MILWAUKEE – The Maryland Republican Party has sent 24 delegates and 24 alternates from its eight congressional districts to the 2024 Republican National Convention here.
The delegation is a mix of GOP elected officials, political activists and some newcomers. Delegates were elected to their positions in the May 14 primary election.
All cast their votes for former President Donald Trump, who officially was nominated Monday afternoon.
Below is a rundown of the state’s GOP leadership and delegates in Milwaukee. Capital News Service attempted to contact the people detailed below but, with one exception, they either did not respond to requests for interviews or declined interviews because the Maryland Republican Party required reporters to submit questions in advance. CNS follows standard journalistic practice and does not submit pre-screened questions in interviews.
Nicole Beus Harris, wife of Rep. Andy Harris, is serving as the chairwoman for the Maryland GOP at the convention. She arrived in Milwaukee ahead of the convention’s start on Monday sharing in a July 10 FaceBook post that she was attending the RNC chairman's session at the RNC summer meeting.
Beus Harris’ political career began in 2011, when she worked on State Sen. Nancy Jacobs’ unsuccessful 2012 congressional campaign, according to her website. She later worked on state legislative races, was a staffer in the Maryland Senate and has been a political consultant. To this day, Beus Harris works on campaigns.
Maryland Republican National Committeeman David M. Bossie and Committeewoman Nicolee Ambrose joined Beus Harris at the RNC summer meeting, according to another FaceBook post.
This is Bossie’s second time serving as Maryland’s National Republican Committeeman. His political career includes numerous positions on Trump’s staff, most notably as the senior advisor to the Trump-Pence 2020 campaign.
Outside of U.S. politics, Bossie also served as a senior strategist for the 2020 re-election of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He has written numerous books and produced over two dozen documentaries.
Bossie is the president of Citizens United, a non-profit organization, which produced the recent movie “Trump’s Rescue Mission: Saving America,” according to a recent Truth Social post by Trump and reposted by Bossie. The Miller High Life Theater in Milwaukee will be hosting a screening of the film on Wednesday during the convention.
Ambrose is a FOX News Radio political analyst and has been sent by the U.S. Department of State as a speakers bureau representative to other countries, according to her website. She has previously served as the chairwoman of the Young Republican National Federation and on the Advisory Council for the Republican Women’s Federal Forum.
District 1
Maryland’s 1st District - which includes Worcester, Somerset, Wicomico, Dorchester. Talbot, Caroline, Queen Anne’s, Kent, Harford and parts of Baltimore counties is being represented by delegates Julie Giordano, Danielle Hornberger and Del. Kathy Szeliga.
Giordano currently serves at the Wicomico County executive. The 42-year-old is a former teacher, member of the Wicomico Conservative Republican Women and president of the Lower Shore Young Republicans, according to the Maryland State Archives.
Hornberger is Cecil County executive and is the wife of State Del. Kevin Hornberger. She grew up in Southern Maryland and serves on multiple boards and councils. She also served as a community liaison for Rep. Harris.
After Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump, she posted on Facebook: “Strength. [heart emoji] This man is a Fighter.”
Szeliga has represented Baltimore and Harford in the Maryland House of Delegates since 2011. From 2013-2021, she served as the minority whip. Born in Baltimore, Szeliga served as a delegate to the RNC in 2012 and 2020, according to her state profile.
District 2
2nd District consists of parts of Carroll and Baltimore counties and a section of Baltimore City.
Del. Richard (Ric) Metzgar, 70, of Baltimore County, is attending his second convention. Metzger has served in the Maryland House of Delegates since 2015.
Linda Preece of Essex, is participating in her first convention. According to her Facebook page, she worked as the campaign scheduler for Ambrose’s 2022 failed run for Congress.
This is the third convention for State Sen. Johnny Ray Salling of Baltimore County. Salling is a U.S. Army veteran and former steel worker who has served in the Senate since 2015.
Salling was an alternate at the 2020 convention, which was scheduled to take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, before the event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He told CNS that he also attended the 2016 convention in Cleveland but he was neither a delegate nor an alternate in that cycle.
“What it comes down to is, we know who our candidate is. It's Donald J. Trump,” Salling told CNS. “He's going to get the vote and he's going to be the candidate for the Republican Party.”
District 3
District 3 includes parts of Howard, Carroll and Anne Arundel counties and is being represented at the convention by Elaine M. Furth, Faith M. Loudon and Anne Elizabeth Rutherford.
Carroll County’s Furth was married in 2004 to Allen Furth who was an alternate delegate to the convention, according to a CNS article. No other information on her was identified.
Loudon of Pasadena, Maryland, is a lifelong Anne Arundel County resident, according to her website. In 2012, she was the unsuccessful GOP congressional candidate in Maryland’s 4th congressional district. She was honored in 2010 as Maryland’s Republican Woman of the Year. She currently serves on the board of the Maryland Federation of Republican Women, according to her website.
District 4
Parts of Prince George’s and Montgomery counties sit within the state’s 4th congressional district.
JoAnn Y. Fisher is attending her fourth GOP convention since 2004. A Navy veteran, Fisher serves as CEO for Women Veterans United Committee, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to helping female veterans in Maryland, according to the organization’s website.
Josephine Guereca Salazar, of Silver Spring, is attending her first convention as a delegate.
Dat T. Pham, of Lanham, is attending the party gathering for the first time. Pham is a 2013 University of Maryland graduate with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and master’s in computer and information science, database management. He is a senior developer at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), an organization that enforces rules for the ethical activities of all registered broker-dealer firms and registered brokers in the United States, according to the company's website.
District 5
The 5th district includes Charles, Calvert and St. Mary’s counties and parts of Anne Arundel and Prince George’s. Deena B. Fisher, Dirk Haire and J.T. Mastranadi are the district’s delegates.
Fisher is married to Del. Mark N. Fisher. The Calvert County resident grew up in New York and is a mother to three, according to her husband’s website. She serves as the Calvert County chair of the Trump Victory Council, according to the Maryland GOP website.
Former Maryland Republican Party Chairman Haire is a partner at Fox Rothchild LLP. He attended The George Washington University Law School and served as counsel for Larry Hogan’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign, according to Ballotpedia. He also formerly served as the Maryland House Republican Caucus Committee chairman and the Maryland Senate Republican Caucus Committee chairman.
Mastranadi is the vice president for government affairs for Bossie’s Citizens United. His previous experiences with the GOP include serving as the chief deputy director of research for the RNC, deputy director of research and then director of research for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and as a senior analyst for the RNC. From 1996-1999, he served as a staff assistant and then investigator for the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, according to his LinkedIn page.
District 6
District 6 includes Garret, Allegany, Washington, Frederick counties and part of Montgomery County. Del. Barrie S. Ciliberti, Jerry DeWolf and Derek J. Harvey are the delegates.
Ciliberti, of Frederick County, has been in and out of the Maryland House of Delegates representing different districts since 1995. He has been representing Maryland’s 4th district in the House of Delegates since January 2023. He has served as special assistant for ethnic affairs to the Republican National Committee and held memberships in Montgomery County and Frederick County Republican organizations.
In May, Ciliberti drew attention from local news outlets for being one of two delegates who had yet to complete the state’s required anti-sexual harassment training.
DeWolf is the former chairman of the Washington County Republican Central Committee and a U.S. Navy submarine veteran. According to his LinkedIn page, he works in the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infection Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick.
Harvey is a member of the Washington County Board of County Commissioners and the Board of Health since 2022. He previously worked for the U.S. House, served in the U.S. Army and worked under Trump on the White House National Security Council.
District 7
The majority of Baltimore City and some surrounding parts in Baltimore County make up the 7th district. Christopher Michael Anderson, Tom Kennedy and Don Murphy are representing the district at the convention.
Anderson is the GOP candidate running for Baltimore City Council’s 7th district seat, currently held by Democratic Councilman James R. Torrence, and also is running to represent Baltimore City as a state senator from the 40th district. The Baltimore native is a U.S. Coast Guard veteran and says on his website that “we can - and should - do better for West Baltimoreans.”
Kennedy has been chairman of the Baltimore City Republican Party Central Committee since 2021. He is a lawyer, former high school teacher and retired U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel. This is his second consecutive convention as a delegate; in 2016 he was an alternate. During those two same election cycles, he was the Baltimore City for Trump campaign chairman, according to the Baltimore City GOP.
Murphy, 64, is a Baltimore native who represented the county and Howard County in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1995-2003. The Smithburg resident is attending his fifth convention serving as a delegate. He is a member of the Baltimore County Republican Central Committee, according to the state archives.
District 8
Most of Montgomery County makes up the 8th district which is being represented by Victoria “Vikki” Birkett, Committeeman David M. Bossie and Sastry V. Dhara.
Victoria “Vikki” Birkett, of Montgomery County, is attending her first convention. Birkett is the second vice president of the Maryland Federation of Republican Women. In addition to her political activity, Birkett is a financial controller for Varela, Lee, Metz & Guarino, a law firm in Tysons Corner, Virginia.
Sastry V. Dhara is attending his first convention. The founder, president and CEO of Dhara Consulting Group has over 25 years of experience in the technology industry, according to his company’s website. The company is based in Rockville.
At-large delegates
The Maryland GOP also has at-large delegates and alternates who were selected by the Republican State Central Committee.
The at-large delegates are Rep. Harris, former Assistant Secretary of State Ellen R. Sauerbrey, Wendell R. Beitzel, Robert G. Cassilly, Michael Ben Marchi, John Minnick, Richard M. Osborne, Kathy Peed, Luanne Ruddell and Christina M. Trotta.
The at-large alternates are Marcus A. Alzona, Matthew Beers, Tamu I. Davenport, D. Dante Anthony Hayes, Seth A. Howard, Samuel Jones, Amy Leahy, Susan Ostrowski, Fred Price, Jr., and Christopher L. Tomlinson.
Capital News Service reporter Casey Fox Shannon contributed to this report.
You must be logged in to post a comment.