Catherine Pugh

Catherine Elizabeth Pugh (born March 10, 1950) is an American former politician who served as the 51st mayor of Baltimore from 2016 to 2019.

She resigned from office amid a scandal that eventually led to criminal charges, three years in prison and three years probation.

Catherine Pugh was born as Catherine Crump on March 10, 1950, in Norristown, Pennsylvania.

Pugh succeeded Stephanie Rawlings-Blake as Baltimore's 51st mayor.

As mayor, she inherited several issues from the Rawlings-Blake administration.

Pugh prioritized the United States Department of Justice investigation into the Baltimore Police Department following the death of Freddie Gray, before the inauguration of Donald Trump.

She was raised in Philadelphia with her seven siblings, and graduated from Overbrook High School in 1967.

Pugh earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration from Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland.

She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

In 1977 Pugh began teaching Marketing and Introduction to Business at Morgan State University.

From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, she was an independent editor for The Baltimore Sun and dean and director of Strayer Business College in Baltimore.

In 1988, Pugh founded a public relations firm, Pugh and Company.

In 1994, she returned to Philadelphia and became vice president of Brunson Communications and co-owner of a local Delaware Valley TV station, WGTW-TV, where she was the host of "Another View", a weekly public affairs program that focused on policy issues within the black community and featured interviews with community leaders and public officials.

Pugh entered in Maryland politics in 1999, when she was elected to the Baltimore City Council.

Pugh entered Baltimore City politics in 1999.

In 1999 Pugh was elected to the Baltimore City Council, where she served until 2004.

She ran for president of the council in 2003, but lost to Sheila Dixon in the primary.

In 2005, Governor Bob Ehrlich appointed Pugh to an open seat in the Maryland House of Delegates, where she served from June 21, 2005, to January 10, 2007.

She then won a seat in the State Senate and served there from January 10, 2007, to December 6, 2016.

She sat on the Finance Committee and served as the State Senate Majority Leader.

As Majority Leader, Pugh led the state on cyber security and telemedicine expansion legislation.

Pugh is also responsible for diversifying the state's $40 billion pension portfolio, having led the passage of Senate Bill 606, which increased black and other minority managed dollars from $300 million to $4.2 billion.

Pugh is a former president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and she's the past chair of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland and the Women's Caucus of Legislators in Maryland.

She first ran for mayor in 2011 and lost the primary to Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

She subsequently held office in the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate, serving as the Majority Leader from 2015 to 2016.

In 2015, Pugh entered the race for mayor of Baltimore and launched her campaign headquarters in the city.

Pugh ran again in 2016 and won the primary against former mayor Sheila Dixon.

Pugh then won the mayoral election on November 8, 2016, with 57% of the popular vote, and took office on December 6, 2016.

She was Baltimore's third consecutive female mayor.

She is president and CEO of Pugh and Company, and in December 2016 became the 51st mayor of Baltimore City, Maryland.

She was an underdog to former mayor Sheila Dixon until the early 2016.

The endorsement of Congressman Elijah Cummings in April 2016 boosted her campaigning efforts.

Pugh won the Democratic primary, with 37% of the vote to Dixon's 34%.

The Democratic primary has long been the real contest in Baltimore, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 10-to-1, so Pugh was overwhelmingly favored in the general election.

She won the November 8 general election with 57% of the vote, and took office on December 6, 2016.

In April 2019, Pugh announced she was taking an indefinite leave of absence to recover from pneumonia.

The announcement coincided with a scandal over a "self-dealing" arrangement in which organizations purchased large quantities of Pugh's books in exchange for contracts with the city.

On May 2, 2019, Pugh resigned as mayor amid the book scandal and on November 20, 2019, she was indicted by a grand jury on eleven counts, including tax evasion, fraud and conspiracy in connection with the book transactions.

The following day she signed a plea agreement, pleading guilty to four charges of conspiracy and tax evasion.

Pugh was sentenced to prison and probation in 2020.