Ben Cardin

Ben Cardin (born October 5, 1943, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.) is an American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2006 and began representing Maryland the following year. He previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1987–2007). Cardin declined to run for reelection in 2024, and his seat was won by Democrat Angela Alsobrooks.

Cardin was born into a political family. His father, Meyer Cardin, was a lawyer and judge who served a term in Maryland’s House of Delegates and was active in Baltimore politics. An uncle and later a nephew were also members of the state legislature. After graduating from Baltimore City College in 1961, Ben attended the University of Pittsburgh (B.A., 1964) and then studied law at the University of Maryland (Juris Doctor degree, 1967), graduating first in his class. During that time he married (1964) Myrna Edelman, and the couple later had two children.

Cardin entered electoral politics while still in law school, serving in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1967 to 1986. In 1986, when U.S. Rep. Barbara Mikulski announced that she would run for the Senate, Cardin entered the race for her seat in the House of Representatives and won by a decisive margin. He served for 10 terms (1987–2007), during which time he became known for his work in social services, including health care and other entitlement programs. He notably was involved with legislation having to do with child welfare, and he supported bills to expand child support, extend medical benefits to children, and increase tax credits for child care. In 2005, following the announcement that U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes was retiring from office, Cardin entered the race to fill the post. The following year he won a sharply contested Democratic primary and then decisively defeated Republican challenger Michael S. Steele, then the state’s lieutenant governor. Cardin assumed office in 2007.

While in Congress, Cardin established a reputation as a liberal. Strongly interested in the environment, he introduced legislation to protect the Chesapeake Bay and sought to strengthen regulations for clean water. He was also active in foreign policy, and in 2007 he became a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Cardin notably opposed the Iraq War (2003–11). Fiscally, he supported a progressive consumption tax. Cardin easily won reelection in 2012 and 2018, and he coauthored (with Sen. John McCain) the Magnitsky Acts, a pair of laws that punished corrupt practices and humans rights abuses by foreign officials. As a member of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Cardin was instrumental in creating legislation that aided small businesses and their employees through the economic turmoil that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024 he announced that he would not seek reelection, bringing to a close a political career that had spanned more than five decades.