Matt Morgan - For over two hours yesterday, we debated SB255, a bill that invents a...

[transcript] I'm going to recognize next to gentlemen from Southern Maryland. The lady from Baltimore County will be next, who has been very patient. Gentlemen from Southern Maryland. Thank you, Madam Speaker. You're welcome. I just want to offer a quick defense of my county here. I knew that if we talked long enough on this bill, that the truth would eventually come out. Good delegation chair for Southern Maryland kind of spelled it out for us. Seeing Charles County, they're racially diverse because they have elected black people. In St. Mary's County, they have not. That's what the statement that was made. That's what was said. So let's see if there's some truth behind that. St. Mary's County was the fifth county in the nation to elect a black sheriff. And we did it in 1978. We elected a black County commissioner that was mentioned earlier. John Lancaster, I believe, in the 1980s. We've had a black African American school board member under the same rules at voting at large since the school board elections were created in the 90s. St. Mary's County was carried by Michael Steele when he ran for the state for U.S. Senate. In 2010, Charles Lawyer beat Steny Hoyer in St. Mary's County. How about that? And since then, there just hasn't been any black candidates to run under Republican side. Because you know what, it's not about race. It's about ideology. And it's about values and solutions. And we look north to their other counties, just north of us. And this is a reason why so many people located out of it, right? It's not about the color of your skin. It's about high taxes, insane less safety, less public safety, and less opportunity in a lower quality of life. So please don't damage my county and say, hey, you know what? We didn't get the right outcome here. So you must be doing something wrong because that's just not true. But yet, that is what this bill aims to do to make that claim against every county that decides not to have the predictable outcome of the majority party. For all those reason, Madam Speaker, I will be red. Thank you.