It's Hale-Keys '26, Lobbying For Liberation, And ‘Productive' Sewage Spill Talks, In Political Notes

By Christine Condon and William J. Ford, Maryland Matters

February 26, 2026

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Hale Sr., a businessman and owner of the Baltimore Blast — and until recently, a Democrat — has tapped financial adviser and longtime friend Tyrone Keys Jr. to be his lieutenant governor running mate.

Hale made the announcement Thursday at Canton Waterfront Park, a plot of land formerly owned by Hale, where Keys was quickly in campaign mode, bemoaning affordability challenges facing state residents under Gov. Wes Moore (D).

“Gov. Ed Hale will put more money back into the pockets of our fellow citizens, because he trusts you to know what to do with your money better than some politician,” Keys said, standing next to a large sign reading “Help is on the way!”

Hale and Keys met when they were both regular guests on a local conservative talk radio show on WBAL hosted by Jimmy Mathis, a frequent presence at campaign events. The new running mates were unsurprisingly critical of Moore’s tenure in the governor’s mansion, but they face a steep challenge trying to unseat him in deep blue Maryland. Hale, formerly a registered Democrat, switched parties to challenge Moore, who is running for a second term.

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Ed Hale Sr. poses with the Maryland flag, a shot at Gov. Wes Moore’s (D) recent comments on the flag. Hale had just named Tyrone Keys Jr. as his running mate. (Photo by Christine Condon/Maryland Matters)

Hale and Keys, who plan to officially file their candidacy Friday, will join a crowded field of Republican hopefuls that now includes Dan Cox, the 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee who was soundly defeated by Moore.

During Thursday’s event, Keys described his upbringing in a multigenerational home in West Baltimore.

“Although we didn’t have much, we did have three square meals a day, a roof over our heads,” Keys said. “I’m saddened by the state that we find ourselves in today. We literally have seniors making tough decisions about whether or not they’re going to purchase medication or pay their electric bill.”

Hale said he would push to reopen shuttered fossil fuel power plants in Maryland, and to keep the coal-fired Brandon Shores power plant operating beyond mid-2029, when a costly extended operating agreement for the plant is set to expire. Hale called climate change “ridiculous” and a “Democratic plot,” arguing that Maryland should also abandon emissions tests on passenger vehicles, which recently doubled in cost.

“The current administration in Annapolis is not only ignoring the struggles of Marylanders, it is also strangling our families with burdensome taxes, fees and penalties,” Keys said.

Hale also attacked Moore’s interest in national affairs, including his push to redraw Maryland’s eight Congressional districts before the decennial Census, a response to a redistricting effort from the GOP. “We just simply can’t wait while this guy is running for president of the United States and not governing our great state,” Hale said.

Black Liberation (lobby) Day

Some community leaders and advocates traveled to Annapolis on Thursday, during Black History Month, to tour the capital, meet with elected officials and attend bill hearings as part of “Black Liberation Lobby Day.”

They got a hearty welcome from Del. Malcolm Ruff (D-Baltimore City) from the House floor, where he described the purpose of the day: “To expose participants to an approach to advocacy that sees Black History as a resource for our current fight for liberation.” Ruff followed that with, “Power to the People!” and the people in the gallery responded in kind.

Sen. President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) speaks Thursday at the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum in Annapolis as Dayvon Love, director of public policy with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, watches. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

The advocates then convened at the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum down the street from the State House, where several lawmakers stopped by, including Sen. Charles Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County) and Dels. Debra Davis (D-Charles), Aletheia McCaskill (D-Baltimore County) and Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery).

“Black people must be at the table of every single decision-making body and power structure in our state and in our nation,” Wilkins said. “Your voices, here today, making sure that our issues are at the top of the agenda … is so critical.”

They were also visited by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City), who credited local leaders such as Dayvon Love, director of public policy with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle of Baltimore, with helping him and other lawmakers understand the importance of certain pieces of legislation, such as last year’s bill creating a Reparations Commission.

“It made me realize that I had failed to represent well enough that I really started down this path of trying to really understand the history [and] the importance of reparations,” Ferguson said, as Love stood nearby. “It’s Dayvon, it’s Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, it’s a number of other folks who have helped us to think through how we find a path to have a very real conversation here in Maryland.”

TalkingWhite House visit over Potomac spill

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, speaking from the White House briefing room \Wednesday, argued that the jurisdictions impacted by the disastrous pipeline break that spewed millions of gallons of sewage into the Potomac River, including Maryland, need to “step forward and to ask the federal government for help.”

Turns out, Maryland officials were in the White House that very day, meeting with federal officials to discuss the spill and the next steps on repair and cleanup. It was a “very good and productive” meeting, said Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Gov. Wes Moore (D), even though it occurred “at the same time Karoline Leavitt was lying from the podium.”

The “very good and productive meeting” of White House and State House officials followed several days of their bosses, Moore and President Donald Trump (R), trading barbs about the environmental catastrophe. That began Monday when Trump took to his social media network Truth Social to blame the spill on Moore.

The executive back-and-forth culminated when Trump said the states should “ask nicely” for federal help, and Moore responded Wednesday that, “If the President wants me to ask nicely, our response is this: Please, Mr. President, do your job.”

The pipe that collapsed, sending an estimated 243 million gallons of untreated sewage into the waterway, is owned by DC Water and regulated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which had been on the scene prior to Trump’s message.

Since Jan. 24, DC Water has been operating a bypass system that sends the sewage into a lock of the C&O Canal, instead of into the river. This means the spill is largely contained to a pit in a popular recreation area, although overflow events have taken place due to equipment failures, sending additional sewage into the environment.

From the podium on Wednesday, Leavitt called on Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., to invoke the Stafford Act, in order for the federal government to send emergency disaster assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Let’s all hope and pray that this governor [Moore] does the right thing and asks President Trump to get involved, because it will be an ecological and environmental disaster if the federal government does not step in to help,” Leavitt said. ”But of course, we need the state and local jurisdictions to make that formal request. That’s part of the legal process to move forward.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser made that formal request Wednesday.