Lawmakers from six more states, including Maryland, back centrist ‘Promise to America’

A national Democratic centrist group announced Thursday that legislators from six more states, including Maryland, had signed the “Promise to America” pledge calling for common ground solutions, the first in what the group said would be a rollout to include all 50 states by Election Day.

One of the state lawmakers is Sen. Joanne C. Benson (D-Prince George’s), the Senate majority whip and the longest-serving member in the Maryland General Assembly, having served since 1991. Benson, 85, is not seeking reelection this year.

“This is right down my alley,” Benson said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon. “We’re not interested in the political stuff. We’re interested in creating a better quality of life for the people that we serve and the people not only just in Prince George’s County, but around the country.”

Progressives in the party have criticized the Promise to America, which is seen as a counter to gains at the polls this year by Democratic Socialists. But Benson said it’s just about “raising the bar for those who can’t speak for themselves.”

“That’s been my life’s work. Listen, we’re not going to get caught up in Democrats, Republicans, independents or anybody else. We need to come together to sit down for the common good.”

The other five state legislators who made the pledge Thursday, all Democrats, are Sen. Joe Baldacci of Maine and Reps. Adam Moore of Kentucky, Eric Emery of South Dakota, and Jennifer Mandelbaum and Terry Spahr, both of New Hampshire.

“I’ve spent my career showing up for people in their hardest moments, and that’s the same lens I bring to the Legislature,” Emery, one of eight Democrats in the South Dakota legislature, said in a statement. “South Dakota’s rural and tribal communities deserve leaders who listen first and work across the aisle to get things done, not politics for its own sake.”

Promise to America created the pledge in June, with the help of U.S. House Reps. Tom Suozzi of New York and Adam Gray of California, both Democrats. In its first X post, the group said its initiative “is the path forward for the Democratic Party and our Country.”

At least eight other Democrats have signed the pledge including Reps. Don Davis of North Carolina, Kristen McDonald Rivet of Michigan and Susie Lee of Nevada.

One of the six commitments noted in the pledge is, “Growth, Competition, and Broad Prosperity. We are capitalists, not socialists.” Part of that pledge’s summary states in the belief of a “growing, fair, and competitive economy that rewards hard work, innovation, entrepreneurship, and ownership.”

The pledge came as Democratic Socialists appear to be gaining influence, particularly in New York with three DSA candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani winning primaries.

Other progressive candidates who won in this year’s Democratic primary elections include Abdul El-Sayed for U.S. Senate in Michigan, state Rep. Angie Nixon for U.S. Senate in Florida and Amar Mukunda, a progressive in Maryland who unseated state Senate Majority Leader Nancy King (D-Montgomery) in the June primary.

Larry Stafford, executive director of Progressive Maryland, said in an interview those particular candidates are winning because they support what the majority of Americans seek: expanding health care to cover everyone, addressing climate change, guaranteeing a living wage for workers and not investing “in foreign wars.”

After Stafford read the Promise to America website, he said he was searching for the policy commitments.

“It’s a set of vague platitudes, not a document outlining a plan to improving people’s lives,” he said in a text message. “Once again, centrism shows itself to be an ideology committed to nothing except the appearance of being reasonable and attempting to appeal to everyone while delivering nothing.”

Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville said during a Promise to America virtual press briefing Thursday that if some Democratic Socialists “hate the Democratic Party so much, well don’t use our … name. Go think of your own name. But at any rate, I think this is a real step in the right direction. I think a lot of people put a lot of work into this. I think it’s a great product.”

The goal is to conduct continuous rollout of various names to join the pledge with at least one person representing all 50 states.