Reel: Doing the right thing results in consequences in Annapolis

When the opening day of the 2024 Maryland General Assembly session was called to order, Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes was the speaker pro tempore in the Maryland House of Delegates, the second-highest position for a member of the House Democratic Caucus.

By the time the session adjourned, Delegate Sample-Hughes had been replaced in that role.

Delegate Sample-Hughes, who represents parts of Dorchester County and parts of Wicomico County, was the only member of the state House from the Eastern Shore of Maryland with a high leadership position in the House Democratic caucus.

Delegate Sample-Hughes deserved much more respect and much better outcomes on this matter, based on a long and distinguished career in public service.

After serving two terms as a member of Wicomico County Council, she was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates, where she continues to serve.

Responding to this recent turn of events, Delegate Sample-Hughes said her removal was based on her not supporting legislation that was favored by the Democratic leadership in the House of Delegates. She noted that her lack of support for that legislation was based on her being respectful of and responsive to the views of her constituents on that legislation. In that regard, she said, “Where we are today, is that I stood by my convictions and stood up for my constituents. The phone calls and the emails that I received last session (opposed) three bills that were, you know, top bills in the state, but I still had to vote my district.”

Following her removal as speaker pro tempore, Delegate Sample-Hughes observed that that position had never defined her and that she will continue to do the work that the people of District 37A sent her to Annapolis to do.

All things considered, opening day 2024 in the state House was truly a sad day.

What happened to Delegate Sample-Hughes was far more than her being replaced in a high-level leadership position.

Everyone on the Eastern Shore of Maryland loses when any member of the Maryland House of Delegates who strives to fulfill his or her moral obligation to faithfully represent those whom he or she serves is replaced as a consequence.

David Reel

Easton