By MDBayNews Staff
Maryland’s 2026 gubernatorial race is still taking shape, but a new move by a Green Party campaign suggests that third-party candidates are working to build a stronger grassroots presence in the state’s political landscape.
The Ellis/Andrews campaign, seeking the Green Party nomination for governor and lieutenant governor, announced this week that Dr. Andrew Eneim will join the campaign as its People and Organizing Lead, a role focused on expanding volunteer networks and grassroots outreach across Maryland.
While the state’s elections are often dominated by the Democratic and Republican parties, the campaign hopes that a renewed focus on local organizing and community engagement could help bring additional voices into Maryland’s political conversation.
A Focus on Grassroots Engagement
Eneim brings experience in labor and political organizing, including work on the successful graduate worker unionization effort at Johns Hopkins University, where roughly 3,000 workers voted overwhelmingly in favor of forming a union.
According to the campaign, that experience organizing workers and building coalitions will now be applied to political outreach across Maryland.
Campaign leaders say the strategy centers on building strong local relationships and empowering volunteers to expand the movement organically within their own communities.
“We’ve built the research, the policy platform, and the media presence,” said gubernatorial candidate Andy Ellis in the campaign announcement. “The next step is bringing more people into the effort.”
Eneim emphasized that the campaign intends to focus on person-to-person engagement rather than relying primarily on large-scale messaging campaigns.
“A real leader develops other leaders,” Eneim said. “I want to work with people who want to build something in their own communities.”
Building a Statewide Network
The campaign’s goal is to develop a network of approximately 1,500 active supporters and volunteers, creating an organizing infrastructure capable of supporting outreach across multiple regions of Maryland.
Rather than scheduling events and hoping supporters attend, the campaign plans to identify local organizers first and then coordinate campaign visits around those community relationships.
It’s a strategy commonly used in successful grassroots political movements and reflects the campaign’s effort to build sustainable momentum heading into the 2026 election cycle.
Expanding the Political Conversation
Maryland’s political environment has long been dominated by the two major parties, but smaller parties often play an important role in shaping policy debates and bringing new ideas into the public conversation.
Green Party candidates historically focus on issues such as campaign finance reform, environmental protection, and grassroots democracy—topics that can influence broader policy discussions even when third-party candidates are not leading in the polls.
Campaign observers say the Ellis/Andrews effort reflects a more structured approach than many previous third-party campaigns in the state, with defined fundraising goals, media outreach, and volunteer infrastructure.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As Maryland’s 2026 election cycle develops, most attention will remain focused on the major party primaries and statewide races.
But the emergence of organized third-party campaigns could add another dimension to the political landscape, particularly if they succeed in mobilizing voters who feel underrepresented by traditional party politics.
For the Ellis/Andrews campaign, the addition of a dedicated organizing lead represents an effort to turn policy ideas and online engagement into a real statewide movement.
Whether that effort translates into electoral gains remains to be seen—but it reflects a growing interest in expanding Maryland’s political conversation beyond the traditional two-party framework.
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