Prince George’s County school board member Edwards Burroughs III (District 8), among an emerging generation of leaders in this Maryland suburb and a vocal critic of its political establishment, said Monday that he is running for county council.
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Burroughs, 29, announced plans to seek a seat held by Monique Anderson-Walker (D-District 8), who stepped down effective 9 a.m. Monday to campaign as Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot’s running mate in the 2022 gubernatorial race.
The timing of Anderson-Walker’s resignation triggers a special election that could preview the June 2022 Democratic primary elections. Already, the 2022 election cycle is shaping up to reveal divides between the overwhelmingly Democratic county’s political establishment and an increasingly influential generation of liberal-leaning leaders willing to criticize it.
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Had Anderson-Walker, who tended to vote with the council’s more liberal-leaning minority bloc, resigned in her last year in office, after Dec. 3, the council would have appointed her replacement.
A special primary election to fill the vacancy will be held within 45 and 60 calendar days of the vacancy, according to the county’s charter, and the special election after that. The council, according to the charter, will set the dates via a resolution in the next seven days. More candidates will likely come forward to compete for the open seat.
Burroughs, who describes himself as a progressive, said he is running for council because he wants to focus not just on education but on issues including housing, the economy and criminal justice. As a school board member, Burroughs, who lives in Temple Hills, has sometimes been a polarizing figure, unafraid to criticize either County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) or her predecessor, Rushern L. Baker (D).
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Burroughs said, as he has on the school board, that he would make oversight of how the government spends tax dollars a priority.
One especially concerning issue, Burroughs said, was the council’s decision to greenlight more than $17 million in taxpayer dollars to defend the county against a lawsuit in which Black and Latino officers accused the police department of racism. Alsobooks settled the lawsuit in July after 2？ years of legal wrangling, paying officers $2.3 million and agreeing to a bevy of reforms.
“That money could have gone to our seniors on fixed incomes struggling to make ends meet,” said Burroughs, who is currently the legislative affairs director in the office of State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy (D). “It could have gone to feeding county residents … imagine what $20 million could have done to help our residents in the pandemic.”
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He said council members, who did not publicly push Alsobrooks’s administration about the escalating costs until this year, should have asked more questions to hold the administration accountable.
Error-riddled ethics reports on school board create political firestorm in Prince George’s County
The decision to run for council was bittersweet, Burroughs said, because it will mean resigning from the school board seat he was first elected to at age 18. He cited among his proudest accomplishments a bill that will make financial literacy a graduation requirement and implementing community workforce agreements on some school system projects to ensure workers are receiving good benefits and wages.
After years as part of an outspoken minority on the board, Burroughs noted that he was also proud when he and his allies in November 2020 gained a majority by defeating a candidate who was backed by Alsobrooks and a host of the county’s top political leaders.
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Since they gained the majority, Burroughs and his allies have pushed policies including creating learning hubs for students in need, adding more mental health supports and expanding restorative disciplinary practices in lieu of harsh punishments.
They also have repeatedly clashed with Alsobrooks’s appointed chair, Juanita Miller, who for a time suspended board meetings and accused Burroughs and other board members of “pay-for-play politics.”
An error-riddled ethics report found they had committed a variety of offenses, including steering contracts, doing political favors and engaging in a quid pro quo with a labor union.
Burroughs and his allies rebutted the allegations, saying the reports were a politically motivated attack to oust them.
The dramatic episode gained national attention after the liberal media group More Perfect Union made a video about it that was retweeted by national figures including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
“The part of our agenda that threatened the political establishment was simply this,” Burroughs said in the video. “They cannot control us.”