Candidate Training Program Helps Launch Political Campaigns For Two St. Mary’s County Women

LEONARDTOWN, Md. — The women of Emerge Maryland are on a mission: to ensure there are more women in political office representing their own interests, and build community for those who want to seek those roles.

Adrianne Mathis and Brenda Quintero are both recent graduates of the Emerge program. They’re also the first St. Mary’s County residents to complete it. Mathis is running as a Democrat for District 29B in southern St. Mary’s County, while Quintero is running for a spot in the Democratic Central Committee.

“A lot of people say they don’t care about politics,” Quintero said. “But politics cares about you. Without our voices, without our advocacy for ourselves, things are being done to us rather than us choosing for ourselves.”

The work of self-advocacy is especially important in southern counties like St. Mary’s, which is in the southernmost part of the state and risks getting left out of statewide conversations because of its rural culture.

Emerge is a nationwide program that works to train and prepare Democratic women to run for office in their state. After a rigorous application process, candidates get to participate in a five-month, 75-hour program that covers everything from messaging, media communication, fundraising, public speaking, and more. The organization has a strong foothold in the DMV and has a high success rate for its graduates — in 2022, the group had a 91% win rate. One recent high-profile Emerge alum is Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger. Now, Quintero and Mathis hope to follow in those winning footsteps.

Mathis, a lifelong educator, said she had a lot of skills and knowledge she thought would help her be a successful delegate. But the piece she was missing was how to run — and win — a campaign. She said many women may feel the same way, and that stops them from pursuing political office.

“There are so many women out there doing community work,” Quintero said.

“They have the drive, they have the talent, they just don’t know how to start,” Mathis added.

The course covers all aspects of campaigning, including one many women find challenging — fundraising. Women are conditioned to accept what’s offered to them and be grateful, but to run a successful campaign, you need to be comfortable asking for money. This skill gap can also act as a barrier for women who might have political ambitions.

Quintero said the goal is to make sure they get great candidates with a vision for what they want to say and who they want to serve, and that person can be anyone. It’s vital to build out these support networks and make sure women are represented at every level.

“We see the same people in power over and over again,” Quintero said. “Women need to see other women leading. We’ve had men in leadership who have done incredible work and championed women’s causes. But no one knows what women need like women do. And we can pave the way for the next generation, just like our mothers did for us.”

Mathis compares her drive for the state delegate role to her work as an educator. For decades, she saw how policy affected people at the ground level, whether it was about economics, housing, food, or something else.

“With children, you have to meet them where they’re at. When those students walked through the door, we weren’t looking at them thinking about their income level, or their housing situation, or what health care they had,” Mathis said. “We saw human beings and we worked to get them what they needed.”

This is how serving constituents works, she said. A self-described “hometown girl” who grew up in St. Mary’s County, community service is baked into Mathis’s core. And those values are what she believes will carry the county into the futures

“I think if you put most people in a room, they’ll agree on the outcomes they want,” Quintero said. “Safety, buying a home, and a good future for their kids. Women are often successful as leaders because many of us are coming at this as mothers, and we’re thinking every day about the world our children will grow up in.”

What connects these candidates to each other, and to other Emerge alums in their network, is this love for their communities and a vision for how to deliver for the people they live and work beside every day. Emerge, and the candidates it trains, know that community is not just how you win the race — it’s about how you lead once that campaign is over.

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