Joe Vogel

Joseph Vogel (born January 4, 1997) is an Uruguay-born American politician who has served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from District 17 since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, his district includes the Montgomery County cities of Gaithersburg and Rockville; he represents the district alongside fellow Democratic delegates Julie Palakovich Carr and Ryan Spiegel.

Vogel was born in Montevideo, Uruguay on January 4, 1997, to mother Gabriela and father David Vogel, an advisor to the Uruguayan government. He immigrated to the United States with his family when he was three years old due to his father's job as a diplomat for the International Monetary Fund. His family settled in Rockville, Maryland, upon immigrating to the United States. He became a U.S. citizen in November 2016.

Vogel graduated from Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School and attended George Washington University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 2018. He later attended Harvard University, where he earned a master's in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2022.

While a student at George Washington University, Vogel served as an at-large member of the Student Association Senate but was impeached and removed from office by activists he claimed were from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement in January 2018 for missing four consecutive meetings due to his involvement with Ralph Northam's 2017 gubernatorial campaign in Virginia.

Early career

Vogel developed an interest in politics while in school, where he had been active in student government. He volunteered on Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign and later worked on Cheryl Kagan's 2014 State Senate campaign. Vogel was a college intern for then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Vogel took a year off of college at George Washington University to work on the national advance team of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. He later got involved in the March for Our Lives movement and in protests against the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, and worked as an advance lead for Ralph Northam's 2017 gubernatorial campaign and as advance director for Cory Booker's 2020 presidential campaign. After Booker suspended his campaign, he worked on Michael Bloomberg's 2020 presidential campaign.

Vogel served on the Maryland Youth Advisory Council from 2015 to 2016. He also worked as a policy fellow at Interfaith Works in Montgomery County and founded Learn It Together, a nonprofit organization to help students of essential workers as they transitioned to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maryland House of Delegates

In September 2021, Vogel announced he would run for the Maryland House of Delegates, challenging incumbent Democratic state delegate James W. Gilchrist, who later announced his retirement; Kagan, who had political differences with Gilchrest, recruited Vogel to run for the seat. During the primary, Vogel strategized with Connecticut state senator Will Haskell and hosted campaign events featuring Cory Booker. He won the Democratic primary with 27.9% of the vote and defeated Republican challengers Helene Meister and Donald Patti in the general election with 27.5% of the vote.

Vogel was sworn into the Maryland House of Delegates on January 11, 2023. He represents District 17, which includes the cities of Gaithersburg and Rockville. He is the youngest member of the Maryland General Assembly and, alongside Jeffrie Long Jr., is the first Generation Z member of the Maryland General Assembly. He is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

2024 congressional campaign

In May 2023, Vogel announced he would run for the U.S. House of Representatives in Maryland's 6th congressional district to succeed David Trone, who is running for the United States Senate in 2024 to succeed retiring Democratic senator Ben Cardin. If elected, he would be the first Latino, first Gen Z, and first openly LGBTQ member of Congress from Maryland. Vogel's platform includes supporting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and LGBT rights, expanding health care access, addressing climate change, and fighting right wing extremism.

During his House of Delegates campaign, Vogel ran on a platform that included climate, mental health, and economic issues. He has described himself as a "pragmatic progressive" and cited Cory Booker as his political role model.

Education

Vogel supports making public colleges tuition-free as well as codifying President Joe Biden's cancellation of up to $20,000 in student loan debt into law. During the 2023 legislative session, Vogel introduced a bill to forgive up to $30,000 in student debt for mental health professionals employed at Maryland public schools.

Environment

During the 2023 legislative session, Vogel introduced legislation to provide funding for climate startups.

Gun policy

Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Vogel advocated for gun control. During his House of Delegates campaign, he said he supports legislation to hold gunmakers liable for school shootings; he also said he supports banning ghost guns, increasing funding for violence prevention programs, and requiring gun owners to have liability insurance.

Health care

Vogel supports Medicare for All but opposes making people give up their private insurance plans and prohibiting health care companies from covering procedures covered by Medicare.

Vogel supports increasing funding for drug intervention and treatment programs. During the 2023 legislative session, he introduced the Josh Siems Act, which would require emergency rooms to include fentanyl testing in toxicology screens. The bill was named for Baltimore native Josh Siems, who died from a fentanyl overdose on his 31st birthday in 2022. The bill unanimously passed the Maryland General Assembly and was signed into law by Governor Wes Moore.

Immigration

During his 2024 congressional campaign, Vogel expressed support for efforts to support DREAMers and DACA recipients. He supports the American Dream and Promise Act, which would codify provisions of the DACA program into law.

Israel

Vogel describes himself as an "outspoken supporter of Israel". He supports a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and does not support conditioning U.S. foreign aid on Israeli actions. He supports the working definition of antisemitism promoted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, stating in an interview with Jewish Insider that he accepts "fair criticism of the Israeli government", but views the "delegitimization and demonization" of Israel as antisemitic.

While a member of the GWU Student Association Senate, Vogel opposed a student government resolution encouraging the university to divest from companies accused of violating Palestinian human rights. The Senate voted to reject the resolution by a vote of 14–15, with one abstention, in May 2017. After Vogel was impeached from the Student Association Senate in 2018, he accused three of its members of being "closely aligned with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement" and of launching an effort to kick him out of the Senate following his efforts against the pro-Palestinian divestment resolution. In March 2018, after one of the three senators, Brady Forrest, was accused of antisemitism after old Facebook posts resurfaced showing Forrest calling for a boycott of a campus event sponsored by Jewish student groups that he claimed supported the 2014 Gaza War, Vogel drafted a letter signed by nearly 70 student leaders calling for Forrest's resignation. He spoke out against members of the Student Association Senate for failing to censure Forrest in April 2018.

In May 2023, Vogel said he supported the protests against proposed judicial reforms in Israel. In October 2023, he said he would support increasing the U.S. military presence in the region to deter future conflicts and called on Congress to provide Israel and Palestine with monetary support to help Israel defend itself and to assist with humanitarian efforts in Palestine. Vogel also criticized activist groups Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow as "fringe organizations" after they released statements accusing Israel of provoking the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, and cosigned a letter with other congressional candidates supporting President Joe Biden's actions toward the war. In November, he attended the March for Israel in Washington, D.C. and called for the resignation of Zainab Chaudry, the director of the state Council on American–Islamic Relations chapter, from the state Commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention after making Facebook posts comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and calling attendees of the March for Israel "genocide sympathizers". Chaudry was suspended from the commission by Attorney General Anthony Brown the following day. After Chaudry was reinstated to the board in December, Vogel said that he would introduce legislation during the 2024 legislative session to allow the attorney general of Maryland to remove members from the board.

Social issues

During the 2023 legislative session, Vogel introduced a bill to establish a commission on hate crime response and prevention following an uptick in hateful acts in Montgomery County, which was signed into law by Governor Moore. He also introduced the Event-Goer Rights and Accountable Sales (ERAS) Act following the 2022 Ticketmaster controversy, which requires ticket issuers to enforce a ticket refund policy and ban restrictions on ticket resales and transfers.

In January 2024, Vogel spoke against proposed bills to ban transgender students from competing on girls' sports teams in schools and another that would ban sexually explicit materials from school libraries, saying that the introduction of both would be "detrimental" to the trans community.

Taxes

During the 2023 legislative session, Vogel introduced a bill to provide tax credits to Maryland-based news media outlets with fewer than 50 employees for advertising costs.

Vogel lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He is Jewish and openly gay.

Vogel is trilingual; he speaks English, Spanish, and Hebrew.