Joel M. Rubin, a veteran politician and media commentator who has held leading roles at a number of national Jewish organizations, is entering the crowded Democratic congressional race in the 6th District, stretching from Maryland’s D.C. suburbs to the Pennsylvania border.
The race is uncharted waters for Rubin, 52, a Jewish progressive. Redistricting after the 2020 census drained the district of much of its Jewish population and stretched its boundaries into the conservative sections of Maryland. The district comprises all of Garrett, Allegany, Frederick and Washington counties, as well as a portion of Montgomery County.
A national security consultant, Rubin, who launched his campaign on July 24, said he would bring into play his hands-on experience as deputy mayor of the Washington, D.C., suburb of Chevy Chase as well as his roots in Pittsburgh, which lies about 90 minutes north of the western part of the 6th District.
“It’s just a matter of transportation, housing, public safety and security, questions about economic development and what’s the vision for our children in the schools,” said Rubin, who last May wrapped up his third two-year term as deputy mayor of Chevy Chase.
Rubin is a member of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington. He and his wife of 19 years, Nilmini, have three daughters. The family has lived in Chevy Chase since 2006.
In 2008, Rubin helped found J Street, the nonprofit liberal Jewish Middle East advocacy and policy group, and in 2020 he served as the Jewish community liaison for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ second bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Rubin served on the board of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, and from 2020-2022 was executive director of the American Jewish Congress, where he led an initiative tracking antisemitism on the far right.
He said he would embrace the template that helped incumbent Democrat, Rep. David Trone, keep the 6th District seat even after the redistricting, focusing on the area’s economic woes. Rubin said his Pittsburgh upbringing would bring “a perspective of working people, a perspective of being in areas that have gone through a lot of change economically, and a lot of change and social issues, and the opioid crisis.”
A wine-selling magnate whose wife and children are Jewish and who has close ties to the Anti-Defamation League, Trone is running for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Ben Cardin, a long-serving Jewish Democrat from Baltimore.
Trone and Rubin ran against each other in the open primary for the 8th District in 2016; they lost to Jamie Raskin.
Rubin still resides in the 8th District, which under Maryland law does not disqualify him from running in the 6th. He notes that Trone lives in the 8th as well.
The race will be crowded: Rubin is at least the fourth to declare his candidacy, and others come from within the district and bring with them records as moderate-to-conservative Democrats. The party establishment may want to get behind a more conservative Democrat in a year that they hope to wrest back the House of Representatives from Republicans.
Rubin, who was also a deputy assistant secretary of state under President Barack Obama, said he could translate his progressive values into a pitch that would appeal even to the district’s conservative voters. He said he learned about reaching across divides while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1994-1996 in a small village in Costa Rica.
“The values that as a Jewish American are near and dear to my heart are universal values, the value of tikkun olam, of healing the world, the belief in trying to be inclusive and trying to be to have a tolerant society, those are the Jewish values that I grew up with that informed me as a kid growing up in Pittsburgh,” he said. “Those are values that I’ll communicate. And I think those resonate as I did when I was in the Peace Corps.”
Ron Kampeas is the Washington bureau chief for the JTA global Jewish news agency.
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