MARYLAND—Del. Michael McDermott (38B-R) has not announced it yet, but the Bayside Gazette has confirmed that he is preparing to announce after Labor Day his plans to run for the state senate, in a challenge to incumbent Sen. Jim Mathias (38-D).

McDermott has been a member of the Maryland House of Delegates since January 2011. He is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and served as chairman of the Worcester County Delegation in 2011, according to his biography. He was mayor of Pocomoke City, from 2005-2011.
In his professional career, McDermott has served as a commander in the Criminal Investigation Division of the Worcester County Sheriff's Office since 1988. He was Chief of Police in Snow Hill from 2001-2005.

A fundraiser and “meet and greet” sponsored by Republican state senators was held at the Dough Roller on 41 Street in Ocean City on Aug. 16, according to Joan Gentile, vice chair of the Worcester County Republican Central Committee, and president of the Republican Women of Worcester County. She said it was “very well attended,” mostly by McDermott’s friends and political allies.

During the 2013 session of the Maryland General Assembly, McDermott launched an intensive campaign to defeat Gov. Martin O’Malley’s gun bill, which placed restrictions on certain in-state gun purchases, and to tried to dissuade local gun manufacturers from leaving the state after it became law.

He sponsored the newly-enacted Sheddy-Bennett Act (HB709), which increased the maximum penalty for being an accessory after the fact to murder in the first degree from 5 to 10 years.

Gentile also said Mary Beth Carozza, a resident of Ocean Pines who filed on May 30 as a Republican candidate for the state’s new 38C legislative district position, was in attendance at the event.

Carozza served as chief of staff from 2011-2012 for Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers (R), and temporarily as the 2012 national deployment director for the National Republican  Congressional Committee; as staff director of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee from 2007-2010; as deputy as deputy chief of staff for former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich from 2003-2007; as deputy assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs for the Department of Defense during the George W. Bush administration from 2001-2002; and as chief of staff for Ohio Rep. Dave Hobson from 1991-2001.

Maryland adopted new congressional districts in 2011 and new state legislative districts in 2012 based on changes in population reported in the 2010 U.S. Census.

As a result, Legislative District 38, which previous contained one single-member district (38A) and one two-member district (38B), were reconfigured into three single-member districts of relatively equal size (38A with a population of 42,513 in Worcester and Somerset counties; 38B with a population of 42,567 in eastern Wicomico County; and 38C with a population of 41,581 in Wicomico and Worcester counties).

The newly-created District 38C, which now covers the northern portion of Worcester County and the eastern portion of Wicomico County, is an open district and is not currently represented by an incumbent.