BALTIMORE _ Ben Jealous, the former president of the NAACP, will announce his candidacy for Maryland governor Wednesday outside a cousin's West Baltimore flower shop.
Jealous, 44, will seek the Democratic nomination in his first bid for political office. He will join a growing field of potential challengers to Gov. Larry Hogan, who is expected to attempt to become the state's first two-term Republican governor since the 1950s.
In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Jealous took aim at Hogan's record on education, the economy, the environment and relationship with the Trump administration. He compared the incumbent to the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz."
"He may have strength, but he lacks courage," Jealous said.
Jealous brings to the campaign a personal story that could differentiate him from the field. He is seeking to become governor of a state where his parents' marriage was illegal at the time they met in Harlem Park because his father was white and his mother African-American.
While he was born in Carmel, Calif., Jealous said he has maintained extensive ties to Baltimore. He will announce his candidacy outside Baltimore Blossoms in Ashburton, a store his cousin Rachelle Bland opened after the 2015 riots that followed the death of Freddie Gray in city police custody.
Jealous will become the second Democrat to formally announce his candidacy in the June 26, 2018, primary _ joining high-tech entrepreneur and author Alec Ross. Several other Democrats are either expected to join the race soon or are weighing a run.
They include former Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, U.S. Rep. John Delaney, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamentz, Prince George's County Rushern L. Baker, state Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. and Baltimore lawyer James L. Shea.
Jealous, who lives in Pasadena, Md., was elected president of the Baltimore-based NAACP in 2008 at 35, becoming the youngest person to head the civil rights organization. He led the group until 2012, the same year he spearheaded the NAACP's successful campaign to abolish Maryland's death penalty. During that year's debate, he was a regular visitor to Annapolis as he lobbied lawmakers to pass Gov. Martin O'Malley's repeal bill.
