Democratic Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger announced Friday that he would not seek a 12th term in Maryland's 2nd Congressional District, a suburban Baltimore constituency that favored Joe Biden 59-39 in 2020. Ruppersberger's decision came months after Rep. John Sarbanes announced his own retirement in the 3rd District; Rep. Dave Trone, a third Democrat who serves a neighboring seat, is also running for the Senate rather than seeking reelection to the 6th District.
Ruppersberger, who is 78, has been publicly mulling retirement for the better part of a year, so his departure is not a surprise. Indeed, one prominent local Democrat, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, began raising money in June for a potential campaign, though he said he was interested only in running for an open seat. The candidate filing deadline is Feb. 9, and the primary will take place May 14.
Ruppersberger himself has long been a power player in state politics even though he never rose quite as high as he wanted. The future congressman was born Charles Albert Ruppersberger III, though he's long gone by the nickname "Dutch."
And it's not just his nickname anymore. "When you market yourself, you have to make sure that you have the same name on the ballot, so I needed 'Dutch' on the ballot," he told The Hill in 2009, continuing, "So what I did is I legally—I'm a lawyer—I legally added Dutch to my name. So I would go by C—period—A—period—Dutch, and all of the bumper stickers would say, 'Go Dutch.'"
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