Trump was the first president to be impeached twice.
But Trump has turned those vulnerabilities into an advantage among GOP voters. He has argued that the criminal prosecutions reflect a politicized Justice Department, though there’s no evidence that officials there were pressured by Biden or anyone else in the White House to file charges. Trump has nonetheless repeatedly told his supporters that he’s being prosecuted on their behalf, an argument that appears to have further strengthened his bond with the GOP base.
As Trump begins to pivot his attention to Biden and a general election campaign, the question is whether the former president’s framing of the legal cases will persuade voters beyond the GOP base. Trump lost the popular vote in the 2016 and 2020 elections and has faced particular struggles in suburban communities from Georgia to Pennsylvania to Arizona that could prove decisive in the fall campaign.
Beyond the political vulnerabilities associated with the criminal cases, Trump faces a logistical challenge in balancing trials and campaigning. He has frequently appeared voluntarily at a New York courtroom where a jury is considering whether he should pay additional damages to a columnist who last year won a $5 million jury award against Trump for sex abuse and defamation. He has turned these appearances into campaign events, holding televised news conferences that give him an opportunity to spread his message to a large audience.
He has no choice but to appear in court when the criminal cases begin, which could happen later this spring.
Biden faces his own challenges, though of a different magnitude. There are widespread concerns about his age at 81 years old. Dissent is also building within his party over Biden’s alliance with Israel in its war against Hamas, putting the president’s standing at risk in swing states like Michigan.
Biden championed new Democratic National Committee rules that have its 2024 primary beginning on Feb. 3 in South Carolina, rather than in Iowa or New Hampshire. That left him in something of an awkward position at the outset of the nomination process.
But Democrats in New Hampshire defied the revamped order and held their primary on Tuesday, same as the Republicans. Biden didn’t campaign, giving the state’s Democrats the chance to support primary challengers including Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips and self-help author Marianne Williamson — though many of New Hampshire’s top Democrats backed a write-in campaign that Biden could still win.
Trump traveled frequently to New Hampshire in the months leading up to the primary but didn’t spend as much time in the state as many of his rivals.
That included former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a fierce Trump critic who enjoyed some popularity in the state but suspended his campaign mere days before Iowa’s caucuses in an attempt to blunt the former president’s momentum.
Rather than the traditional approach of greeting voters personally or in small groups, Trump has staged large rallies.
He has spent much of his time complaining about the past — including the lie that the 2020 election was stolen due to widespread voter fraud.