Thiru Vignarajah announces second bid for Baltimore mayor, fourth run for office
BALTIMORE -- Thiru Vignarajah, a former city and federal prosecutor who once served as Maryland's deputy attorney general, filed to run as a Democrat for Baltimore City Mayor a second time.
Vignarajah, a high-profile attorney who ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2020, and state's attorney in 2018 and 2022, joins former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and incumbent Mayor Brandon Scott, who have already filed to run.
The addition of Vignarajah sets up a similar field as 2020, when Scott received 29.6% of the vote and defeated Dixon (27.5%) and Vignarajah (11.5%).
Vignarajah's campaign announcement focused on signature issues including free college, reducing property taxes and Harborplace, which is under a redevelopment process.
The candidate will expand upon his announcement in a press conference Wednesday morning outside City Hall.
Vignarajah, the son of two Baltimore City public schools teachers, is a Woodlawn High graduate who attended undergrad at Yale University before receiving his law degree from Harvard Law School. During his time in law school, he was president of the Harvard Law Review and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
After cutting his teeth as a federal prosecutor, Vignarajah became chief of major investigations for the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office, and in 2015 he was appointed deputy attorney general of Maryland. Afterward, he went into private practice as a litigation partner for the DLA Piper law firm. He is now
More recently, Vignarajah spearheaded litigation by city residents last year against BGE's installment of external gas regulators. He also made public appearances in 2022 advocating for the rights of the owners of bars and strip clubs located on "The Block," challenging an effort to impose a curfew on those establishments' hours of operation.
No campaign endorsements for Vignarajah have been announced as of Wednesday.
The deadline to file to run for office is February 9 for the May 14 primary.