Dereck Eugene Davis (born June 6, 1967) is an American politician serving as the Treasurer of Maryland since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from the 25th district from 1995 to 2021.

Early life and education

Davis was born in Washington, D.C. on June 6, 1967. After graduating from Central High School, he attended the University of Maryland, College Park, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989 and his Masters of Public Policy in 1999.

Career

Davis worked as an aide to the Prince George's County Council from 1988 to 1994, first as a constituent services aide and later as a legislative aide. In 1993, he was a member of the Prince George's County Nuisance Abatement Task Force. Davis was an administrator of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission from 2004 to 2011, and deputy director of the Prince George's County Office of Community Relations from 2011 to 2021.

Maryland House of Delegates

Davis was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1994 and sworn in on January 11, 1995. He was a member of the Environmental Matters Committee from 1995 to 2003, afterwards serving as the chair of the Economic Matters Committee until 2021. Davis was the fourth African American to chair a House standing committee in Maryland and the first from Prince George's County. He was also the chair of the Prince George's County Delegation from 2003 to 2005, 2013 to 2014, and from 2017 to 2021; and a member of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland. The Washington Post has described Davis as a centrist and an ally of Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker. He voted in favor of electric deregulation in 1999, but later called this vote a mistake. During his tenure as the chair of the Economic Matters Committee, he was involved in negotiations to avert a 72 percent rate increase in Baltimore Gas and Electric utility costs, which led into a special legislative session after legislators failed to pass a bill during the regular 2006 legislative session and eventually led to a bill that would temporarily cap rate increases to 15 percent and replace the five-member Maryland Public Service Commission with regulators selected by the legislature. The bill passed and became law after the Maryland General Assembly voted to override Governor Bob Ehrlich's veto of the bill. Davis supported bills to raise the minimum wage, ban smoking in bars and restaurants, repeal the ban on developer contributions to Prince George's County candidates, and many of Governor Martin O'Malley's legislative priorities. He also defended Maryland's 2010 congressional redistricting plan from criticism from the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, saying that Democrats should focus on electing more progressives to the U.S. House of Representatives instead of making elections for incumbents "as easy as possible", and opposed bills to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland and offer medical aid in dying to terminally-ill patients. In September 2008, Davis was questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in its investigation into whether state senator Ulysses Currie, who worked as a consultant for Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, used his position to push for bills that would benefit the grocery store chain. Davis testified before a grand jury in the Currie probe in May 2009, during which he spoke on an amendment introduced by Currie during the 2005 legislative session to transfer a beer-and-wine license from a Shopper's store in Takoma Park to one in College Park. Currie and two Shopper's executives were charged with extortion and bribery charges, but were acquitted after a six-week trial in 2011, after which Davis ran on a slate with Currie in 2014. In April 2019, Following the funeral of House Speaker Michael E. Busch, Davis announced that he would run for Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates. His candidacy was backed by Prince George's County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, and House Republican Caucus. He was also backed by Adrienne A. Jones, who also declared her candidacy for Speaker but dropped out of the race after failing to capture enough support. On May 1, 2019, Davis and Maggie McIntosh, who was competing with Davis in the Speaker election, both agreed to withdraw from the race and back Jones after a four-hour, closed-door Democratic caucus meeting on the day of the election. Davis would have been the first African-American Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates.

2016 House of Representatives election campaign

On April 15, 2015, after U.S. representative Donna Edwards announced that she would run for U.S. Senate in 2016, Davis announced that he would run for the U.S. House of Representatives in Maryland's 4th congressional district. During the Democratic primary, he received endorsements from more than a dozen members of the Maryland General Assembly and county councilmember Derrick Leon Davis, and raised about $464,000 in campaign contributions. Davis dropped out of the race on February 2, 2016, to focus on the legislative session.

Treasurer of Maryland

In October 2021, Davis confirmed he would run for state treasurer following the retirement of Nancy Kopp. Maryland General Assembly elected Davis as the next state treasurer on December 9, 2021. He was sworn in on December 17, becoming the first state treasurer from Prince George’s County, and the second African-American to hold the position, after Richard N. Dixon. During his tenure, Davis has placed additional scrutiny onto contracts with inadequate participation from historically disadvantaged business owners and raised concerns about settlements involving law enforcement agencies or correctional officers. In December 2022, administrators of Maryland's 529 college savings plan discovered a calculation error affecting all 31,000 prepaid accounts, which led to the Maryland Prepaid College Trust suspending interest payments and preventing families from accessing their prepaid plans. After being re-elected as treasurer in February 2023, Davis asked legislators to move the 529 program into the treasurer's office, which led to legislative leaders introducing a bill to do so. The bill passed and was signed into law by Governor Wes Moore on April 24, 2023. In July 2023, the treasurer's office restored interest earned to the same rates account owners held under their previous contract and that all balances or contributions made after July 2024 would not earn interest. In June 2023, Maryland Matters reported that Davis was continuing to raise funds for his campaign account as state treasurer, which he said was to stay "prepared" for the future and that he had no plans to leave his position. He continued to raise funds during the 2024 legislative session, during which he supported a bill that would add the state treasurer to the list of state officials that were prohibited from raising campaign funds while the legislature was in session. The bill passed and was signed into law by Governor Moore. Davis was an at-large delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, pledged to Kamala Harris.

Personal life

Davis is married to his wife, Monique Whittington Davis, who served as deputy superintendent of Prince George's County Public Schools from 2013 to 2018. Together, they have a son and a daughter.

Electoral history