A professor of constitutional law, Raskin made governance central to his congressional career. He was the lead impeachment manager for the Democrats during the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, which came weeks after Raskin’s son, Tommy, died by suicide.
At the end of 2022, he announced that he had been diagnosed with “a serious but treatable form of cancer” called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and would begin treatment. Just days before Cardin announced his retirement, Raskin revealed that his cancer was in remission after chemotherapy. He recently told NPR that he’s written two speeches, one announcing he’ll seek a Senate seat and the other if he’s running for the House again.
“I have friends on Capitol Hill who tell me I’m crazy to think about leaving the House of Representatives,” he told NPR. “And then there are people who tell me that US Senate seats open up once every quarter century, and I’d be crazy not to run for it at this point.”
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the Senate race as “Solid Democratic,” meaning the May 14 primary will likely be next year’s bigger contest.
Niels Lesniewski contributed to this report.
