Delegate Malcolm Ruff is headed to the Maryland State Senate. The Baltimore trial attorney won District 41 with 29,182 votes — 98.32 percent of the total, per the Maryland State Board of Elections — and takes his seat on January 13, 2027, succeeding Dalya Attar. His campaign’s own victory post put it plainly: “RUFF RIDERS! IT’S OFFICIAL! I am proud to be your next State Senator for the 41st District!!!”
The November 3 vote was the formal finish. The race itself was won in June, when Ruff defeated Attar — the sitting senator — in the Democratic primary, one of the most contested races in Baltimore this cycle.
The Lawyer Behind Malcolm Ruff’s Campaign
Ruff, 42, was born and raised in Park Heights. He graduated from Gilman School in 2002 as a track and football standout, played football at Duke University, and earned his law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2012 — where he was one of only six students nationwide selected for the NAACP-Kellogg’s Law Fellow program.
He started as an assistant state’s attorney in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, then built a trial practice representing victims of negligence, police brutality, and wrongful death at Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, the firm led by civil rights attorney Billy Murphy Jr., who has backed Ruff at every step. His casework includes the Jordan McNair matter and the $20 million settlement in the fatal police shooting of William Green. He is also co-founder of the Pagya Project, a nonprofit serving underserved Baltimore communities.
Malcolm Ruff, born April 18, 1984, in Baltimore, earned a bachelor’s degree in African and African American Studies from Duke University in 2006 and was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 2012. He is a member of Phi Beta Sigma, worships at Heritage United Church of Christ, and lives in Baltimore with his wife, Sydnee, and their four children.
The Road to the Senate Ran Through a Fight
Ruff’s path was not a coronation. Appointed to the House of Delegates by Governor Wes Moore in 2023, he first sought the District 41 Senate seat in January 2025, when Senator Jill P. Carter resigned. The Baltimore City Democratic Central Committee chose Attar instead, 5–3. Ruff announced his challenge that August and ran as the underdog, touting juvenile justice legislation, state funding he had delivered to the district — including for the Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park preservation project — and drawing endorsements from Governor Moore, Congressman Kweisi Mfume, and Mayor Brandon Scott. On June 23, 2026, he beat the incumbent. Attar’s federal extortion charges shadowed the race throughout.
In Annapolis he has served on the Appropriations Committee, and in January 2026 Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk named him Chairman of the Capital Budget subcommittee — the first line of review for the state’s capital spending. His legislative record includes the Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park preservation partnership, a mortgage fraud study law signed by Governor Moore, and the NyKayla Strawder Memorial Act, which would mandate services for young children whose actions resulted in someone’s death.
What Malcolm Ruff’s Win Means for the District
District 41 covers northwest Baltimore — neighborhoods that have waited decades for capital investment to match their need. Ruff now carries that fight to the Senate with a committee-tested hand on the capital budget and a trial lawyer’s instinct for the families behind the case files. His victory message promised “a stronger, safer, and more prosperous District 41 and Maryland.” The work starts January 13.
Malcolm Ruff’s win was one of the headline Maryland results in BBR’s election coverage — see our full 2026 Election Results: The Morning After roundup, and meet BBR’s 2026 Person of the Year, Alicia Wilson.
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