Maryland State Senate · District 41
Values Matter.
The 41st District deserves a State Senator you can trust — someone who earns support honestly, stays accountable to the people he serves, and puts Baltimore first. That's Malcolm Ruff.
Who Malcolm is
A Son of Baltimore, Earning Your Trust
A civil rights lawyer. A husband and father. A public servant. Proven in Annapolis. Ready for the Senate.
Malcolm Ruff has spent his career holding the powerful accountable and fighting for people who don't have someone in their corner. He's running for the State Senate the right way — on his record, on his values, and on the strength of leaders across Baltimore who know him and trust him.
What this race comes down to
It Comes Down to Trust.
This race has come down to one question: who can the 41st trust to represent it? Here's how it has unfolded.
From the moment the other candidate in this primary, Sen. Dalya Attar, was arrested and indicted on federal extortion and conspiracy charges, the choice facing the 41st has been stark.
The October 30, 2025, indictment says that Sen. Attar and two co-defendants covertly recorded sexual activity between two consenting adults in a Northwest Baltimore apartment, using cameras disguised as smoke detectors.
Prosecutors allege the recording was meant as leverage against one of them — a former campaign consultant of Attar's — to stop her from speaking out about the senator's record to their community ahead of the 2022 election. According to the indictment, the group threatened to release the video to the woman's family, friends and rabbis, and to interfere with the matchmaking of her daughters, unless she stayed quiet and "left Dalya alone."
Sen. Attar has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Everyone is entitled to their day in court — but representing the 41st is a job built entirely on trust, and a district's business shouldn't have to be carried out from under a federal cloud.
May 2026 · Who actually delivered for the 41st
Follow the Receipts
A mailer went out under the "41st District Unity Team" banner claiming credit for "$12+ million secured for District 41" — and it names only three people: Sen. Attar, Del. Stinnett, and Del. Rosenberg. There's a name missing.
Malcolm Ruff is Chair of the Capital Budget Subcommittee in the Maryland House of Delegates. This session he helped lead the House's review of the state's $1.8 billion capital budget — and that money came out of the House, where Malcolm sits, not the Senate.
Their mailer
The mailer Attar's slate sent out. The red circles are Malcolm's own — marking the items he personally delivered through his role in the House. These were not Senate funds.
The receipts
- Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park — first state park in Baltimore history $4.28M
- Sinai Hospital Surgery Center $2M
- St. Agnes Family Birthing Center $1M
- Edmondson-Westside High School $1M
- Forest Park Branch, Enoch Pratt Free Library $750K
- Fallstaff Elementary/Middle School $650K
- The Lord's Church Outreach Center $505K
- Empowerment Temple Community Fridge & Workforce Center $500K
- Wabash Town Center Transit-Oriented Development $300K
- Young Successful Leader — Youth Business & Workforce Café $250K
- Dayspring Learning & Innovation Center $250K
- Hope Harbor CDC — Front Door Initiative $250K
- Baltimore Polytechnic Institute — Athletic Field Upgrades $240K
- The Clifton House — Capital Improvements $100K
- Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound School $100K
- Violetville Elementary/Middle — Playground $100K
- Edgewood Elementary — Playground $100K
- Greater Mt. Holly CDC — Denison Street $100K
- Ashburton Community Coffee House & Meeting Space $100K
- Hillsdale Heights — Land Preservation Trust $90K
- Queensbury Park & Playground $75K
- Liberty Elementary — Arts for Learning $50K
- Shiloh Christian Community Church $45K
- B-Spirit Youth Program $40K
- 3403 Fairview Avenue Improvements $200K
- Calvary Baptist Church Ministry House $175K
- Langston Hughes Community Business & Resource Center $125K
"How does it make sense — when I was the one making all this happen as one of the leaders on the budget committee? The truth is, all of the money she's citing came out of the House of Delegates, not the state senate." — Malcolm Ruff
Notice the contradiction. In print, the slate's mailer credits the money to three people — Sen. Attar, Del. Stinnett and Del. Rosenberg. Malcolm isn't mentioned. In person, the story changes: at a candidates' forum in Rognel Heights, Malcolm says, a community leader asked Attar whether her funding was on top of his. Her answer to the room: "we all got the money together." So which is it? On paper, she leaves out the delegate who actually chaired the capital budget the money came from. Face to face, she admits the delegation did it together. Two answers — depending on who's listening.
Late May 2026 · Who's really behind her
An Endorsement That Wasn't Real
And in recent days, the contrast only got sharper. A flyer went out for the "41st District Unity Team" slate declaring the candidates were "proudly endorsed by Ivan Bates," Baltimore City's State's Attorney. There was just one problem: the sitting State's Attorney never endorsed anyone in this Senate race. Bates publicly distanced himself, making clear he "cannot and will not become involved in this state senate race."
"He informed me that he has nothing to do with this race for obvious reasons. Despite her pending felony criminal indictment for extortion, she was willing to publicly release an unapproved endorsement from our sitting State's Attorney. Values matter, and the 41st District deserves much better representation than this in the State Senate." — Malcolm Ruff
One campaign claimed support it was never given. The other earned its support the honest way.
STANDING WITH MALCOLM
He’s not standing alone.
The strongest signal of a candidate's character is who shows up for them.
Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland
Representative Kweisi Mfume
Jill P. Carter 41st District Senator Emerita
40th District Senator Antonio Hayes
Baltimore Mayor, Brandon Scott
Balt. Council Vice President Sharon Green Middleton
AFL-CIO
AFSCME Maryland Council 3
American Federation of Teachers Maryland
Baltimore Teachers Union
CASA in Action
CAIR Action
Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle
Progressive Maryland
SEIU 1199