Clarence Lam

Clarence K. Lam (born November 26, 1980) is an American politician and physician who has served in the Maryland Senate representing the 12th district since 2019.

He later attended Case Western Reserve University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and biology in 2003; the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he earned a Doctor of Medicine degree in 2008; and Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a Masters of Public Health degree in 2011.

While at UMB, Lam was the president of the campus student body and worked as a research analyst for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health from 2005 to 2006.

Lam has worked as a preventive medicine physician at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health since 2009.

From 2009 to 2013, Lam worked as a legislative aide to state delegate Dan K. Morhaim.

Lam was elected to the Howard County Democratic Central Committee and became the chapter president of the local Young Democrats club in 2010.

He has also served on the board of directors of Healthy Howard since 2011.

He also served as the executive director of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Leadership Council of the Maryland Democratic Party and as a member of the Howard County Spending Affordability Advisory Committee from 2011 to 2014.

He was elected to the board of directors of the village of Harper's Choice in 2011, serving until 2015.

From 2012 to 2015, he was a member of the Governor's Commission on Asian-Pacific American Affairs.

In 2012, Lam served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, pledged to President Barack Obama.

Lam was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2014, during which he ran on a slate with state senator Edward J. Kasemeyer and candidates Eric Ebersole and Terri L. Hill.

A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the district in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2015 to 2019.

Lam was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from Emmaus High School.

He was sworn in on January 14, 2015.

He was a member of the Environment and Transportation Committee from 2015 to 2017, afterwards serving in the Appropriations Committee until 2019.

On February 13, 2018, Lam announced that he would run for the Maryland Senate in District 12, seeking to succeed Kasemeyer, who had announced his retirement.

His candidacy was backed by the district's other two state delegates, Ebersole and Hill.

The district was targeted by the Maryland Republican Party in their "Fight for Five" campaign in 2018.

Lam won the Democratic primary on June 26, 2018, defeating Howard County councilmember Mary Katy Sigaty with 72.6 percent of the vote, faced Republican Joseph Hooe in the general election, who he defeated with 33.8 percent of the vote.

He was re-elected in 2022.

Lam was sworn into the Maryland Senate on January 9, 2019.

He was a member of the Health and Environmental Affairs Committee until 2023, afterwards serving as a member of the Finance Committee.

He has also served on the Executive Nominations Committee since 2019 and became the committee's vice chair in October 2023, making him the first Asian American to serve as chair or vice chair of a Senate committee.

Lam is the only physician in the Maryland Senate.

During the 2019 legislative session, Lam introduced a bill to ban deliberate balloon releases.

The bill was reintroduced by state delegate Wayne A. Hartman in 2021, during which he amended the bill to set penalties for mass balloon releases.

In March 2023, during debate on a bill establishing the framework for the state's recreational cannabis industry, Lam introduced an amendment requiring "on-site consumption" establishments to follow the state's Clean Indoor Air Act.

The amendment was adopted.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and following the 2020 legislative session, Lam worked as the interim director of the Johns Hopkins Occupational Health Services, in which he coordinated the screening of health care workers and treatment of COVID-19 patients.

In 2020, Senate President Bill Ferguson appointed Lam to chair the Joint Committee on Fair Practices alongside Erek Barron.

In this capacity, he became a frequent critic of Larry Hogan and his administration, and investigated the circumstances surrounding the $238,250 severance package paid to Roy McGrath, the former director of the Maryland Environmental Service and Hogan's chief of staff.

He also criticized the University of Maryland Medical System following the Healthy Holly scandal.

On November 30, 2023, Lam announced that he would run for Congress in Maryland's 3rd congressional district, seeking to succeed retiring U.S. Representative John Sarbanes.

If elected, he would be the first Asian American to represent Maryland in Congress.

During the 2020 legislative session, Lam introduced a bill to ban lunch shaming in public schools.

In 2023, Lam introduced legislation to create two appointed positions on the county board of education.

The bill died after Lam and Courtney Watson, a cosponsor, decided against bringing it up for a vote on the final work day of the Howard County Delegation.

During the 2020 legislative session, Lam introduced legislation that would require special elections to fill vacancies in the Maryland General Assembly.

He also introduced the Student Voter Empowerment Act, which would require higher education institutions to encourage students to vote in elections.