Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller announced Thursday that he is relinquishing his gavel when the General Assembly returns to Annapolis in January. The 76 year old has cancer and several related health issues.
“My mind is still strong but my body is weak,” Miller said at a press conference Thursday. “This is a fulltime job. It’s a statewide job. And we need somebody younger.”
Miller is the longest continuously serving senate president in the country, having held the position since 1987. Those who have watched and worked with Miller describe him as a savvy politician with a wealth of institutional knowledge. They say that above all, he strives to protect the institution and its members — on both sides of the political aisle, whether he agrees with them or not.
“Senate President Miller is one of the most consequential state legislative figures of the 20th and 21st century in the United States of America,” House Speaker Adrienne Jones said in a written statement. “He quite literally defines what it means to be a presiding officer in the modern political era.”