Letters from Ben
Capital Wheel, National Harbor, Maryland
These are regular letters to constituents about what's happening in Maryland, nationally and around the world. Beginning as a way to share information during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have become a must-read for Marylanders to connect happenings in our nation's capital to daily life.
Hate + Guns
Dear Fellow Marylanders: Last weekend, when I heard that 10 people were gunned down in a Buffalo grocery store, my mind started racing. While I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to soak in the horrific news, I was simultaneously sad, angry, fearful and frustrated. I said a silent prayer and questioned aloud how one human could do such a thing. We next learned that the grocery store was in a predominantly Black area of this upstate New York city and that the young shooter apparently described himself as a white supremacist. According to authorities, his online writings show that he believed in the so-called “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory about immigration...
Hate + Guns
Dear Fellow Marylanders: Last weekend, when I heard that 10 people were gunned down in a Buffalo grocery store, my mind started racing. While I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to soak in the horrific news, I was simultaneously sad, angry, fearful and...
One Million Lost
Dear Fellow Marylanders: Over the last two years, we have lost family and friends, colleagues and neighbors, while coping with countless other economic, social and emotional challenges brought on by the pandemic. We have been able to return to some normal...
Mother’s Rights
Dear Fellow Marylanders: This Sunday, families across our country will come together to celebrate Mother’s Day and the beginning of National Women’s Health Week. Usually, this is an opportunity to recognize the mothers in our lives and the progress we have made...
National Small Business Week
When I first joined the Senate. I asked to become a member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. In the Senate, this is one of the smaller committees, in terms of resources and staff, but I knew that it was going to be a place where I could...
Earth Day Everyday
Dear Fellow Marylanders: Hello and Happy Day-After Earth Day! April presents the opportunity to celebrate several nature-focused holidays, including Earth Day on April 22, Maryland Arbor Day on April 9 and National Arbor Day on April 29. These celebrations provide a...
Freddie Gray
Dear Fellow Marylander: April 19 will mark seven years since the tragic death of Freddie Gray, who was grievously injured while in the custody of the Baltimore City Police. Within days of his death, as unrest enveloped our city, I wrote to Attorney General Eric...
Justice Jackson
April 9, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylanders: This was a good week in the United States Senate. Thursday, as I voted to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court – the highest court in our nation – I experienced one of...
Equal Rights Always
April 2, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylander: In the last few days, we have seen a female nominee for the nation’s highest court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, navigate her confirmation hearings with a rare combination of expertise, wisdom and grace. We also paused to mark the...
The Cost of War (Ukraine)
March 26, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylander, As I write, much of the world has been turned upside down by Russia’s unprovoked and unconscionable invasion of Ukraine, which was launched just over a month ago. In four bloody weeks of warfare, we have seen tens of thousands of...
A Fork in the Road to Recovery
March 19, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylanders: We are at a critical decision point in our battle against COVID-19. While still losing far too many Marylanders to the virus, we have reached a stage where most of us are able to resume many of the daily activities we used to...
American Rescue
March 12, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylanders: Two years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to be a global pandemic. The rate of spread of this virus around the world was perhaps best...
Rising to the Moment
March 5, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylanders: This week, I hope you were able to watch President Joe Biden as he delivered his first official State of the Union address. I was excited to be there and, unlike his speech to the nation last April shortly after taking office,...
SCOTUS History
February 26, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylanders: I want to describe someone to you. This person graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and cum laude from Harvard Law School after being an editor of the Harvard Law Review; clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen...
Why Ukraine Matters
February 19, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylander: By the time you read this email, there is a chance that Russia will have begun its incursion into Ukraine. We don’t know what Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, will do. What we do know is what Putin has done in the...
Legitimate Political Discourse
February 12, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylander: I write today to express my concerns about a fissure in our nation. On January 6, 2021, thousands of Americans gathered outside the White House to hear the outgoing president. The day was chosen specifically because it was the...
Certain to Improve
February 5, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylander: Of all the ways that COVID-19 has tried our resolve, the ongoing lack of certainty – about our economy, schools, health and daily lives – may be the most difficult to navigate. For many of us, my own staff included, we...
Vacancy
January 29, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylander: As Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer formally announced his upcoming retirement at the White House this week, he reminded Americans that we live in a diverse country with diverse experiences and diverse opinions. In...
Glass Half Full
January 22, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylander: I am a glass-is-half-full kind of person. I try to be optimistic as much as possible. Sometimes it isn’t easy. This week was one of those times. As you may be aware, the Senate held a debate this week on voting rights...
Voting Rights Legacy
January 15, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylander: Each January, we celebrate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who gave voice to the civil rights movement and the struggle for equality for Black Americans. A federal holiday for more than two decades, this...
The Big Lie and the Ballot Box
January 8, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylander: This week marked the first anniversary of one of the darkest moments in our nation’s history. One year ago Thursday, a mob attacked the U.S. Capitol – a mob of Americans, incited by a sitting president determined to...
Welcome 2022
January 3, 2022 Dear Fellow Marylander: Happy New Year! I start 2022 thankful for the continuing honor of representing Maryland in the United States Senate. The last 12 months have been rough at times, but they also have been some of the most consequential of my...
Fragility and Frustration
December 18, 2021 Dear Fellow Marylander: This is not what I expected. After armed insurrectionists violated the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, for the first time since a foreign army invaded in 1814, I expected my Republican Senate colleagues, with whom I have...
Vaxxed and Boosted
December 11, 2021 Dear Fellow Marylander: Last December, the nation was celebrating the incredible news that COVID-19 vaccines for adults were approved and ready for distribution. Less than a year later, more than 237 million Americans age 5 and up have received...
Hanging By A Thread
December 4, 2021 Dear Fellow Marylander: How a nation treats its women is a barometer of its success. Today, in the United States of America, women’s rights are under attack. This is not hyperbole. The reality of it is unfolding before our eyes. For nearly 50...
Shop Small. Big Impact.
November 27, 2021 Dear Fellow Marylander, I hope you were able to spend time with your loved ones over the holiday. Today is Small Business Saturday, so I also hope you will join me in supporting the small businesses that do so much for our communities. As we...
Holiday Delivery
November 20, 2021 Dear Fellow Marylanders: Can you believe it is the end of November already? Because of COVID-19, last year may have felt like 3,650 days instead of 365, but 2021 has flown by. Unfortunately, the pandemic is not quite finished with us yet, but...
Port Recovery: Biden Back in Baltimore
November 13, 2021 Dear Fellow Marylanders: President Joe Biden was back in Baltimore this week. He was at our Port to celebrate the Bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Act that passed the House of Representatives last week and is set to be signed into law Monday....
A Decisive Decade
November 6, 2021 Dear Fellow Marylanders: Greetings from Glasgow, Scotland. I’m traveling with a contingent of my congressional colleagues to help answer questions President Biden raised in his remarks to world leaders at the outset of the COP26 U.N. Climate...