Brandon Scott facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Brandon Scott
Scott in 2023
53rd Mayor of Baltimore
Incumbent
Assumed office December 8, 2020
Preceded by	Jack Young
President of the Baltimore City Council
In office May 6, 2019 – December 8, 2020
Preceded by	Jack Young
Succeeded by	Nick Mosby
Member of the Baltimore City Council from the 2nd district
In office December 8, 2011 – May 8, 2019
Preceded by	Nicholas D'Adamo
Succeeded by	Danielle McCray
Personal details
Born	Brandon Maurice Scott (1984-04-08) April 8, 1984 (age 40) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Hana Pugh ​ (m. 2024)​
Children	1
Residences	Frankford, Baltimore, Maryland
Education	St. Mary's College of Maryland (BA)
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Brandon Maurice Scott (born April 8, 1984) is an American politician serving as the mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, since 2020. He was the president of the Baltimore City Council from 2019 to 2020, having been elected to the position to replace Jack Young following Catherine Pugh's resignation, as well as a member of the Baltimore City Council from the second district from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, Scott was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Maryland during the 2018 Maryland gubernatorial election, in which he ran on a ticket with Jim Shea.

Early life and education

Scott was born and raised in Park Heights, Baltimore. As a child he admired Congressman Elijah Cummings and saw him as a role model. He ran track and cross country at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School where he graduated in 2002. He went on to receive a degree in political science from St. Mary's College of Maryland in 2006.

Career

Scott speaking in 2019

Political background

After graduating from college, Scott worked as a liaison for City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. In 2011, he was elected to serve as the city councilperson for the second district, making him one of the youngest ever elected to city office. He was the chair of the Public Safety Committee and a member of the Budget and Appropriations and Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committees. In early 2018, he passed a bill creating an open data policy in Baltimore. As a council member, Scott oversaw the reinstatment of Council Oversight of the Baltimore Police Department. In May 2019, the Baltimore City Council unanimously voted to elevate Scott to serve as the City Council president, serving the remainder of the term of Bernard C. "Jack" Young, who ascended to the mayoralty following the resignation of Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh.

Scott has participated in the 300 Man March, a nonviolence group. While serving as city councilperson, he voted against an aerial surveillance program for the Baltimore Police Department and supported reductions in police funding, cutting 22 million dollars from the city's policing budget in 2020.

On February 16, 2018, Baltimore attorney Jim Shea announced the selection of Scott as his running mate in 2018 Maryland gubernatorial election. Scott would later appoint Shea to serve as Baltimore's solicitor under his mayoral administration.

Mayor of Baltimore

Elections

2020

Scott announced his campaign for mayor on September 13, 2019, at a press conference in his childhood neighborhood of Park Heights. On June 9, 2020, Scott was declared the winner of the Democratic primary, defeating the incumbent mayor Jack Young. Scott was perceived as more progressive than Young. This all but assured him victory in the November general election. Democrats have a nearly 10-to-1 advantage in registered voters, and for years the Democratic primary has been the real contest. As expected, he won the November 3, 2020, general election in a landslide, with a nearly 3-to-1 margin over his nearest opponent, independent Bob Wallace. For the second election in a row, the Republicans were pushed into third place.

2024

Scott ran for the second term as mayor in 2024, announcing his reelection campaign on November 18, 2023. He was considered vulnerable, as polls found that Baltimore residents were split on his performance as mayor. During his tenure, Scott faced criticism for his handling of important issues in the city, including schools, constituent services, and crime. However, Scott's response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, as well as his progress in growing the economy and reducing homicides, allowed him to make inroads with voters and boost his approval rating. On May 14, 2024, Scott won the city's Democratic primary for his second term as mayor of Baltimore, once again narrowly beating his rival, Sheila Dixon. He won re-election after defeating Republican challenger Shannon Wright on November 5, 2024, becoming the first Baltimore mayor since Martin O'Malley to win a second term.

Tenure

Inaugurated in a small, socially distanced ceremony on December 8, 2020, Scott vowed to take on both "public health emergencies" — gun violence and the coronavirus. Taking the office at age 36, Scott is the youngest mayor in Baltimore's history. He was a delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, pledged to Kamala Harris.

COVID-19 pandemic

On his first day in office, Scott signed an order mandating an end to restaurant dining, both indoor and outdoor, and capping retail activity, religious gatherings, gyms, malls, casinos, and museums to 25 percent capacity. Scott lifted Baltimore's mask mandate and state of emergency declaration on July 1, 2021. In August 2021, Scott reinstated the city's mask mandate following a 374 percent increase in COVID-19 infections in July. The mask mandate expired on March 1, 2022.

In January 2021, Scott and Maryland governor Larry Hogan started a confidence campaign called "GoVax Maryland" encouraging citizens to get vaccinated. In February, Scott launched a new partnership with local universities to boost confidence in and combat misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

In March 2021, Scott expressed frustration with the Hogan administration after state health officials denied his request to set aside 50 percent of state's COVID-19 vaccine doses for the state-run mass-vaccination sites in the city. Hogan responded to these criticisms by telling him to "talk to his health department," which he claimed was telling the state health department to send vaccines elsewhere because they had too many. Scott refuted Hogan's charges, calling them "categorically untrue."

In May 2021, Scott delivered a letter to Hogan asking him to impose a temporary statewide eviction moratorium while local jurisdictions continued to distribute federal rent relief funding to tenants and landlords. In January 2022, Scott declined requests from housing advocates to institute an eviction moratorium in Baltimore, saying that he didn't have the power to do it on his own and that action would need to come at the state level.

Scott tested positive for COVID-19 on October 4, 2021. He returned to City Hall on October 15, 2021, after testing negative.

Housing

In May 2021, Scott removed owner-occupied homes that faced tax sale liens from the city's annual tax sale, an online auction that the city uses to collect overdue bills. In September 2021, he announced that Baltimore would purchase the liens of 454 owner-occupied homes to keep them out of the city's tax sale process. In April 2022, Scott removed all owner-occupied homes from the city's tax sale and postponed the auction until June.

In May 2021, Scott delivered his first veto of his mayorship on a bill that would give renters more options when paying security deposits.

In June 2021, Scott launched a fund to cover up to $2,000 in security deposits for low-income tenants, funded with $3.3 million in supplemental funds from a fiscal year 2020 pandemic-related Community Services Block Grant.

On January 25, 2022, a fire at an unoccupied rowhouse building killed three firefighters and left another on life support. In response to the fire, Scott announced a citywide review of its operations related to vacant properties.

In February 2022, Scott announced that the city would spend $90.4 million in funding received from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to purchase two hotels to provide 275 beds for the city's homeless population.

In December 2023, Scott's administration joined other community leaders in announcing an $8 billion plan to revitalize some parts of the city blighted by abandoned or vacant properties. In March 2023, the administration announced its support for a Baltimore City Council proposal to make some vacant properties available for purchase starting at $1, though critics of the proposal have suggested that such a policy would not directly benefit current residents or legacy residents of Baltimore.

Guaranteed income

In April 2022, Scott announced a guaranteed income pilot program to provide 200 young parents between the ages of 18 and 24 with payments of $1,000 per month over two years. The funding for the 4.8 million dollar project comes from the American Rescue Plan Act. The pilot program began distributing the funds to lottery winners in August 2022. In order to enter the lottery, applicants needed to be US citizens, below 300% of the federal poverty level, a parent or guardian of a child, and within the age requirements of program when the applications closed.

Transportation

Scott visits the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse site with Governor Wes Moore, 2024

In April 2021, Scott announced that he would be working to revive the Red line project that was killed by Governor Larry Hogan. The project plan to build an east–west rail line would have created a rise in economic development while also creating new connections for isolated low-income neighborhoods.

In June 2021, Scott announced his opposition to a proposal to construct a Maglev connecting Baltimore and Washington, D.C., delivering a letter to the Maryland Department of Planning urging them to reject the project.

In September 2021, Scott criticized the state's proposed transportation budget, which included $500 million in investments for the Purple Line in Prince George's County, for not including enough funding for infrastructure projects in Baltimore. In order to help prioritize projects in the city, Scott created The Mayor's Office of Infrastructure Development in June 2022 and appointed Matthew Garbark to head the department.

In November 2021, Scott joined President Joe Biden in a visit to the Port of Baltimore, where he hailed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as a plan to rebuild America and create "good-paying, union jobs."

In April 2022, Scott launched the "Let's Ride to Work" program, which is a partnership between Mayor's Office of Employment Development and Lyft which is being funded by the American Rescue Plan Act. The program would allow newly employed workers up to 40 free rides to and from work.

Scott was notified of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse minutes after the collision on March 26, 2024. Talking to reporters in the hours following the incident, Scott emphasized that rescue operations were his top priority. Scott received national media attention during the event, prompting a rise in racist remarks directed towards him on social media.

Personal life

Scott and his fiancée Hana Pugh at the 2023 Preakness Stakes with Governor Wes Moore

Scott became engaged to his girlfriend, Hana Pugh, on December 25, 2023. Their first child was born the following day. They married on August 11, 2024. In September 2024, Scott and his wife announced that they were expecting a second child, a baby girl. Scott lives in Frankford, Baltimore.

Electoral history