Ralph Was Right: The First 25 Years of the Maryland Green Party

Remarks as prepared for the 2025 Maryland Green Party Assembly.
June 14th, 2025
Annapolis

My Name is Andy Ellis I am a candidate seeking the Green nomination for governor in 2026.

I have talked to many of you about my campaign, but in this speech I want to talk to you about the Maryland Green Party.

What a joy to be standing here today—at the 25th Assembly of a party that never sold out, never gave up, and never stopped telling the truth.

I’ve never been more excited to speak—because this is more than a milestone. I believe It can be a turning point.

And together, we’re not just marking time—we’re claiming the future.

I officially joined the party in 2015. That means for ten years, I’ve been asked the same question—What about Ralph Nader and the 2000 election? I've tried many ways to answer that question—but today I just say: Ralph was right. Twenty-five years ago, he told the NAACP convention in Baltimore that the only way to escape systemic injustice is to build independent power. He was right then, and he’s still right now.So a decade  after joining the party, I understand more than ever that this work, Green party work, is one of the hardest and most important things to do in American politics and I am in awe of the work we have done together.

Here in Maryland, I’ve been lucky to learn from people who lived that kind of politics every day. I want to start with two people we have lost

Kevin Zeese told us that we fail and fail and fail—until we win. Kevin was right. He knew that building an independent political movement wouldn’t be easy. But he believed in the long fight. And he walked every step with us. And he still walks with us. 

Mark McColloch told us that organizing is a form of love. Mark was right. He believed in the power of  working-class people, and he believed in the Green Party and he gave everything he had to the cause of justice. And the wisdom he provided still nourishes us.

Then we should celebrate those that are still with us

Leaders like Bill Barry, Joan Floyd, Glenn Ross, Franca Muller Paz, Tim Willard, Margaret Flowers, Mary Rooker  and many more taught us that organizing is an act of love—and real democracy takes real work.

And finally, let’s not forget the people who never made headlines: The canvassers. The treasurers. The people who carried clipboards through the heat and the cold to maintain our ballot access. They told us that real democracy takes work. And they were right.

This party was not born in a think tank or a donor retreat. It was built by people who knew we needed a better world, and put a lot on the line to work for it.

And while we kept organizing—kept telling the truth—both parties continued to entrench power in the hands of the few.

So let’s be clear: we are living in a constitutional crisis—and we have been for this entire century. The Green Party is here because we have always understood the crisis we are in.

Trump’s administration intensified attacks on marginalized communities—immigrants, trans people, educators, students, women, Black communities, federal workers, and those reliant on Medicare Medicaid, and a social safety net.

Trump's administration has attacked democracy and the rule of law in the name of authoritarianism and power.

Trump's administration has attacked workers to enrich his Billionaire friends.

But it did not begin with Trump. We were already in a constitutional crisis when both parties gave sweeping approval to the Patriot Act, trading away civil liberties for surveillance and fear. It deepened with Citizens United, when the Supreme Court declared that corporations have more speech—and more rights—than people. It worsened with every bipartisan vote to expand executive power, ratchet up deportations, suppress dissent, fund war, subsidize billionaires and ignore the will of the public.

Trump is not the origin—he’s the logical consequence. His administration is now escalating the crisis and sharpening the blade.

And let’s not pretend Maryland is safe.

Maryland will be on the frontlines of Trump’s war on democracy—this year, and for years to come. We have one of the largest federal workforces in the country. We have immigrants, organizers, artists, researchers and trans youth who are already under attack. We are on the front lines—but our so-called defenders are nowhere to be found.

Because while Trump escalates the crisis, the Democratic Party at the federal level has abandoned the field.

They say they oppose fascism—while cracking down on student protest and funding ICE. They say they’re climate leaders—while backing pipelines and fracking. They say they’re for peace—while backing war, arming genocide and promising the most lethal military in the world.

And here’s the truth: the dysfunction doesn’t stop in Washington. Here in Maryland, it’s baked into the state house.

The Democratic Party has controlled the Maryland General Assembly in nearly every session since 1866. One hundred and fifty-nine years. They now hold a veto-proof supermajority in both the House and the Senate—protected by gerrymandered districts drawn to ensure they never have to answer to the voters.

What have they done with that power?

Last month Wes Moore vetoed  bills to study reparations, data centers, and making polluters pay, because he says he is for action not studies, but where is the action?.

Since Trump was elected Democrats have protected police budgets, empowered MAGA sheriffs, deferred progressive taxation, and handed giveaways to developers and monopolies—while leaving rent, incarceration, and pollution unchecked.

This is not democracy. It is disaster management with a high tax base and a vote for the democrats sign.

So when we say the two-party system is a trap, we are not just talking about gridlock. We are talking about a bipartisan consensus to preserve profit, power, and political control—no matter the cost to the people.

We’re not here to soften that consensus. We’re here to break it.

So if the system won’t change on its own—what do we do?

We build a different kind of future. One that belongs to the people

The Maryland Green Party has been here for 25 years and we should celebrate that. But let’s be honest: those 25 years haven’t been good ones.

Ask yourself: Does the world look better than it did 25 years ago? Do you think it will get better on the path we are on?

Over those 25 years, we’ve seen endless war, rising inequality, mass incarceration, climate collapse, and deeper political alienation. And through it all, the Democrats and Republicans have traded places in power—but they’ve followed the same playbook: protect the wealthy, silence the people, and expand corporate control.

At both the state and national level, both major parties want to turn the clock back. Not to justice. Not to democracy. But to the last moment when they were securely in power.

But we don’t want to go back. We want to go forward.

We imagine a Maryland where power doesn’t belong to political parties—it belongs to the people.

• Where budgets and legislative agendas are shaped by the needs of communities, not campaign contributors.
• Where housing, education and health care are rights—not luxuries.
• Where reparations are real, not symbolic.
• Where climate and environmental  policy means polluters need to pay not communities
• And where a multiparty system forces elected leaders to be accountable to the people.

We don’t want to relive the past. We want to transform the future

That’s why we say Vote Green:

So when I say Reparations now. you say  Vote Green.

Money out of politics. Vote Green.

Let Gaza live. Vote Green.

Return power to the people. Vote Green.

Because when the people lead, policy follows. When movements organize, the status quo trembles. And when we vote Green, we’re not just casting a ballot—we’re claiming a different future and a better world.

Kevin Zeese reminded us that when you organize people against concentrated power, the impossible starts to become inevitable.

That’s what this campaign—and this party—are about. Not a brand. Not a candidate. A theory of change. A movement that understands the need to build power in a rigged system and shift the terrain beneath it.

We have three things the powerful fear:

First, we have a ballot line. That means we don’t need to beg. We don’t have to ask permission to be heard. The ballot line is our lever—and every time we run, we pry open space for movements that the Democrats and Republicans want to bury.

It’s not just about my campaign. It’s about every candidate who uses that line to tell the truth, build community, and fight for a Green vision. It’s about people who run not to mimic power, but to disrupt it.

It's about Moshe, Nancy, Renaud, Darnell, Michelle, and Taylor, and everyone else that decides to run in 2025 and 2026.

It's about David and Rebecca who are trying to restart a local chapter in Allegany County, It's about Brian and Andrew and Dana and Tim and Mary and Nancy who keep local chapters alive. Our ballot line is what we work for, and it is what gives us our power.

Second, we have a clear political vision—one that neither of the corporate parties will touch. We are not here to split the difference between Wall Street, Washington and the weapons industry. We are not triangulating our way through genocide, climate collapse , or massive wealth transfers. Our vision is clear: peace, justice, ecological wisdom, grassroots democracy—and a politics that works for everyone, not just the rich and powerful.

25 Years ago Ralph Nader said: “A deep democracy facilitates people's best efforts to achieve social justice, a sustainable and bountiful environment and an end to systemic bigotry and discrimination” That’s the vision we are still acting on today.

Third, we have a theory of change. We don’t believe that history bends toward justice on its own. We bend it—together.

• We can use our ballot line to unite the left and force issues onto the table that the two-party cartel wants to ignore.
• We can tap into public financing to free our campaigns from corporate control—and prove that small donations, matched by the state, can fund real democracy.
• We demand access to the debates—not because we crave the spotlight, but because voters deserve to hear real choices, not corporate rehearsals.

But most importantly: this isn’t about one election cycle. This is about working with coalitions, communities, and movements to give them political power—so they can fight from the outside and the inside. This is about local Green organizing—not just for 2026, but for 2030, 2034, and beyond.

Kevin told us that the work matters even when it doesn’t win headlines. That every campaign builds the next one. That we have to pound on the wall until it cracks.

And Ralph told us that the only way to beat the corporate parties is to build something independent, unapologetic, and rooted in public power.

That’s what we’re doing. And if we keep building, a better world is possible.

We’ve built the infrastructure. Now we’re building the future—together

Today is more than an anniversary. It’s a national day of protest—against oligarchy, against authoritarianism, and against a political system that has failed the people and served the powerful.

And if there’s one thing we’ve learned in the last 25 years, it’s this: Real, transformative change—grassroots democracy—will never come from inside the two-party trap.

You can’t end oligarchy by voting for oligarchs. You can’t stop authoritarianism by giving more power to the parties that built it. You can’t fix a broken system by reinforcing its rules.

That’s why we’re here. Because I can’t think of a better way to fight oligarchy and authoritarianism than by building a real, independent, grassroots alternative—a healthy, democratic, multiparty system that puts people before profit and movements before machines.

And that starts right here in Maryland.

So I’m asking you to get in where you fit in: Join us—attend events, vote Green, advocate publicly, volunteer, run for office—and together we'll build a better Maryland

No one has to do everything. But if  each of us must  do something, we have real power

So when we are done  let’s mark this moment together:

Grab a protest sign. Join us for a photo. Let the world see that we are not backing down—we are standing up.

We are going to fight. We are going to build. And we are going to win.

Because if we want the next 25 years to be better than the last 25, We need the Maryland Green Party.

To the corporate parties, we say: Your time is up.

To the people of Maryland, we say: Your voice is heard.

To the future, we say: We’re coming for it—together.

 We just want the world.

Power to the people. Solidarity forever. And always—Vote Green.