Vote Sunil Dasgupta

Wishing you all a meaningful Memorial Day. My name is Sunil Dasgupta and I am running to be one of three state delegates in Maryland's State Legislative District 19 in the Democratic primary. I know it can be hard to distinguish candidates within the same party. But look closer.

One of my opponents has raised nearly 85 percent of their money from outside Maryland, with some contributors giving $6,000 each. That’s Maryland’s max allowed limit. I don’t know anyone well enough who can afford to write $6,000 checks to any political campaign. Our average contribution is about $100 and 85 percent of the money comes from within Maryland, maybe even Montgomery County.

With that in mind, let's get into . Everyone talks about it. What does it really mean? How does winning in D19 matter? I have shorter messages out on this, but this one is long.

First, affordability is a wage stagnation problem as much as it is a price problem. The concept is counterintuitive really. Why are prices rising even when a primary component of production cost–wages–remains stagnant?

There are three major potential culprits: a) prices are high because of high CEO salaries, share buybacks, and excessive profit-taking by often monopoly or oligopoly companies; b) prices are high because of regulatory costs imposed by government are immense; in housing and energy projects the time from project idea to completion is long and arduous and entrepreneurs accumulate capital and other costs during the time; c) prices are high because demand is growing (some say it is merely too much money chasing too few goods); obviously demand is growing relative to supply and supply is stagnant because of production limits (rare earth minerals, energy sources) but also politics, regulatory burden, and investment capital has better options with higher returns.

You can see the outlines of this debate in every major affordability issue: auto and home insurance premiums, utilities, childcare, healthcare, housing, and groceries. There are several others, but generally manufactured goods, which saw inflation during and immediately after the pandemic have cooled off, but services generally and essential services in particular continue to increase. There is a reason for this evolution. The pandemic-related inflation mainly came from supply-chain disruption combined with excess money in the system (from stimulus checks, PPP loans, and more). But once everything becomes more expensive, the cost of insuring them goes up. And, for the first time in a while, working class and middle class wages grew after the pandemic and those higher wages are driving up what we pay for services and sometimes taxes when those services are paid by governments.

I do not want to pursue affordability on the backs of low wages. That's a race to the bottom and that I will fight with everything I have. So, what can we do?

If you believe the real culprit is a) you have a set of solutions–price control, compensation control–and conversely if you believe in b) you have a separate set of solutions–reduce and rationalize government regulations, speed up permitting. But this is not telling you what exactly to do, where exactly to cut regulations and what legal standard you might use to institute effective price control that does not at the same time jeopardize investment in increasing supply. To answer this, you have to know your subject matter.

We know that the state cannot legally compel grocery store prices down. The recent surveillance pricing bill passed by the Maryland General Assembly may have some price control effect but it is primarily an anti-discrimination law.

But the state does have legal authority to act in certain types of monopoly and oligopoly markets. The General Assembly did start on this winnowing out certain utility expenses from the “rate-base,” the bases that comprise the electricity rate we pay. For example, they have limited inclusion of executive salaries to approximately $280,000 in the rate base. The utility cannot pass whatever extra it does pay in executive salaries on to the ratepayers. But there is much more. Gas companies are overspending on infrastructure build out even as the state is moving toward net-zero fossil fuel use that is going to leave these assets to be paid off by ratepayers even if they are not being used fully. We have to go through line-item after line-item, not just look down a 30,000-feet as we parachute down into this campaign.

Similarly, the state’s relatively new Prescription Drug Affordability Board has finally introduced upper payment limits on one drug, the diabetes medication Jardiance and the weight loss drug Ozempic. For now this measure only applies to state and local government insurance plans. The Board can apply it to all insurance plans in Maryland after some time, but the details are unclear. The process of adding new drugs is necessarily slow and will not appreciably stabilize prescription drug insurance premiums for a few years. But we can pass legislation to subject Maryland to upper payment limits imposed by other states such as Colorado and Washington. We can even peg our policy to Medicare. The devil is in the details.

Last year, among the many attacks on Maryland, the Trump Administration ended Maryland’s special 50-year relationship with Medicare. This forces us to alter the way in which hospitals in Maryland are reimbursed for their services. You may not have noticed but Maryland did not lose a single rural hospital as a result of OBBA. Virginia and other states did and are going to. The reason Maryland was spared was because we had an all-payer system that set hospital reimbursement rates in a hospital no matter the type of payer–private insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid. Now the state faces a really difficult choice for next year: fill the gap on rising healthcare premiums or fund the Blueprint?

Politics is often overpromise and underdelivery. You can hold us to account now. When you hear a candidate promise fully funding the Blueprint, ask them with what money? When you hear a promise to support rent stabilization and increased housing supply, ask how they will achieve this? Ask me these questions and you will get a real answer; it’ll be long but real. In the D19 Democratic primary, I am uniquely qualified to balance competing priorities. Not because I am part of a national donor ecosystem deeply embedded in private equity and Enron money. But because I took the time to learn about what is happening here in D19. If you want to know more about my deep grassroots engagement go tune in to the podcast I have produced the last five years. Other professors write books, I have made it my life’s work to work in my community. See below for links to the show.

Mail-in ballots are out now. Early voting is June 11 to 18. And primary day is June 23. Voter turnout for the primary is usually low even in jurisdictions where the primary election determines who will win more than the general election. Montgomery County and D19 have so many more Democrats that Republicans generally don’t stand a chance. In Texas and Florida, Republicans have this advantage.

If you want to make a difference, vote in the primary. If you want a yard sign, join us in door-knocking, or contribute to the campaign so we can reach other voters, go to https://votesunil.com. You can also check if you live in D19, ask for a mail-in ballot, and get other voter information using links at the bottom of the webpage.

Links to the podcast
Full episode list: https://t.ly/HNca8 Transcripts: https://t.ly/jA6ht Links to episodes on major streaming platforms: linktr.ee/ihppod

The Baltimore Banner has released its Voter Guide, including for District 19. When voting for state delegate, you can choose up to three candidates. Please make sure Sunil is one of them—it’s time to get to work in Annapolis making life better for District 19 residents! ✅
Make a plan to vote today. 🗳️
Early voting: June 11-18
Primary Day: June 23

Maryland House of Delegates District 19 See who’s running for Maryland House of Delegates District 19. Read candidate profiles and their responses to The Banner’s 2026 voter guide questionnaire.

Thank you to Aspen Hill Civic Association for hosting a great candidate forum tonight. Great turnout and questions. If you had questions, concerns, or ideas that you didn’t have a chance to share, send a DM or email [email protected] 

The mail-in ballots are arriving! Sunil is running for the Maryland State House, District 19. Choosing Sunil means having a representative in Annapolis who is deeply informed on the issues affecting our neighborhoods, schools, and streets. Questions? Concerns? DM here or email [email protected]