Voters across most of Prince George's County and a slice of Montgomery County head to the polls on Nov. 3 with three names on their ballot for Maryland's 4th Congressional District: Democratic incumbent Glenn Ivey, Republican George McDermott and Green Party candidate Sam Husseini. It is a rematch of sorts for Ivey and McDermott, though the district's lopsided partisan lean makes the outcome anything but suspenseful on paper.
The district itself is the most reliably Democratic seat in Maryland's congressional delegation, rated D+39 by the Cook Political Report, according to mdbaynews.com. That lean showed up clearly in 2024, when Ivey beat McDermott 88.7% to 11.3%, and in past cycles before Ivey's tenure, when former Rep. Anthony Brown won the seat 74% to 21% in 2016 and 78% to 20% in 2018, per the same outlet. Ivey, who previously served as Prince George's County state's attorney from 2002 to 2011, is seeking another term after first winning the congressional seat in 2022, as reported by WJLA.
Money Gap Separates the Three Campaigns
Ivey's financial advantage over his rivals is stark, though the numbers reported for his campaign have varied by source and date. Mdbaynews.com reported in August that Ivey's campaign had raised roughly $674,000 this cycle with about $459,000 in cash on hand as of the June 30 FEC deadline, with political action committees accounting for about $336,000 of his itemized contributions. An earlier report from the same outlet in February put Ivey's total closer to $405,000 raised, describing strong institutional support behind the incumbent. Neither Husseini's nor McDermott's campaign reported any fundraising activity as of the June 30 filing deadline, according to mdbaynews.com and a separate candidate profile from smarter.vote.
McDermott, a longtime Forest Heights resident, is described by smarter.vote as a small-business owner and victims' rights advocate who has run for Congress multiple times since 2000 without ever holding elected office. WJLA's own reporting characterizes him as a Republican judicial reform advocate. The article notes that his campaign has reported no public campaign-finance data for the 2026 cycle as of June.
A Green Party Challenger Enters Late
Husseini's path to the ballot came together quickly. He formed an exploratory committee in July and secured the Green Party's nomination in early August, mdbaynews.com reported, before the Maryland Board of Elections certified him for the Nov. 3 ballot, according to marylandmatters.org. Husseini is a senior analyst for the nonprofit Institute for Public Accuracy and told the outlet he had to take a brief leave of absence from that job to campaign. WJLA describes him as an independent journalist running under the Green Party banner.
Marylandmatters.org reports that Husseini has campaigned against the two-party system, arguing Maryland residents are frustrated by a lack of change on issues including state spending and what he calls “repressive” entities like Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Separately, mdbaynews.com has reported that Husseini has built his campaign heavily around Ivey's ties to pro-Israel donors, publicly referring to the congressman as “AIPAC Ivey.”
Policy Fault Lines on Spending and the Bay
Beyond the money and the ballot mechanics, candidate profiles compiled by the Baltimore Sun surfaced sharper policy contrasts. One candidate told the paper that military spending and corporate welfare should be dramatically cut, with the savings redirected toward education, housing, infrastructure and healthcare. The same profile identified PFAS contamination tied to military facilities as among the most urgent environmental threats facing the Chesapeake Bay.
Mdbaynews.com has framed the broader context of the race by noting that, in a district this heavily Democratic, financial gravity strongly favors the incumbent absent outside intervention or a major scandal, and that the real contest in recent cycles has effectively played out in the Democratic primary rather than the general election. WJLA reports that it spoke with all three candidates and produced video of their views on major issues facing the district ahead of the Nov. 3 vote.
