Kathy Szeliga

Kathy Szeliga (born October 10, 1961) is an American politician who has served as a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates since January 12, 2011, and as Minority Whip from 2013 to 2021. Szeliga was the Republican nominee for the United States Senate in 2016 to replace Barbara Mikulski, who retired.

Szeliga was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in October 1961. She is of Polish descent. She was raised in a military family, her father being a lieutenant colonel in the United States Army. Szeliga married her husband in 1980, and the couple struggled financially at first. Szeliga worked as a dishwasher, a maid, and a housekeeper. She entered college in her thirties, enrolling at Towson State University and graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education. She began working as a teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools and started a construction business with her husband.

Szeliga first got involved with politics in the mid-1990s, organizing opposition against the Maryland School Performance and Assessment Program, a controversial test used to assess schools. She became involved with state politics after a family friend, James M. Kelly, was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. She worked as a legislative aide to Kelly, then for Delegate John G. Trueschler, and eventually became chief of staff for then-State Senator Andy Harris. She decided to run for Delegate after Del. J. B. Jennings decided to run for the State Senate. She was elected and immediately placed on the Appropriations Committee.

Szeliga was sworn into the Maryland House of Delegates on January 11, 2011. She served as a member of the Appropriations Committee from 2011 to 2015, the Transportation Committee from 2015 to 2016, and the Health and Government Operations Committee since 2017. From 2013 to 2021, Szeliga served as the House Minority Whip, making her the highest-ranking elected Republican woman in Maryland. A founding member of the Maryland Freedom Caucus, Maryland Matters has described Szeliga as one of the most vocal conservatives in the Maryland House of Delegates.

In May 2024, Szeliga faced criticism after making a Twitter post denouncing a video of "Queers for Palestine" protesters blocking a Florida interstate to bring attention to the Gaza war, writing, "These 'queers' need a one-way ticket to Gaza to see how Hamas feels about their lifestyle choices." In an interview with WBAL-TV, Szeliga rejected criticisms that her post was homophobic or anti-LGBTQ, saying that it was meant to be "informational".

In June 2024, Szeliga and three other Republican lawmakers signed onto a letter to the superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools calling for the termination of Alexa Sciuto, a LGBTQIA+ advocate who taught at Baltimore County Schools. In the letter, the legislators alleged that Sciuto made death threats toward Kit Hart, the chair of the Carroll County Moms for Liberty chapter, citing a tweet from Sciuto that read, "Officer, I swear I didn't mean to murder her" above a picture of Hart. Sciuto had made the post after Hart failed to clearly define the word "woke" during a parents' rights panel in Towson. In June 2025, Sciuto filed a defamation lawsuit against the lawmakers, multiple Moms for Liberty members, and Libs of TikTok, claiming that her tweet was rhetorical and that the lawmakers had mischaracterized it as a death threat.

Szeliga represented the 1st congressional district as a delegate to the 2024 Republican National Convention, pledged to Donald Trump. Had Trump won Maryland in the 2024 presidential election, Szeliga would have been an elector pledged to Trump.

In June 2018, Szeliga accused state delegate Richard Impallaria of sending out campaign mailers attacking Szeliga by calling her a closet Democrat. Impallaria initially declined responsibility for this, but after Szeliga emailed him to say she would inform their GOP colleagues about the fliers targeting her, he forwarded the email to every member of the House Republican caucus in which he referred to himself as the "evil genius" responsible for the attacks on Szeliga. The calls misleadingly claimed that Szeliga was a supporter of the transgender community and had voted in favor of a bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of gender identity.