Former Maryland Gov. Albert Ritchie’s record 15-year tenure in office secured Democratic dominance in state government for the next seven-plus decades, according to historians. “The roots of the current political arrangement probably have the strongest base in the long-term governorship of Gov. Ritchie,” said Maryland State Archivist Edward C. Papenfuse. “He built a very strong Democratic organization, which subsequent governors have built upon for decades.” Ritchie was an old-school Democrat from Baltimore who served as Maryland attorney general from 1915 to 1919.
He was elected governor in 1920 on a platform promoting a smaller federal government — a cause now belonging to modern-day Republicans.
Over his next four terms, Ritchie enacted massive reforms to the public school system that included transferring education funding from wealthier counties to poorer counties — a formula that still exists today.
Ritchie also fought for women’s suffrage and invested record amounts in transportation infrastructure, creating thousands of jobs and building Maryland one of the best highway systems in the country at that time. “Ritchie was certainly the crucial figure in the transition of [the Southern] Democratic Party to the new Democratic Party,” said Theodore Sheckels, professor of communications at Randolph-Macon College. “He was very popular.”
Ritchie’s staunch opposition to Prohibition also was a uniting force among Marylanders, Sheckels noted.
Throughout his time in office, more conservative Democrats gradually left the party while moderates and progressives flocked to the state “to keep the party dominant,” Sheckels said.
Ritchie continued to support states’ rights throughout his 15 years in office, but he eventually accepted federal assistance from Herbert Hoover’s Reconstruction funds in his final term.
He was eventually defeated in his fifth run for office in 1934. – Hayley Peterson
