Harford County Executive Barry Glassman, who had been considering a run for the GOP nomination for US Senate, has decided not to run.
Harford County Executive Barry Glassman, a former state lawmaker who briefly flirted with a run for the Republican nomination for Senate, has announced he will forgo a campaign in favor of remaining in his current job.
“I have been flattered by all the folks from around the state — my fellow sheep farmers, friends — who have called or written to urge me to run for Congress or … U.S. Senate,” Glassman said during a state of the county address on Tuesday, according to prepared remarks. “But most of you who know me well, know that I have always dreamed of being county executive since my days as a scrawny farm boy.
“Some dreams are fleeting; others meant to last a while,” he said. “So I guess what I am trying to say is, I am not quite ready for this dream to be over.”
Glassman is a Havre de Grace native elected to his current post in 2014. He captured support from 8 percent of likely GOP voters in a Baltimore Sun-University of Baltimore poll conducted in November, trailing House of Delegates Minority Whip Kathy Szeliga, a Baltimore County Republican, and Richard Douglas, a former Pentagon official who ran for the GOP Senate nomination in 2012.
The chief beneficiary of Glassman’s decision appears to be Delegate Kathy Szeliga, who led the field in a November poll commissioned by the Sun with 15 percent, while Glassman, a former state senator, received 8 percent support. Richard Douglas was the only other candidate above 5 percent in the poll. I suspect that much of Glassman’s support will likely end up with Szeliga, a fellow General Assembly Republican.