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Democratic

John Sarbanes

Congressman John Sarbanes has represented Maryland’s Third Congressional District in the U.S. Congress since 2007.

He currently serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change. He serves as Vice Chair of the House Subcommittee on Health. Congressman Sarbanes also serves on the House Oversight and Reform Committee and its Subcommittee on Government Operations. He chairs the Democracy Reform Task Force, which has assembled HR1, the For The People Act, to reform and strengthen our democracy.

Born and raised in Baltimore, Congressman Sarbanes has experience working in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. He and his family live in Towson, giving him the opportunity to drive home every night and hear from the people he serves in Congress. Listening to their concerns allows him to better represent Maryland and has shaped his work in the House of Representatives.

DEMOCRACY REFORM

During the 117th Congress, Congressman Sarbanes led the effort to pass a transformational anti-corruption and clean elections reform package – HR1, the For the People Act. On five separate occasions over three years, the House of Representatives passed various versions of the bill and ultimately succeeded in putting these issues squarely before the Senate. In 2022, however, the Senate failed to muster the votes necessary to overcome the filibuster and vote on this critical package of reforms.

Every day, in every arena, the need for democracy reform continues. The Democracy Reform Task Force remains committed to:

  • Promoting Clean and Fair Elections: Empowering the American voter by protecting voting rights, ending partisan gerrymandering and reducing barriers to voting;
     
  • Ending the Dominance of Dark Money in Politics: Fixing our broken campaign finance systems to end the scourge of dark money in politics and increase the power of everyday Americans through stronger disclosure laws, a matching system for small donations and more effective oversight by the Federal Election Commission; and
     
  • Forging Responsive Governance: Strengthening ethics laws to ensure public servants work for the public interest.

Congressman Sarbanes has continued fighting to fortify our democracy by:

  • Strengthening Americans’ right to access the ballot box: Congressman Sarbanes is a cosponsor oflegislation – like the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act – to revise and restore portions of the Voting Rights Act that were gutted by the Supreme Court in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder and modernize America’s electoral processes.