With another legislative session in the books, the Convention of States Action – Maryland team is looking back at a busy season and celebrating. As always, we are both immensely grateful and humbled to be able to represent the nearly 29,000 Marylanders who are calling for government accountability through Article V. Our list of petition signers and team of active volunteers grows every day, and we are excited and energized to set our eyes on the coming months as we start to prepare for outreach, election season, and the 2023 session.
…but first, let’s celebrate the immense amount of work we accomplished this session.
The 2022 legislative session was quite busy and our volunteers hit the ground running. We launched a number of new campaigns, gained sponsorship in both the House and the Senate, and were able to meet with legislators in Annapolis this year despite some lingering COVID restrictions. We celebrated 3 more states passing their resolutions, and made some major headway in passing our own resolution here in Maryland.
Back to Basics Campaign
In early December, ahead of the legislative session, we launched our Back-to-Basics campaign. Back to Basics focused on teaching Maryland-level civics, reminding our supporters just how their government here in Maryland works! We hosted multiple webinars in December and January, wrote a number of articles, and created worksheets and activities for younger students. There was a great turnout for these events as Marylanders young and old learned more about their own government.
Here’s the link to register for our Inspired to Action: Back to Basics Wrap Up webinar on April 26 at 7:30pm.
Student Essay Contest
In addition to the Back-to-Basics campaign, our team hosted a Student Essay Contest, where students were invited to write about a number of different non-partisan topics including: fiscal responsibility, federalism, and term limits. Our essay winners, Cody White and Elliott James, each wrote amazing essays on federalism. For their efforts they were presented with leather bound copies of the Federalist Papers and personally congratulated by Mark Meckler, COS founder and president. These students were so impressive in their knowledge of federalism and persuasive arguments that they were invited to testify to Congress – and they joined our team in Annapolis as we met with lawmakers.
Citizen Action Day
In February, our team hosted our annual Citizen Action Day in Annapolis, giving our citizen supporters an opportunity to meet with lawmakers directly and discuss the merits of Article V and the need for Maryland lawmakers to support calling for a Convention of States. Over 50 supporters came to Annapolis and were joined by many more virtually. We had the opportunity to lunch with our House and Senate sponsors, Delegate Mark Fisher and Senator Justin Ready, and listen to their reasons for supporting our cause.
Sponsorship of 2 Resolutions – House and Senate
This year we were fortunate in that we had sponsorship in both chambers of the State congress. Senator Justin Ready and Delegate Mark Fisher were the lead sponsors for our resolutions, SJ0008and HJ0006 respectively, United States Constitution – Amendments Convention – Limitations on Federal Power. We are immensely grateful to each of them for their support. Delegate Fisher and Senator Ready took a great deal of time to truly represent our cause, providing encouragement and persuasive testimony to their respective chambers. We came much closer this year to moving out of committee with their help, and we look forward to working with them again in the future. It is our hope that as we continue to put in the work, more and more lawmakers will listen to the desires of their constituents and work to move much of the governing back to the State via an Article V Convention of States.
Testimony
If there ever was a year for testimony, this one was it! Our team had over 20 state leaders, expert witnesses, and volunteers testifying to the House and Senate committees. We spent months working with our Legislative Liaison, meeting multiple times/week to perfect and practice our testimonies together. Our Senate testimony to the Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee was done in person with over 100 in-person supporters joining us, with over 1000 more views online. It was a long, but successful day in Annapolis, and those testifying were proud to represent the nearly 29,000 petition signers to lawmakers. The House testimony to the Rules and Executive Nominations Committee was conducted online with Mark Meckler joining to provide his expert testimony. Each committee was asked to forward the resolution to the entire House and Senate for full debate. Unfortunately, neither committee ever voted on whether our resolution should be moved forward. Though disappointing, it was anticipated, as our team knows that getting this resolution passed is an uphill battle in the state of Maryland, and we’re in this for the long haul.
That’s not to say this session was without victory…
Petition Signatures and Team Growth
Since the last legislative report, our petition signatures have grown remarkably. In 2021, then State Director Steve Patten reported that we had nearly 23,000 petition signers in the state of Maryland. That number has grown by nearly 6,000 in the last year as more and more voters realize just how out of control the federal government is.
The bipartisan support of this movement is huge, and we’re feeling the ground swell in the Old Line State. Ending are the days of partisan politics and an electorate willing to let politicians play their “typical” games. Maryland citizens are looking for leaders who represent their interests, not those of special interests and federal monies.
Additionally, our team of leaders has grown significantly – nearly doubling since last year, and has welcomed new State, Regional, and District leadership (as we “lost” Steve Patten to his promotion to the National level movement).
Supporter Activists
Our team employed many resources that are made available by the COS National Team, including the COS Action App and TelePatriot – allowing volunteers a streamlined way to help reach out to lawmakers and supporters. Maryland TelePatriot Volunteers phoned more than 260 constituents of key committee members, asking them to contact their legislators. Additionally, our letter writing campaign was also highly successful as many citizen patriots put pen to paper and sent letters to Annapolis. This session there were over 2,600 calls made and 300 letters sent on our behalf to our state representatives in Annapolis.
Onward and Upward
Perhaps most exciting this legislative session was being able to celebrate the success of our fellow patriots in other states pushing their resolutions forward. This year we added South Carolina, Nebraska, and Wisconsin to the list of states to pass the resolution, bringing us to 19. New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina, and New Hampshire have passed the resolution in one chamber. With 14 other states having active legislation this year, it is only a matter of time until a Convention of States is a reality, and we get to witness a pivotal moment in history where government is once again reigned in by American citizens.
With this we close with some summary thoughts from Michael Rilee, our Maryland State Director.
“With the end of the 2022 Legislative Session, the COSA Maryland year comes to a close. And what an amazing year it was! A year ago our organization was essentially a handful of 21st century patriots who simply wouldn’t give up on their neighbors or their country. Today we are a state-wide organization with a growing band of regional and district leaders supported by solid communications, media, and grassroots development teams. We are thankful for our visionary supporters, volunteers, and leaders who set out to empower the citizens of Maryland with the ability to enact change on a national level. And we have done that.
Our actions are a beacon for Friends of Liberty across the nation, inspiring patriots across Maryland and the country. And we in COSA-MD are inspired by the outpouring of support from patriots all across Maryland, many of whom are becoming civically active for the first time. In fact, we are all learning and helping each other become better citizens and activists for Liberty in Maryland. A year ago, I didn’t know how to pronounce sine die, let alone define it. And now I know that when a Maryland General Assembly ended its 2022 session sine die, it simply means that it’s Springtime for Liberty in Maryland and it’s time to grow our grassroots in 2023.
Let’s sow the Fields of Freedom together!”
