Meet Maryland’s New House Speaker

Maryland lawmakers made history Tuesday, electing the first Afro-Latina and the first immigrant to serve as House speaker.

Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) is the 109th person to serve as speaker of the House of Delegate but just the second woman of color in the job, following her predecessor, Del. Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County). Her rise to the speaker’s rostrum caps a nearly two-decade career in Annapolis, but got its start in an unlikely place: a small home with a leaky roof in the Dominican Republic.

“My journey did not begin in these chambers,” Peña-Melnyk said. Instead it began “in a small wooden house with a thick tin roof, one that had holes where the rain will come through…. That’s how I grew up.”

She said the family used corn husks and newspaper for toilet paper and often had little or nothing to eat.

“Those memories are not shared for sympathy,” she said. “They are reminders of where I come from and the resilience that hardship can forge.”

The memories are also the foundation of what her legislative colleagues — Democrats and Republicans alike — said is Peña-Melnyk’s empathy for others and her desire to work hard to improve the lives of her constituents.

Del. Mary Lehman (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s), who once served as an aide to Peña-Melnyk, described the new speaker as “a woman who is tough and tenacious but also unfailingly kind, compassionate and humble, rare traits together in any line of work.” House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D-Anne Arundel and Prince George’s). (Photo Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)

Peña-Melnyk’s ascension to the rostrum comes at a time of intense national debate over immigration. Many Democratic lawmakers in the State House say they fear that ramped-up federal enforcement of immigration laws will soon arrive in Maryland. It’s a subject that is personal to the new speaker, who immigrated to the United States with her family as a child.

Del. Sandy Rosenberg (D-Baltimore City) read Emma Lazarus’ “New Colossus” — the poem that appears on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty — during Tuesday’s floor session. Peña-Melnyk’s family first lived in New York after arriving from the Dominican Republic.

Peña-Melnyk, 59, immigrated to the U.S. as a small child and grew up in New York, graduating from high school in the Bronx. She earned her law degree from the University at Buffalo School of Law, State University of New York. She later worked as both a federal prosecutor and a public defender. A mother of three, including twins, she also worked as a child neglect lawyer.

Peña-Melnyk’s political career includes three years on the College Park City Council. She was elected to the House in 2006 and became chair of the House Health and Government Operations Committee in 2022, after three years as the panel’s vice chair.

During her time in the House, she has built a reputation as a major player on health care policy issues.

House Appropriations Chair Ben Barnes (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel) represents the same district as Peña-Melnyk. Barnes said she came to the Health and Government Operations Committee with little to no experience in health care and became “for my money, the foremost expert in this state.”

Barnes, who was a candidate for speaker before withdrawing and supporting Peña-Melnyk, said the while many may think of her as a friend, he calls the new speaker “family.”

“Somebody who will be there for you in a time of need,” he said. “Someone who will be there to pick you up when you need it.”

“Finally, we get to see her now … as speaker of the House of Delegates,” he said. “She will bring tenacity, grit, compassion and force to make sure that we are able to respond to the challenges ahead of us in a very effective way.”

During her time as vice chair of HGO she took on greater responsibility for running committee hearings and defending bills in recent years. She also built a reputation as being fair to Republicans, who are the minority in the House and Senate.

“She is a leader who is always willing to listen and understand, regardless of the side of the aisle on which you stand,” said Del. Thomas Hutchinson (R-Lower Shore), a member of House Health and Government Operations.

Hutchinson spoke to close the nominations for speaker, ensuring Peña-Melnyk would be nominated without opposition.

“She has always respected me and my values,” he said. “I respect her immensely, and I look forward to working with her.”

Peña-Melnyk’s election by voice vote in the House was anticlimactic.

She entered the day as the only candidate remaining from an original field of four. Three others who sought to succeed Jones — Barnes and Dels. Jheanelle Wilkins (D-Montgomery) and C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) — withdrew from the race and backed Peña-Melnyk.

A quick meeting of the House Democrats Tuesday morning cleared the way for Peña-Melnyk to become speaker. With the support of the Democratic Caucus, she had more than enough votes to win the speakership in Tuesday’s special session, called largely to pick a new House leader.Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk was elected the 109th Speaker of the House of Delegates. She is the first immigrant and first Afro-Latina to preside in the Maryland General Assembly. Photo Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)

The election in the House Democratic Caucus was punctuated with cheers that could be heard in the hall outside the closed-door gathering.

“I really don’t have enough words to express how I feel about my colleagues trusting me with this enormous responsibility to lead,” Peña-Melnyk told reporters as she emerged from the 40-minute caucus meeting. “I’m an inclusive leader, and I’m going to lead with my colleagues. This House belongs to all of us.”

Peña-Melnyk quickly emerged as the leading candidate to replace Jones, who announced Dec. 4 she would relinquish the gavel but remain a member of the House. Jones did not attend Tuesday’s special session.

Peña-Melnyk’s selection was very different from Jones.

In 2019, Jones announced then withdrew her candidacy for speaker. She later emerged as a compromise candidate when then Dels. Dereck Davis and Maggie McIntosh could not secure enough votes to succeed Michael Busch, who died in office earlier that year. When she took office, Jones became the first woman and the first Black lawmaker to lead either chamber in Maryland.

Peña-Melnyk wasted no time putting her stamp on House operations, announcing she will create a new House standing committee, the seventh, by splitting the Health and Government Operations Committee in two.

Peña-Melnyk did not assign any lawmakers to the new panel nor did she name a chair or vice chair. Those assignments, along with changes to the other six standing committees, are expected by the time the 2026 legislative session starts on Jan. 14.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.