We go to Maryland this week to profile former governor Martin O’Malley in this week’s edition of SFGN’s White House Watch.

O’Malley, 52, served as the Maryland Governor for two terms (2007-2015) and was Mayor of Baltimore in the years prior, taking city office in December of 1999. O’Malley, a Democrat, has earned a reputation as a tough crime fighter who took to the streets of Baltimore to confront hopelessness brought on by ruthless drug lords.

“He didn’t make a campaign promise to make the city safer, he made a pledge and he kept it,” says the narrator of a video on O’Malley’s political action committee (O’PAC) website.

In a Democratic field desperately in need of a candidate to challenge presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, O’Malley looks poised to fill that role. Appearing on the ABC television program “This Week,” O’Malley said the U.S. Presidency is a campaign about democracy and not “some crown to be passed between two families.”

Speaking to reporters in Concord, New Hampshire on April 2, O’Malley said, “people are hungry for new leadership in our country.”

O’Malley’s progressive credentials include programs that raised the quality of public education, reduced violent crime and worked to rid the Chesapeake Bay of pollution -- all while decreasing public spending. As governor, O’Malley understood the dignity of all human life and the pursuit of happiness when he signed into law same-sex marriage in 2013.

O’Malley received his bachelor’s degree from Catholic University and his master’s from the University of Maryland. He is married to Katie, a district court judge and the couple have four children.