Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes is known to buck her party with her representation of the Eastern Shore. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz has this portrait of her political standing.
With Election Day coming around, Maryland Del. Sheree Sample-Hughes is on a glide path. You won’t see TV commercials attacking or lauding her. You’ll get no mailers about her record, pro or con. A conservative Democrat who sometimes sides with Republicans, she has no opponent for her fourth term representing the Eastern Shore in the Maryland House of Delegates.
A few facts about Sample-Hughes:
She’s 49.
She’s been in the Maryland House of Delegates since 2015, after serving eight years on the Wicomico County Council.
She inherited the seat from the late Rudolph “Rudy” Cane, the first African American man to represent the Eastern Shore in the Maryland House of Delegates.
She is the only Democrat and the only African American in the Eastern Shore delegation to the Maryland Legislature.
Her district, Maryland House District 37A, was created as a majority-minority subdistrict following the 1994 court-ordered redistricting plan to give African American voters on the conservative rural Eastern Shore a voice in Annapolis. The district spans parts of Dorchester and Wicomico counties, connecting pockets of minority voters in Cambridge and Salisbury.
As of the 2020 U.S. census, the district has a population of 43,123. The racial makeup of the district was 52.8 percent African American, 34 percent White, 8.4 percent Hispanic or Latino, 1.4 percent Asian, and 0.5 percent Native American.
The last Republican who challenged her, in 2022, garnered less than 40 percent of the vote.
She has a degree in mortuary science and works in the funeral industry.
