BALTIMORE — Young Democrats in Maryland are setting the 2026 political stage, taking on entrenched incumbents — U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer and Kweisi Mfume — to usher in generational change that they say is long overdue.

The growing momentum adds to the wave of younger politicians challenging storied incumbents across the country, including New York’s new 34-year-old mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

Baltimore City Council member Mark Conway is looking to unseat Mfume, who has represented Maryland’s 7th Congressional District that includes parts of Baltimore City and Baltimore and Howard counties, for about 14 years. Hoyer, who has represented Maryland’s 5th Congressional District for over 40 years, currently faces five primary challengers — Quincy Bareebe, Terry Jackson, Harry Jarin, Heather Luper and Alexis Solis. Hoyer, 86, hasn’t yet said whether he’s seeking another two-year term in Congress.

The Baltimore Sun reached out to all six of Mfume and Hoyer’s primary challengers and interviewed five of them. The commonality between Mfume and Hoyer’s challengers is that they’re all at least 25 years younger. And while these challengers don’t shy away from pointing out the large age gaps between them and the incumbents, their campaigns are built on messaging around affordability, a tactic that also helped catapult Mamdani into power.

‘We need a fresh new start’

Bareebe, a 35-year-old assisted living care center owner and former federal employee, said Hoyer has become out of touch with the average Marylander’s needs, given his long tenure in Congress.

“I know what it’s like to work hard, raise a family and build a business while navigating a system that often forgets the everyday people,” Bareebe said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. “I’ve seen costs rising, broken health care systems and political gridlock hurt families and seniors and small-business owners.”

Bareebe added that although she wants Hoyer’s seat, she doesn’t see herself as running “against” him. “This is not even about Steny Hoyer,” she said. “I respect what he’s done for now, but I also think we need a fresh new start.”

Jarin, a 35-year-old small business owner and volunteer firefighter, said his campaign has been advocating for easier access to health care and cheaper housing and transportation. But a crucial part of his campaign messaging has also been that it’s time for Maryland’s old guard to step aside.

In November, Jarin wrote in The Sun that “older” Democrats are unfamiliar with the technology that now defines politics and “still operate as if traditional news media had the same influence as in the time of their own youth,” leading to an “existential crisis for the Democratic Party ...”

“Congress as a body is still older than ever,” Jarin told The Sun. “Those trends also align with the decline of Congress as an institution.”

Mfume, 77, told The Sun that criticisms of how long Democrats like him have been in office are “an age old argument” primary challengers often make — while other Democrats with long tenures and no primary challengers, like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders who has served in Congress for over three decades, “get a free ride” and don’t face pressure to step down, Mfume added. Although Sanders is a registered Independent, he often works and votes with Democrats.

“It will go on and on and on,” Mfume said in a phone interview. “I don’t hold any animosity toward anybody that wants to run for office. In fact, every time I have a run, I have been challenged. So that’s something that I understand and can appreciate. So we’ll see what happens.”

Hoyer’s office did not return multiple requests for comment.

Political analysts said that Mfume and Hoyer being in office for so long may be the only shortcoming their challengers can point out. Jason Johnson, a political commentator and Morgan State University professor, told The Sun that research shows there’s only three arguments a political candidate can make on the campaign trail: their opponent is corrupt, incompetent or has been in office for too long.

Given that neither Hoyer nor Mfume have recorded instances of corruption or incompetence, Johnson added, their political opponents can then only attack them on longevity. But even that may not sway voters, Johnson added. “Your argument in running in a Democratic primary (could be), ‘Hey, this guy is not fighting Trump as aggressively as we need,'” he said. “The problem is, I don’t know if you can really make that argument about Steny Hoyer or Kweisi Mfume. I don’t think that fits them. I don’t think those are guys who you can say are soft on Trump.”

Challenging incumbents

Although the Democratic base said it wants younger leaders, publicly going against a prominent incumbent has its challenges. Mfume and Hoyer aren’t just Maryland political titans, they wield significant power in the Democratic Party with their access to top donors, political operatives and power brokers.

Mfume is a former chair and senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, a 54-year-old group of Black legislators on Capitol Hill whose former members include former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Hoyer, in addition to being one of Congress’ longest tenured members, also served as House majority leader, helping to dictate the chamber’s legislative agenda and determine what political talent Democrats should recruit across the country.

Conway said that he “could sense” Mfume was displeased by the challenge in a phone call between the two before Conway announced his bid .

Mfume said the call “didn’t last more than 60 seconds” and his response was: “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll see you out on the campaign trail.”

Conway said that while he doesn’t believe Mfume is directly influencing Baltimore politicians to work against him, he does believe that some of his City Council colleagues “want to support the congressman.” Conway told The Sun of an effort, he believed, by his colleagues to kill a bill he introduced to expand opioid overdose response measures in Baltimore — an incident he described as “politics getting in the way of good policy” and “efforts to slow any success that I may have that may help bolster my campaign.”

Mfume said Conway’s allegations “sound like paranoia” and that “if Mr. Conway is constantly having trouble passing legislation, perhaps he should work with them rather than to blame them.”

Jarin lamented that another obstacle is that primary challengers can’t make much headway in a political system “so centered around special interest groups, PACs, lobbyists, corporate donations, super PACs.”

“There’s a really entrenched industry centered around keeping incumbents in office,” Jarin said. “There are really strong incentives for a lot of these PACs and lobbying groups to keep their member of Congress who they know in office for as long as possible, because they see them as reliable partners who can be counted on to vote a certain way or support some sort of special interest in a certain way.”

Alexis Solis, a 34-year-old consulting firm owner challenging Hoyer, also noted that it can be difficult convincing voters to embrace new political candidates when they’ve been familiar with him for decades. But, she hopes to draw on her history in Prince George’s County to familiarize herself with residents.

“I feel if you see a familiar face often enough you can trust that face as well. And I’ve had even close neighbors that I door knock on and they’re like, ‘You got my vote automatically because you live walking distance from me,’ ” Solis told The Sun. “And (the) majority of the vote for Congressional District 5 comes from Prince George’s County and Charles County, and yet (Hoyer) lives in St. Mary’s County. So I live where the heart of my voters are, meaning I’m reachable. I’m touchable. It’s hard to run from a voter when you are in the grocery store with them. I’m here where they are.”

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