Photos by Daniel Rosenbaum
Delegate Angela M. Angel was elected to the Maryland General Assembly in 2014 to represent the 25th District of Prince George’s County. A seasoned attorney who spent years prosecuting child abuse and neglect for the City of New York, she is a fearless advocate for the often overlooked and proposes legislation that addresses gaps in the law that leave women and children impoverished and unprotected.
Delegate Angel is committed to advocacy on behalf of women and children because she knows first-hand what it means to struggle to make hard decisions to provide for your family. In 2012, she found herself in a marriage that had become increasingly violent. While seven months pregnant with her fifth child, her husband walked away from their family. Unable to meet their needs on her salary alone, Delegate Angel lost her car and her home. She and her children lived in a shelter as she began to rebuild their lives towards a more stable future. On June 24, 2014, almost two years to the date she moved out of the shelter she won a seat representing the 25th legislative District in the Maryland General Assembly.
During the 2016 Maryland Legislative Session, she filed 19 bills that strengthened our educational system, made provisions for affordable housing, improved public health, and strengthened public safety. After hearing the outcries of her constituents and drawing upon her own personal experiences, Delegate Angel made great strides in her fight to protect victims suffering from domestic violence by proposing HB 1396: Domestic Violence – Education and Definition of Abuse. In addition to requiring schools to educate students on healthy relationships and signs of domestic abuse, this very important bill would have expanded the definition of abuse to include harassment and malicious destruction of property in order to allow more victims of domestic abuse access to protective orders. When the bill was killed in committee Delegate Angel spoke up 1 about the injustice to those suffering as a result of domestic violence. Refusing to be silenced by a system she felt was not serving victims of domestic violence, Delegate Angel made a bold move 2 to get the language out of the House Chambers. After her success, the bill was held procedurally in the Senate as Delegate Angel fought until the final bell 3 to have the protections enacted. Though the bill did not pass, her fight to safeguard domestic violence victims continues and she received commitments of support for the 2017 Legislative Session. Even more importantly, many survivors have come forward and shared their stories of triumph as a result of Delegate Angel’s Advocacy.
In addition to Delegate Angela Angel’s work on domestic violence, she is committed to improving educational opportunities and greater access to affordable housing and quality health and well-being services. She was successful at stopping a bill that would have put new restrictions on day care vouchers for Maryland’s most vulnerable children. She has proposed legislation to help increase homeownership opportunities for Prince George’s County residents and workers; An Education Equality Act that will require Charter Schools to provide equal opportunities to all students; and in a bold move for a young legislator, Delegate Angel is taking on banks and Mortgage Company practices that are damaging our neighborhoods. She lives in Upper Marlboro, MD with her five children.
