Ben Jealous is the second candidate for Maryland governor with tech ties

Ben Jealous became the second entrant into the Maryland governor’s race on Wednesday with an announcement outside a West Baltimore flower shop.
The former NAACP president also became the second candidate in the race who has experience in the tech community. In that role, he is an investor and advisor to multiple startups.
In 2014, Jealous became a partner at Kapor Capital, which backs social justice–oriented startups and seeks to increase diversity in tech. According to a biography on the Kapor Capital website, he sits on the board of inmate services company Pigeonly (which pitched at Harbor Bank in Baltimore last year) and is a board advisor to bill-paying app PayNearMe. He was also onstage at Labs@Light City last month as a moderator.
Most of the early analysis is focusing on Jealous’ support for a $15 minimum wage and ending mass incarceration, and his rhetoric mostly focused on criticizing Gov. Larry Hogan and President Trump. But there are signs that his work as an investor influenced his politics.
“We will double down on investing in growing our state’s tech sector, so that Maryland truly becomes the destination for the greatest minds seeking to solve the world’s greatest problems, from cancer to edtech to cybersecurity,” he said during his announcement speech. “And we will also step up and invite the greatest tech companies in Silicon Valley to move here, as they are under pressure to be more inclusive.”
He pointed out Prince George’s County’s high concentration of African-American STEM workers, and said the state has a “well of diverse computer science that they are so eagerly searching for.”
Jealous has considered running for office before. He told the Washington Post he considered running for U.S. Senate in Maryland after Barbara Mikulski retired. And last year, he told the Baltimore Sun’s Dan Rodricks that he mulled, but ultimately decided against, a run for mayor of Baltimore.
In the governor’s race, he is joined in the Democratic primary by Industries of the Future author Alec Ross, who made computer science for all his first policy position.
It’s probably something of a natural progression that tech gains a bigger foothold in politics as its importance to the overall economy increases. After all, we’ve seen Hogan make a series of moves to grow startups and Martin O’Malley position himself as the startup candidate for president. Still, it’ll be interesting to watch how the presence of two candidates who bring more experience than most politicians influences the race.