1. Brooke Elizabeth Lierman was born on February 14,1979 and is an American civil rights and disabilties attorney and politician who is the 34th Comptroller of Maryland.
43 Facts About Brooke Lierman
1. 2.
Brooke Lierman was first elected in 2022, becoming the first female Comptroller of the state and the first woman elected to an independent state government office in Maryland.
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Brooke Lierman was born in Washington, DC, on February 14,1979, to father Terry Brooke Lierman, who served as the chair of the Maryland Democratic Party from 2004 to 2007.
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Brooke Lierman graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1997.
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Between college and law schools, Brooke Lierman was an AmeriCorps VISTA member at The DREAM Program in Vermont, working with children living in public housing developments.
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Brooke Lierman is a trustee of the Baltimore Museum of Art and on the board of Advocates for Children and Youth and the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.
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Brooke Lierman first got involved in politics by working on the 2002 campaign of US Senator Paul Wellstone, and on the presidential campaign of Howard Dean and John Kerry.
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In July 2013, Brooke Lierman announced her candidacy for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 46.
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Brooke Lierman won the Democratic primary, receiving 28.1 percent of the vote and filling the seat left by retiring Delegate Brian K McHale.
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Brooke Lierman was sworn in as a member of the House of Delegates on January 14,2015.
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Brooke Lierman was a member of the Appropriations Committee from 2015 to 2019, afterwards serving on the Environment and Transportation Committee until 2023.
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Brooke Lierman was a member of the Women Legislators of Maryland and a co-chair of the Maryland Legislative Transit Caucus.
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In 2016, Brooke Lierman filed to run as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention, representing Hillary Clinton.
14.
Brooke Lierman received 14.5 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary election, coming in third in a field of nine candidates.
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Shortly after the election of President Donald Trump in November 2016, Brooke Lierman organized Baltimore Women United, a coalition of female volunteers and activists.
16.
On December 17,2020, Brooke Lierman announced her candidacy for Comptroller of Maryland in the 2022 election, which was being vacated by Peter Franchot, who unsuccessfully ran for governor of Maryland.
17.
Brooke Lierman received endorsements from various elected officials across the state, including US Representatives Jamie Raskin and Steny Hoyer, President of the Maryland Senate Bill Ferguson, Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates Adrienne A Jones, Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, and former US Senator Barbara Mikulski.
18.
Brooke Lierman defeated Bowie mayor Tim Adams in the Democratic primary election on July 19,2022, receiving 66.2 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, winning with the highest margin of victory of the highly contested statewide Democratic primaries.
19.
Brooke Lierman defeated Harford County executive Barry Glassman in the general election on November 8,2022, becoming the first woman to serve as Maryland comptroller and the first woman elected by voters to an independent state government office in Maryland.
20.
In February 2023, Brooke Lierman released a list of legislative priorities for the 2023 legislative session, including creating a chief information officer position to promote modernizing technology in the comptroller's office, increasing transparency and access to the agency, and increasing state contracts offered to diverse businesses.
21.
Brooke Lierman was an at-large delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, pledged to Kamala Harris.
22.
In January 2019, Brooke Lierman was one of nine Maryland lawmakers to add their names to a manifesto signed by 326 state legislators to reaffirm their commitment to protecting abortion rights.
23.
Brooke Lierman supports increasing funding for Baltimore City schools and universal pre-K.
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Brooke Lierman introduced legislation in the 2017 legislative session that would ban pre-K suspensions and expulsions.
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Brooke Lierman introduced legislation in the 2019 legislative session that would allow ranked choice voting in city elections, as well as open primaries.
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Brooke Lierman later withdrew the bill after talking with her colleagues in the Baltimore House Delegation.
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In September 2017, Brooke Lierman was one of 10 lawmakers to receive a score of 100 percent on the Maryland League of Conservation Voters' annual legislative scorecard.
28.
Brooke Lierman received the same score in the organization's 2019 scorecard.
29.
Brooke Lierman introduced legislation in the 2019 legislative session that would ban all polystyrene products in Maryland.
30.
Brooke Lierman introduced "The Plastics and Packaging Reduction Act", a bill that would ban the sale of plastic bags and require stores to charge a minimum of 10 cents for paper bags, during the 2020 legislative session.
31.
Brooke Lierman introduced legislation during the 2022 legislative session that would require the Maryland State Retirement and Pensions System to consider climate change as a financial factor when making investment decisions.
32.
Brooke Lierman introduced legislation in the 2019 legislative session that would allow student athletes at public universities to engage in collective bargaining.
33.
Brooke Lierman introduced legislation in the 2021 legislative session that would give college athletes the right to profit off their names and likenesses.
34.
In February 2022, Brooke Lierman attended a rally encouraging Maryland legislators to pass a bill that would offer paid family leave to all Marylanders.
35.
Brooke Lierman voted in favor of the Time to Care Act, which provides up to 24 weeks of paid leave per year.
36.
Brooke Lierman cosponsored legislation introduced during the 2020 legislative session that would research providing reparations to the descendants of enslaved Africans.
37.
Brooke Lierman introduced legislation during the 2022 legislative session that would require strip clubs and bars on The Block in downtown Baltimore to close by 10 PM The legislation was protested by businesses owners, who said that the bill would cripple their livelihoods.
38.
Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Brooke Lierman introduced legislation that would divest Maryland's retirement and pensions systems from Russia.
39.
Brooke Lierman introduced legislation in the 2019 legislative session that would give counties the ability to prohibit the construction of toll roads, highways, or bridges without the consent of a majority of the affected counties.
40.
Brooke Lierman introduced a bill that would boost funding for statewide bicycle infrastructure.
41.
Brooke Lierman introduced legislation in the 2020 legislative session that would increase funding for bus and subway maintenance.
42.
Brooke Lierman introduced legislation in the 2021 legislative session that would increase funding for the state's bus and rail budget by $757 million.
43.
Brooke Lierman is married to Eben Hansel, a real estate attorney who she had met while they were both students at Dartmouth College.