Maryland lawmakers are choosing a new speaker of the House, and for the first time it won’t be a white man.
A one-day special session is scheduled in Annapolis, Maryland, on Wednesday.
Del. Maggie McIntosh, a white lesbian progressive Democrat from Baltimore, is running against Del. Dereck Davis, a black Democrat from Prince George’s County.
It’s been a close race in an unusually public contest that generally has been settled for decades in private conversations between legislators before the final public vote.
The winner needs a majority of votes in the chamber, which has 98 Democrats and 42 Republicans.
They’ll be choosing a successor to Michael Busch, the longest-serving House speaker in the state’s history. He died the day before the annual legislative session ended April 8.
