Maryland Senate Race Tainted with Last-Minute Antisemitism Smear
Forward reporter Beth Schwartzapfel gives us the latest from the Cardin-Steele contest:
In the final hours of the tight race for the Maryland Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Paul Sarbanes, a flier in support of Republican candidate Michael Steele in his fight against Democrat Ben Cardin has garnered accusations of anti-Semitism. Emma Jean Thompson, co-pastor of Integrity Church International in Landover, Maryland, yesterday released a flyer which read, in part, “Ben Cardin Promises to attack Jesus Christ, Pastors, Churches and Christians and to Take Away Black’s [sic] Freedom If He Is Elected.” The flier was distributed following a press conference yesterday at which Thompson, who is African-American, endorsed Steele, who is also black. Cardin is white and Jewish.
The incident echoes the opposition that Steve Cohen – a Jewish Democrat running for the U.S. House in Memphis – has encountered from black Christian leaders in that city. (As well as the opposition that New York City Council member David Yassky faced from black leaders when he tried to win the Democratic nomination for a U.S. House seat representing a majority-minority Brooklyn district.)
The National Jewish Democratic Council called the flier a “thinly veiled anti-semitic attack against Cardin,” and called on Steele to condemn the flier and reject Thompson’s endorsement. So far, there’s been no word about the flier from the Steele campaign. No one at the campaign, nor at Integrity Church, was available for comment.
The Maryland race is considered to be “leaning Democrat,” but the race has been tightening; the most recent poll, released by pollsters Mason-Dixon on November 3rd, had Cardin leading Steele by only 3 percentage points, 47 to 43.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.