On paper, the 32-year-old Joshua Harris boasts the kind of background Democratic strategists salivate over. Raised in poverty by a single mother in Chicago, he credits basketball with teaching him the skills that made him the first in his family to graduate from college. In 2012, Harris moved to Baltimore to work for a nonprofit that provides scholarships to African-American youth, and later served as a legislative aide to Democratic Del. Charles Sydnor in Annapolis. He started an arts-based nonprofit in Hollins Market, where he lives, and sits on the boards of numerous community associations, including the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance, the NAACP’s Baltimore branch and Arena Players, Inc.

So his decision, in January of 2016, to switch affiliation to the Green Party amid an insurgent mayoral campaign was both something of a coup for the Greens and likely a strategic move for Harris, who never got off the ground in Democratic primary polls. In the general election, he pulled an impressive 10 percent of the vote, just slightly less than Republican Alan Walden.

The Green Party has never won an election for state office in Maryland, and has struggled to shed the image of performative protest. (Full disclosure: The local Green Party has advertised with Baltimore Fishbowl.) But this election cycle, organizers are hopeful that with enough ground game (8,000 doors knocked at last count) and by concentrating on smaller state delegate races, a candidate like Harris could actually win a seat in a district like the 40th, which comprises much of West Baltimore.

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