Bryan Simonaire

Bryan Warner Simonaire (born September 6, 1963) is an American politician who serves as a Maryland state senator representing District 31, which encompasses much of northern Anne Arundel County's Baltimore suburbs.

He graduated from Bob Jones University in 1985, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science, and from Loyola College, where he earned a Master of Science degree in engineering in 2005.

He is a member of Upsilon Pi Epsilon.

After graduating from Bob Jones, Simonaire has worked as a computer systems engineer for Westinghouse Electronic Systems (now Northrop Grumman since its acquisition in 1995).

In 2002, he founded Heroes-at-Home, a web-based program that helps the needy.

Simonaire became involved in politics in 2005, when he joined the North Count Republican Club's board of directors.

He entered the race for state Senate in District 31 later that year, seeking to succeed retiring Democratic state senator Philip C. Jimeno and running on a "common sense, conservative" platform that included opposition to same-sex marriage.

The district was targeted by the Maryland Republican Party, which saw the election as an opportunity to make legislative gains.

Simonaire won the Republican primary in September 2006, and later won the general election on November 7, 2006, defeating Democratic state delegate Walter J. Shandrowsky by 659 votes, or a margin of 1.72 percent.

It was the closest election in the 2006 Maryland Senate elections.

Simonaire was sworn into the Maryland Senate on January 10, 2007.

He was initially a member of the Judicial Proceedings Committee from 2007 to 2010, afterwards serving on the Health and Environmental Affairs Committee until 2022.

Since 2023, he has served on the Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee.

In 2009, Simonaire said he would vote to repeal the death penalty if legislators passed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Maryland.

He later voted for an amendment to the death penalty repeal bill to limit the death penalty's use rather than fully repeal it, which passed 25-21.

During the 2011 legislative session, Simonaire said he opposed Maryland's Dream Act, a bill that extended in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants.

During the 2022 legislative session, Simonaire introduced a bill that would force the county Board of Education to vote on certain curriculum items if a petition got the signatures of at least three percent of parents.

Simonaire endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries and later served a Romney delegate to the 2012 Republican National Convention.

During the 2013 legislative session, Simonaire voted against repealing the death penalty.

During the 2022 legislative session, Simonaire implored legislators to pass a tough-on-crime bill introduced by Governor Larry Hogan.

He also expressed willingness to work with Democrats to pass a bipartisan judicial transparency bill.

Simonaire opposes the Blueprint for Maryland's Future, calling for its repeal during the 2021 legislative session and comparing them to the Bridge of Excellence education reforms in 2002.

He supports legislation requiring the Maryland State Board of Education to prepare a problem gambling curriculum in schools.

In 2014, Simonaire proposed a constitutional amendment to remove legislative leaders' ability to remove voting powers from any member of the Maryland General Assembly.

The amendment was introduced after state Delegate Don H. Dwyer Jr. was stripped of his voting powers and committee assignments after being sentenced to 30 weekends in jail for driving under the influence.

His daughter, Meagan, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, spoke in support of the bill and accused her father of seeking conversion therapy for her after she came out as bisexual in 2015.

Simonaire disputed his daughter's story in interviews with the media, saying that he had recommended her Christian counseling after she approached him for advice with her depression and anxiety, but added that he disagreed with her "lifestyle".

During the 2015 legislative session, Simonaire testified against a bill to restore voting rights for ex-felons.

In 2016, Simonaire introduced the "Dwyer amendment", which would have prevented Senate president Thomas V. Miller Jr. from removing a member's voting powers.

The proposed rule change was rejected in a 11-31 vote.

During the 2018 legislative session, Simonaire spoke against a bill to ban conversion therapy on minors, arguing that it would dissuade teens from seeking counseling.

A member of the Republican Party, he served as the minority leader of the Maryland Senate from 2020 to 2023.

Simonaire was born in Baltimore.

In October 2020, Simonaire was elected as the minority leader of the Maryland Senate, which was seen by the media as the Senate Republican caucus becoming more conservative as to push back on the perceived leftward shift of the Maryland Democratic Party following the election of Bill Ferguson as Senate president.

In this capacity, Simonaire sought to allow his party to make their own committee assignments and oversaw the party's state Senate campaign in 2022, in which the party lost two seats in the Maryland Senate.

Following the 2022 elections, Senate Republicans opted to elect Stephen S. Hershey Jr. as minority leader.

Simonaire endorsed Maryland Secretary of Commerce Kelly M. Schulz in the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election.

After she was defeated by far-right state delegate Dan Cox in the Republican primary, he declined to endorse or campaign with Cox, instead focusing on competitive Senate elections.

Simonaire is married and has seven children.

He lives in Pasadena, Maryland, and attends nondenominational Christian churches.