Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney announced he was giving up his seat in Congress with an op-ed in The Washington Post almost two years ago. In the piece, Dulaney, who represented Maryland’s gerrymandered 6th District for three terms, said a lot of the usual stuff—“The American people are far greater than the sum of our political parties,” “our government is hamstrung by excessive partisanship,” and the like.

He also included the typical bit about how his vision for the country is based on his “own American Dream.” Translated, he means his dad was a union electrician, but he went to college and became a very successful entrepreneur. In fact, Dulaney launched and led two financial services companies—Health Care Financial Partners and Capital Source—that ultimately were traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange.

Two years on the road, traversing Iowa (he’s visited all 99 counties) and New Hampshire (more than 15 visits) on his own dime, Delaney finally gets some national television spotlight tonight. Well, at least 1/20 of piece of it. The only Marylander in this year’s contest, Delaney will join Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Cory Booker, Gov. Jay Inslee, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Amy Klochuchar, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Rep. Tim Ryan, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on stage on the first night, of the two-evening, first Democratic presidential debate of 2020.

The major networks and cable stations plan to broadcast the 9-11 p.m. debates Wednesday and Thursday. Round two tomorrow night includes: Former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete Buttigeg, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen. Michael Bennet, former Gov. John Hickenlooper, Rep. Eric Swalwell, author Marianne Williamson, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Outside of Maryland (and maybe inside parts of the state, too), Delaney may be the least known of the bunch. With that in mind, here’s five things to know about the former Congressman.

1. He’s a centrist.
In primary races, the more liberal voices on the Democratic side and more conservative voices in Republican contests tend to attract the most attention and copy. Delaney told WMUR that he doesn’t think “centrist . . . is a dirty word. He’s a free trader. He does not support Medicare for All bill proposed in the U.S. Senate or the Green New Deal.

2. He supports a modest corporate tax increase.
Delaney says he would like to see the corporate tax rate raised from 21 percent to 25 percent.

3. He’s polling at 2 percent.
In other words, there are a lot people ahead of him. Delaney says he decided to enter the race after Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump. “That moment made me think we have to think differently about everything,” he says. “And stop pitting American against American . . . We have to focus on getting things done we agree on.” What Delaney needs to do tonight is put forth who he is and what he stands for in a compelling bit-size (because that’s all the time he’ll get) narrative.

4. He’d trade support for Trump’s wall for “Dreamer” protections.
Delaney has said he’s willing to increase funding to build more steel barriers along the Southern border if it means creating a pathway to U.S. citizenship for the estimated 1.8 million “dreamers”—younger immigrations who were brought here by their parents.

5. He thinks Wall Street regulation is basically fine as is.
When asked, Delaney says he believes “first and most importantly” banks in this country are “well capitalized and safe.” “I think Elizabeth Warren believes the banks are a bigger risk than they are . . . “they’ve been appropriately regulated since the last financial crisis.” Other economic issues, including the threat of technology to jobs, are more important to focus on, he says.

“Delaney does—in his own (way)—present something different from the rest,” said Mileah Kromer, who oversees the Goucher Poll as the director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center told WAMU. “At least different from the more progressive wing of the party.”

California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, the first African-American to announce as a 2020 candidate for president, did so symbolically today on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. And, her team confirmed to Baltimore magazine, the Harris campaign will be headquartered in Baltimore.

Why Harris believes she is the best person to serve as the next president of the United States is important—as is her record and her vision for the future. Those issues will certainly be addressed in the coming months, but Harris’ announcement also begs another, immediate question: Why Baltimore?

Earlier this month, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Harris had been looking to line up an East Coast location for her headquarters so that she would be near the major cable news outlets all of which operate on Eastern Time. Harris already has a strong presence on the West Coast so placing her campaign headquarters in Baltimore—square in the densely populated Mid-Atlantic region—quickly helps introduce her to a new set of voters as well.

“My initial reaction is that this is a really great move for a few different reasons,” said Mileah Kromer, associate professor of political science at Goucher College and the director of the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics Center. “Baltimore is majority African-American city at a time when the backbone and lifeblood of the Democratic Party is African-American women, like those who turn out to vote here. It’s a setting that can play an outsize role in generating resistance to the Trump Administration. And, maybe foremost, it’s a city where the intersection of justice and race matters when she’s touting her record as a prosecutor and on criminal justice issues.”

Kromer adds that Harris’ record as California’s top prosecutor and that state’s attorney general could potentially generate some controversy in Baltimore’s activist community. But addressing those issues head on in a city like Baltimore sends the message that she’s a serious candidate.

The Harris campaign would not comment on when her Baltimore office will open or where it will be located, but did say a second campaign office will open in her hometown of Oakland, where a kick-off rally is scheduled for January 27. Harris’ logo—with its red and yellow colors and theme, “Kamala Harris For the People”—is a nod to another pioneering president bid: Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 campaign.

The 54-year-old Harris was by no means a stranger to the East Coast before her election to the Senate in 2016, however. She earned her B.A. From Howard University in Washington, D.C. in 1986. Harris has made a name for herself in the Senate from her seat on the high-profile Judiciary Committee, using her position to seize a Democratic leadership role on national issues from Supreme Court nominations to the Trump Administration’s child separation policy at the southern border. Her sister, Maya, former executive director of the ACLU of Northern California and Hillary Clinton campaign policy advisor, will serve as the campaign chair.

Harris previously made an appearance in Baltimore as one of the headliners of the NAACP’s national convention in 2017. She also joined Ben Jealous at one of his campaign rallies in Prince George’s County over the past summer. In the lead-up to election season, Harris has recently published her memoir, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey. A Facebook page, Kamala for Maryland, seeking campaign volunteers, launched in December.

Harris is not the first—nor certainly the last—Democrat who will make a bid for the nation’s highest office. Former Maryland Congressman and Montgomery County business John Delaney has been off and running since 2017. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts announced her candidacy at the end of December and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York announced last week. U.S. Rep Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii has also launched her campaign—bringing, with Harris’ entry, the number of women already vying to become the 46th president to four. Former Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, among a host of others, are considered likely to join the fray.

Diane Fink, executive director of Emerge Maryland, a nonprofit that identifies and trains Democratic women seeking political office, was thrilled to see both that Harris was throwing her hat into the ring—and that she planned to open her campaign headquarters in Baltimore.

“The more women running for public office, for any public office, the better,” Fink says. “When one or two women are running among 10 men, their voices get lost and they’re subject to more unfair sexist attacks.”

Fink noted that just the presence of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 race created a huge uptick in the number of women running for office. She believes Harris’ campaign, being based in Baltimore, could have a similar impact citywide and statewide.

“It’s inspiring and demystifying when you see someone else up close run—especially if they are approachable, it takes some of the fear and apprehension of running away,” Fink says. “Maryland already has a strong history of women running for high office—Senator Barbara Mikulski and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi. I think we’ll see many more women stepping up.”