Dove-Swaringer challenges Crosby for state delegate post
Pastor, director of crisis pregnancy center, files in District 29B race
Democratic voters in state House District 29B have a race on their hands.
Valarie Dove-Swaringer filed on March 16 and will face Del. Brian Crosby (D-St. Mary’s) in the July 19 primary.
Dove-Swaringer, 35, is a native of Southern Maryland and has co-pastored the nondenominational New Covenant House of Prayer with her husband, Dennis Swaringer, since they founded it four years ago.
The church, which meets at noon on Sundays at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Lexington Park, shares a parking lot with the sheriff’s office district 4 substation.
“We have a great relationship with law enforcement in our district,” she said. “We hope to continue that. I want to make sure the community can trust law enforcement and law enforcement can trust the community.”
Dove-Swaringer criticized Crosby for not attending three peaceful demonstrations that followed race riots in other parts of the country in 2020. She said the meetings in District 29B were held by pastors and community leaders in an effort to “keep the peace.”
“For the last three years, we’ve had indifferent representation and it has cost our district a lot,” she said. “Our reputation [in Great Mills and Lexington Park] used to be peaceful.”
Dove-Swaringer said she wants to invigorate the economy because “a lot of businesses are leaving. We’re like a shell of what we used to be. Everything’s moving to the other side [in nearby California].”
She specifically cited St. Mary’s Square in Lexington Park and said it has lost Safeway, Peebles, CVS and Radio Shack and now only has Ollie’s and Weis.
Some “mom and pop shops” filled in but most close after a year or two, she said. There are several other businesses open in the shopping plaza on Great Mills Road.
Crosby is in his first term after he defeated Deb Rey, a former Republican delegate, in 2018 by 7%. Rey is running again as a Republican.
Dove-Swaringer believes her chances are great. She and her husband have strong connections to and love the community, she said, noting they met at Naval Air Station Patuxent River when he was working there and she was working at a McDonald’s.
Her husband was an aviation ordinance man and served in the U.S. Navy from 2000 to 2013 when their family moved back to Southern Maryland. They have lived in Norfolk, San Diego and China Lake, Calif.
The couple have five children ages 16, 14, 13, 11 and 4, all whom Dove-Swaringer has homeschooled, mainly because they moved several times. In spite of homeschooling her kids, Dove-Swaringer said she wants to be known as a friend of public education.
Dove-Swaringer has been director of the Care Net Pregnancy Center for the past year.
A person she admires who has served in government is Condoleezza Rice, a former national security advisor and secretary of state to former President George W. Bush.