Dereck E. Davis

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. 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. 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. 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. The 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.

In May 2025, Moody's Ratings downgraded Maryland's creditworthiness level from AAA to Aa1, saying that while Maryland had addressed its budget problems "through a combination of tax increases and restraints on expenditures", the state was economically and fiscally underperforming other states with an AAA bond rating. Moody's report also predicted that Maryland would continue to underperform economically due to the state's "heightened vulnerability to shifting federal policies and employment, and its elevated fixed costs". Following this, Davis criticized Moody's and implied that the state may no longer need their services, saying that the bond agency wasn't "the standard-bearer they once were". In May 2026, Maryland ended its relationship with Moody's, replacing it with the Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA), which gave the state a AAA rating in January 2026. Davis defended this decision, saying that the state had a toxic relationship with Moody's and that hiring KBRA would cost the state roughly one-third of what it paid Moody's.

In July 2026, Davis expressed concerns with the state's plans to acquire Laurel Park and the intellectual property rights of the Preakness Stakes, worrying that the push to prop up horse racing in Maryland was driven by nostalgia and that the state was not looking at the "opportunity cost" associated with the purchase. Nevertheless, Davis voted in favor of the Laurel Park acquisition.

Personal life Davis is married to 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