Heather Mizeur recently dropped in on the Long Green Volunteer Fire Company’s weekly food truck night in Glen Arm in Northeast Baltimore County, the last stop in a day of campaigning for the Democrat who is running to unseat Andy Harris in Maryland’s 1st Congressional District seat. Mizeur was explaining her support for abortion rights and contrasting that with Harris, who supports a national ban on aborting a fetus with a heartbeat.
“As lovers of freedom here in this district, there’s no greater freedom than being able to make your own decision about what to do with your body,” she said.
Then the fire company’s siren went off and Mizeur rolled with it.
“Duty calls, duty calls,” Mizeur said. “When you’re at the volunteer fire department’s food truck night, the fires don’t stop.”
Mizeur said for her, duty called and she started considering running for Congress when Harris opposed formal certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral college victory on January 6, 2021.
She calls Harris an extremist.
Congressman Harris declined to be interviewed for this story.
Mizeur is trying to convince voters in the mostly rural, conservative 1st Congressional District to give a Democrat a shot in Congress. Mizeur is trying to unseat the six-term congressman by running a campaign she said is about unifying rather than dividing voters.
Mizeur recounted a house party she recently had in Cecil County with a room full of Republicans and Independents. She said it was contentious at first.
“By the way I handled myself and engaged with them, by the end of the night they were like wow, you’re brave, you’re courageous, you’re tough, you gave us things to think about, and it brought the temperature of the room down,” Mizeur said.
Baltimore County is divided among three congressional districts, including the 1st congressional district. Glen Arm is just inside the 1st district, so it was hit or miss for Mizeur to find someone who could vote for her even if they wanted to.
She struck up a conversation with Sophie Mikula, who was nursing a cold beer on a chilly night. Mikula was visiting from the Eastern Shore, which is also in the 1st district. Mizeur launched into her pitch.
She told Mikula, “I’m really focused on the economy, putting farmers and watermen as part of the solution to the climate crisis and addressing health care.”
Mikulah gave Mizeur points for showing up.
“I think that it’s great that she’s out here mingling, talking to people in the communities,” Mikulah said. “So, I think it’s pretty cool.”
On his Twitter feed, Harris talks about national issues such as the dangers of Fentanyl “brought through our wide-open southern border” and inflation, which he blames on President Joe Biden and the Democrats.
“Joe Biden and the Democrats have actually created an economy that works for no one,” Harris tweeted.
Harris is running for a seventh term, although he pledged in 2010 to run for no more than six.
A Democrat hasn’t won the conservative 1st district seat since 2008. Harris won last time with more than 63% of the vote. The data journalism website FiveThirtyEight scores the 1st district as being solid Republican.
Kathy Chenowith said she has known the congressman and his family for years. She’ll be voting for him.
“He has conservative views which I also share those conservative views,” Chenowith said. “His entire family is also kind of really lived that message of pro-life which I’m very pro-life.”
Mizeur is 49. She lives on a farm outside Chestertown on the Eastern Shore with her wife Deborah.
In the past, Harris has run against Democrats with little name recognition or money to spend. This time, it’s a different situation.
Mizeur was a member of the Takoma Park City Council from 2003 until 2005. She served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2007 until 2015. She ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2014.
Before she was elected to the General Assembly, she served for three years as U.S. Senator John Kerry’s Domestic Policy Director.
Mizeur also has outraised Harris. According to her most recent campaign finance report, she has raised more than $2.5 million and has more than $850,000 to spend. Harris has around $1.5 million.
Mizeur has been able to attract star power to her campaign. Musician Melissa Etheridge performed at a fundraiser for Mizeur in Havre de Grace earlier this month.
She’s had the money for TV ads, including one featuring former Dorchester County Commissioner Jeff Powell, a Republican, saying he’s backing Mizeur because Harris has not been helping people living in his district.
“I feel like that ad has given a lot of people permission to open themselves up to, well, yeah, I kind have been concerned about the lack of representation I’ve been receiving too. Heather shows up and she listens and she helps us get things done,” she said.
Time will tell if Mizeur’s message resonates enough in the deep red 1st district to give her a shot at an upset.
“What started out me trying to convince people it was possible, I’m experiencing these days a lot of folks coming up to me and saying ‘you know you’re going to win, right?’” she said.
