Interview with Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth
Interviewed by Keshav Kannepalli, September 2026
Rep. Sarah Elfreth Timeline of Major Events:
2009: Appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley at student member of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents
2010: Graduated Magna Cum Laude from Towson University with B.A. in Political Science
2010-2012: Worked as a research assistant at the John Hopkins Institutions Office of Government and Community Affairs
2011: Congressional Intern for Rep. Stony Hoyer
2012: Received a Masters degree from John Hopkins University in Public Affairs
2012-2016: Served as Government Affairs Director at the National Aquarium
2015-2017: Served as President of the D30 Democratic Club
2018: Elected to Maryland Senate, representing District 30
2019: Became Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on the Chesapeake & Atlantic Coastal Bays Critical Area; Joined the Maryland Veterans Caucus and the Chesapeake Bay Commission
2020: Became Chair of the Senate Pensions Subcommittee and Chair of the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Review; Joined the Chesapeake Conservation Corps Program Board and Oyster Advisory Commission
2021: Became involved in the Maryland State Park Investment Commission
2022: Won reelection for the Maryland Senate
2023: Became Chair of the Public Safety, Transportation, and Environment Subcommittee of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee & Became Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Program Open Space & Agricultural Land Preservation
2024: Passed multiple pieces of legislation in the Maryland Senate including environmental protections and the Freedom to Read Act
May 2024: Won the 22-candidate Democratic Primary for Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District with 36% of the vote.
November 2024: Won the General Election by 59% of the vote
2025: Elfreth sworn into U.S. House of Representatives
Joined the House Armed Services Committee and House Natural Resources Committee.
Became Vice-Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee and Co-Chair of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Task Force.
Introduced the bipartisan MAWS Act (Mitigation Action and Watermen Support Act) with Reps. Rob Wittman, Steny Hoyer and Jen Kiggans.
Introduced the Shutdown Student Loans for Feds Act with Sens. Angela Alsobrooks and Chris Van Hollen.
2026: Won Democratic Primary for reelection by 74.7% of the vote
You may watch the interview here.
Keshav: Today, I’m joined by Congresswoman Sarah Elfreth of Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District, who has served in Congress since 2025. Before entering Congress, she served in the Maryland Senate from 2019 to 2025. We will discuss her insights into American Politics, her time in the Maryland Senate, the Shutdown Student Loans for Feds Act, and environmental legislature.
Keshav: Congresswoman, thank you for joining us!
Sarah Elfreth: Of course!
Keshav: Congratulations on winning your Democratic primary in June by 75%! This year's primary for you was much less competitive than 2024's 22 Democratic candidates. I spoke with Rep. Don Beyer recently, and he mentioned an anti-incumbent wave coming through the Democratic Party. I know that's the opposite of what happened in your district, but what are your thoughts on that?
Sarah Elfreth: Yeah, I thought a lot about this. Certainly we've seen every state go through its primary season. I think, like most answers in politics, it's much more nuanced than just anti-incumbent. I think it's a lot to do with voters rightfully feeling frustrated and anxious and wanting change.
Sarah Elfreth: It's folks having a collectively really negative view of Congress as a body, but still, for the most part, really liking their members of Congress, which is an interesting dynamic. It's folks who understand that, even with as much damage President Trump has done, we can't just go back to a status quo of pre-Trump. It’s because a lot of what we were delivering in Washington, and frankly not delivering in Washington, was not working for the American people. People rightfully want change.
Sarah Elfreth: At the same time, I've only ever run in one election in really difficult races, and so I have what we call—it’s a bit of FOMO in my office. I do have a fear of missing out on community events, and I want to be everywhere.
Sarah Elfreth: We did 30 town halls to date. We just did a resource fair last night. We are very aggressive with constituent services. I try to crisscross the district as much as possible.
Sarah Elfreth: So, I think it's less about anti-incumbent, and I think where we've seen incumbents lose, I would suggest that perhaps they maybe weren't working their district as hard as they might have once worked it when they first were elected. But it's hard. It's a hard pace to keep up, but I also think that's what people expect of their members of Congress.
Keshav: You passed 91 bipartisan bills during your time in the Maryland Senate. What do you think is the key to passing bipartisan legislation?
Sarah Elfreth: I'm pretty relentless. A mentor once described me, when I had to pick three words to describe me, relentless was one of them, and I wear that with pride.
Sarah Elfreth:It's also recognizing that no bill ever passes what we call "clean," which means no bill ever is introduced and then passes without amendments.
Sarah Elfreth: The legislative process is an iterative process, right? You've got to get through committee, you've got to get it through one chamber, then it goes across to the other chamber and committee and all these things. You have so many stakeholders. You have to be flexible with the outcome.
Sarah Elfreth: I'm a big proponent of—I would prefer to get 75% of something than 100% of something, which means I do compromise a lot. And, I think the key there is recognizing from the beginning—in the drafting stage of legislation—what are the key values and the things I'm willing to negotiate and what I'm not willing to negotiate?
Sarah Elfreth: And then going from there, making as big of a tent as possible and bringing in as many diverse stakeholders as possible.
Sarah Elfreth: I always used to like to say that it was important for me to do all those bills bipartisanly, not just because it's bipartisan and that's a good value, but because I wanted to make sure the policy that I thought was right—public policy that worked for my district—could also work for a district that did not look like mine.
Sarah Elfreth: I think that makes for a more sustainable policy over time—to think about varying communities. And then trying—and it's especially challenging in Congress, but I work really hard at it—trying to find that one or two things that I can agree with whoever I'm talking to about.
Sarah Elfreth: I avoid the hot topics of abortion and guns, and maybe immigration, when I'm talking to a Republican. You don't want to start with that—that's coming in really hot.
Sarah Elfreth: I try to start with obviously reading their biography and reading the work that they've done and the committees they serve on and the bills that they're passionate about. I try to find that common thread before I walk into a meeting.
Sarah Elfreth: And then I really try to focus our conversation there. And we have a building block from which we can work together, and then eventually, building the relationship, we can start to tackle those more thornier political issues by having that relationship first.
Keshav: You introduced the Shutdown Student Loans for Federal Act after experiencing the hardships of student loans yourself. What made student loan policy something that you wanted to address in your first term? I know that many members of Congress are making lists of things that they want to introduce in the second term. Is that something that you would still like to focus on?
Sarah Elfreth: Absolutely. I mean, student loan debt is a significant burden for a lot of people in my generation. It's going to be a burden to you and your peers.
Sarah Elfreth: And it really does stymie the economy, right? Me paying X amount of dollars a month towards my student loans is money I'm not paying towards buying a new car, or being able to purchase a home, or putting that money back into the economy.
Sarah Elfreth: And I just crossed the threshold last year between—and this was very exciting for me as a student loan borrower—I'm now paying more on my principal than my interest rate.
Sarah Elfreth: Think about that—for like 12 years, the majority of my monthly student loan was going to pay my interest rate—which you might as well set that money on fire, right? Like, that is doing absolutely nothing to stimulate the economy.
Sarah Elfreth: So, from that perspective, I think it's really important that we tackle this. And from the other perspective, we want to encourage everybody, young people coming out of high school, but people also changing careers in the midst of this AI boom and changing technology.
Sarah Elfreth: Like, we want to encourage people to seek higher and different educational opportunities, and that costs money. So we need to level the playing field.
Sarah Elfreth: And my thought process on this is about—I mentioned sustainable policy before—having something that can survive the changing tides of Congress, whether we flip back and forth between Republican-led and Democratic-led.
Sarah Elfreth: You want to have policy that maybe, if we are hopefully in the majority in January, we can pass, but I want to make sure it's sustainable so that when Republicans eventually and inevitably—because that's just the way it works in Congress—have a majority again, it won't be targeted the way that this president and Republicans have targeted things like the infrastructure bill or immigration.
Sarah Elfreth: Everything that they have targeted was not necessarily sustainable, wasn't built in such a way that could withstand the flip-flopping of Congress.
Sarah Elfreth: So, it's something I really want to focus on because it impacts so many Americans, and I think is going to be healthy for our economy and something that I know matters to young people, right?
Sarah Elfreth: Like, we always talk about how few young people vote or the depressing stats on voter engagement. We're not talking about, working on, or taking seriously a lot of the policies that matter to young people. And I think this is one of them.
Keshav: I know you're working on a lot of legislation right now as well. I know you recently passed the MAWS Act, which is related to the environment. For youth that can't vote yet or aren’t in your district, is there anything that they can do to support your work or your legislation that you want to introduce soon?
Sarah Elfreth: We're doing some really cool stuff around invasive species, which is a huge conservation issue, as you mentioned, but is also directly related to climate change, which is an existential threat for all of us.
Sarah Elfreth: I know people who are more passionate in my district about climate change tend to be younger because they're the ones who are going to disproportionately pay the price for it.
Sarah Elfreth: So, I would just suggest to folks: you can always follow along. I would say engage early.
Sarah Elfreth: Like, I got involved in politics, and I got a late start—I got involved in college. You were obviously getting an earlier start in high school.
[We both chuckle.]
Sarah Elfreth: And so are your listeners. You should reach out to your members of Congress, or your members of your General Assembly, or your members of your city council and engage early.
Sarah Elfreth: We love to hear from young people. In fact, whenever a young person writes to my office and we know how old they are, and they say "I'm a fifth grader, I'm working on a project,” I pick up the phone, personally call that young person, invite them to visit me in Washington, and come with me to the floor of Congress.
Sarah Elfreth: We love when young people are engaged, but we need you to also be a part of that too. So this is my challenge to everybody.
Sarah Elfreth: It's so easy, especially with the advent of social media, to sit back and feel disheartened and disenfranchised—which are totally legitimate feelings. But I would encourage folks: the best antidote to that is to actually engage and participate in the process.
Sarah Elfreth: Our system was built intentionally for that kind of participation. That's the entire premise of this experiment of self-governance that was started 250 years ago. But it's a two-way street.
Sarah Elfreth: We need everybody to think about what they're passionate about, how they want to engage, and actually, do more than just vote, because voting is—we make this huge deal of voting–it’s so important. But that's just one way to be an active, civically engaged member of our society.
Keshav: I like to end with one last fun question. What is one hot take you have?
Sarah Elfreth: Ooh, hot take I have. Yeah, I'm going to stick on social media for a second.
Sarah Elfreth: The algorithms in politics in particular reward strife, division, and fear. And it's how President Trump was able to win: by fomenting all of those things that, frankly, are the worst of us—the worst of us as politicians, but certainly the worst of us as society.
Sarah Elfreth: I would just suggest—my hot take is for folks to fight back against those algorithms. Recognize they fuel us. They're intended to give us dopamine hits, and they're intended to make us feel like everybody agrees with us when in fact that's creating a false bubble around you.
Sarah Elfreth: So I would suggest breaking away from that. And listen, members of Congress can't break away from it. Right? We are guilty of feeding that, too.
Sarah Elfreth: But I think the only way out of it is expanding viewpoints and talking to people who don't agree with you.
Sarah Elfreth: And listen, I joke about it, but it's true—My parents support the president. My mother doesn't agree with all the votes I take. Right? We're not supposed to agree with people 100 percent of the time.
Sarah Elfreth: That's an irrational expectation of any relationship we have—mother to daughter, friend to friend, brother to sister. We have to think about how do we find that common ground again with each other?
Sarah Elfreth: Because that's our way through and out of the situation we find ourselves in.
Sarah Elfreth: Members of Congress have a real role to play in that. But, so does every single person. We all have a role to play in demanding better from our elected officials—but demanding better from ourselves, too.
Keshav: Thank you so much for your insights, Congresswoman. And thank you for taking the time to speak with us.
Sarah Elfreth: Of course!
