The floods that affected Western Maryland in May upended people’s lives and left many of our neighbors struggling to recover. The damage was substantial, and the recovery is ongoing. There are lessons we can learn from the flood itself but also important lessons we can learn about our politics. The aftermath of the flood has shown us American politics at its very best, its very worst and its most feckless and incompetent.
Let’s start with the good. Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, visited the overwhelmingly Republican affected areas in the immediate aftermath of the flood and promised that the state would be there to help local communities recover and rebuild. In two important ways, he’s come through. First, his administration has provided close to $1.5 million in relief, giving homeowners and businesses a lifeline at a desperate time, even if the amounts provided aren’t enough to meet the area’s vast needs. Second, his administration was quick to apply for federal disaster funds with the expectation that the federal government would augment the state’s efforts.
State Sen. Mike McKay, a Republican who represents the flood-affected areas, has given our Democratic governor credit for his strong and thoughtful response. His partnership with the Moore administration on this issue seems productive and strong. This is reminiscent of another bipartisan moment in recent history when, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie embraced President Barack Obama in the middle of a presidential campaign and thanked him for his strong leadership and for helping the people of his state. Christie was criticized at the time for complimenting a Democratic president who was locked in a close election fight, but he did and said what was right regardless of the politics.
Just as Maryland’s 2026 gubernatorial race gets underway, McKay has followed Christie’s lead and shown us all what it looks like to transcend partisan politics. No doubt the senator will often disagree with Gov. Moore in the future, and when he does, we’ll have a strong reason to believe his disagreements are honest and not informed entirely by a political calculus.
Now the bad. President Donald Trump suggested he’s not interested in helping Democratic states when he upended plans to move the FBI headquarters to Maryland in part because it was a “liberal state.” That position casts suspicion on a White House statement explaining the rationale for withholding disaster funds from Maryland. The statement mentions that states should invest in their own resilience for disaster preparedness. This might be a legitimate position if the president were guided by that idea in every case. Instead, his administration is pouring money into relief operations in Texas following that state’s tragic flooding in early July.
The president’s position on the self-reliance of states rings hollow given the support his administration is providing to Texas. What unfolded there was a human tragedy, and the state’s people deserve federal assistance as they mourn their losses and begin the process of recovery. Expecting Texans to shoulder this burden on their own while the rest of the country stood idly by would be morally indefensible and undermine the idea of our country as a group of states united. The scope of the tragedies in Texas and Maryland is vastly different, but so are the needs. Maryland is asking for much less than the amount of money being sent to Texas, and we shouldn’t be expected to stand alone.
Finally, the feckless. Maryland Congressman Andy Harris is chair of the House Freedom Caucus in a closely divided Congress. That should matter to Maryland because his influence should help make our case to President Trump about disaster relief. In reality, Harris has ceded whatever influence he might have had by demonstrating his propensity to acquiesce to the president’s demands and cave under pressure from the administration. Even after he expressed reservations about the One Big Beautiful Bill’s impact on our national debt, he meekly voted “present” rather than vote against the bill and then voted for it when the bill was sent back to the House by the Senate. Being the chair of the Freedom Caucus isn’t worth anything to Maryland if Harris doesn’t have the fortitude to stand up to the president, especially when Marylanders need help.
Contemporary American politics is a study in dysfunction and partisanship, but the aftermath of the Western Maryland floods reminds us that hope for a better future isn’t lost. Our Democratic governor helped Republican counties, and a Republican state senator gave credit for those efforts. Maryland has a tradition of this type of politics, and it’s heartening to remember that Republican Governor Larry Hogan left office with an 81% approval rating among Democrats. America needs more of that and less of the empty rhetoric and feckless politics of Andy Harris.
Colin Pascal (colinjpascal@outlook.com) is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and a graduate student in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. He lives in Annapolis.
