Martin O’Malley Biography

Democrat Martin O’Malley was the mayor of Baltimore and the governor of Maryland before making an unsuccessful run for U.S. president in 2016.

Martin O’Malley comes from political stock — his father was a Maryland U.S. Attorney and his mother a longtime receptionist and staffer for Senator Barbara Mikulski. O’Malley is a 1985 graduate of The Catholic University of America and a 1988 graduate of the University of Maryland law school, and turned to politics almost as soon as he was out of college. He was first elected as a Baltimore city council member in 1991, and by 1999 he was the underdog candidate for mayor who was swept into office on the promise of reducing crime. As mayor of Baltimore until 2007, he made a national name for himself for his data-driven approach to government. He served two terms as Maryland’s governor, from 2007 to 2015, earning his stripes as an innovative executive and a solid liberal.

Martin O’Malley was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, announcing his long-shot run on May 30, 2015. He ended his candidacy on February 2, 2016 after finishing a distant third in the Iowa caucuses to fellow Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.