Maryland Attorney General candidate Tom Perez and Montgomery County Council candidate Valerie Ervin met with local minority and church leaders Monday to discuss ways to encourage more than 227,000 county minority residents to register to vote in a plan the Democratic pair are touting as “Empower Summer.”
Parts of Montgomery County are already “majority minority,” meaning that there are more combined minority residents than the Caucasian population, said Perez, who is of Latino heritage.
The meeting at Silver Spring International Middle School drew leaders from across Maryland, including representatives from the NAACP, the Black Ministries Conference of Montgomery County, Service Employees International Union local 32BJ and Casa of Maryland, a Latino-rights organization.
“Just look around this table and you see the new Maryland,” Perez said. “We are a force, a force to reckon with.”
State Delegate Gareth Murray, a Democrat from Montgomery County, said the perception of some that Latino and black residents only vote for candidates from their own racial background needs to be changed.
“When we vote for someone who looks like us, it’s because they’re competent,” Murray said.
The meeting also was an opportunity for both candidates to publicly endorse each other.
Ervin is seeking election to the county’s fifth district, which Perez currently represents. Perez must beat back challenges by Montgomery County State’s Attorney Doug Gansler and Baltimore lawyer Stu Simms in the September primary.
Ervin, who was elected in 2004 to the county School Board, is facing a primary challenge in the County Council race from Democrat Hans Riemer, the political director of Rock the Vote.
