Marylanders are seeing wall-to-wall coverage of thousands “unit[ing]” across the state to “protest the Trump administration’s ravaging cuts to critical services and programs citizens of Maryland depend on,” including cancer research, Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. The Maryland Democratic Party held multiple rallies across the state this weekend, including near the National Institute of Health headquarters in Bethesda and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services in Baltimore.

Here’s What Marylanders Are Reading:

WUSA 9 (3/8/25): Rally Outside NIH Headquarters Opposes Possible Cuts to Healthcare Research

• Around 1,000 people gathered today to express their frustration and fear over possible cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Research at the National Institutes of Health.
• John Durant was in Bethesda today speaking with lawmakers, researchers, and one woman who says the NIH gave her an extra year with her dying son.
• Dina McGrew is from Florida, but has spent much of the past 11 months here with her son. He had a rare disease, and he contracted an infection that was, turns out, impossible to cure. McGrew says her son arrived at NIH nearly dead. She believes his stay here allowed him to celebrate another birthday and proposed to his girlfriend, which he did in January.
• Congressman Jamie Raskin says even though a federal judge blocked cuts to medical research, people need to stay vigilant: “I’m a two time cancer survivor myself, and I know that the lymphoma doctors that I had had both worked at NIH and they profited from the research that was done here. So why would we go to war against our own institutions?”
• Also speaking at Saturday’s rally was a doctor who works as a cancer researcher here at the National Institutes of Health. He says they’re already feeling the effect of federal cuts: “We can’t hire fellows, so really, no one is coming through the pipeline to take on new research.”
• Because of a hiring freeze, McGrew worries that the many people suffering from rare diseases, like her daughter, who has the same immune deficiency as Ethan, might suffer if cuts come: “We need this research to continue for people like Jenna.”

WTOP (3/8/25): Hundreds Attend Rally at NIH to Blast Proposed Cuts

• More than a thousand people attended a rally Saturday afternoon in front of the National Institutes of Health campus in support of fired NIH employees and proposed further cuts to the nation’s premiere health and medical research agency.
• “When you cut off funding for NIH, people die,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who was last to speak at the rally near the Medical Center Metro Station.
• “We are here to say to Elon Musk, ‘this is all about needing to save lives by fighting back against this illegal takeover,” he added, referring [to] the “Department of Government Efficiency,” a Trump administration commission headed by Musk and tasked with slashing federal spending.
• The event was organized by the Maryland Democratic Party and is part of an ongoing series of protests designed to bring attention to what they call the chaotic and illegal process used by DOGE to arbitrarily eliminate federal positions.
• “To come in and for no reason and without cause or thought to layoff or even threaten the people who work here is ridiculous,” said Pamela Luckett, chair of the Maryland Democratic Party in Montgomery County.
• She urged Republican members of Congress to stand up to Musk and President Donald Trump to push back against what she called the dismantling of democracy.
• “It’s devastating to me to watch how federal employees are being treated,” said Irene Glowinski, of Kensington, Maryland. She worked at NIH distributing grants for 30 years.

The Sentinel (3/8/25): Thousands Unite in Maryland to Save Cancer Research, Social Security and Medicaid Funding

• Thousands of Marylanders rallied with elected officials and community leaders near the National Institutes of Health (NIH) headquarters in Bethesda and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services in Baltimore to protest the Trump administration’s ravaging cuts to critical services and programs citizens of Maryland depend on Saturday.
• Both rallies are part of the Maryland Democratic Party’s Weekend of Action, which consists of a series of nearly two-dozen events protesting the Trump Administration and “Republic cowardice,” statewide, the Maryland Democratic Party said. 
• In Bethesda, roughly 1,000 constituents turned out to rally alongside Sen. Chris Van Hollen, congressman Jamie Raskin, Comptroller Brooke Lierman, Council President Kate Stewart and impacted NIH cancer researchers.
• In Baltimore, roughly 200 constituents came out to rally with Van Hollen, Senate President Bill Ferguson, Maryland Democratic Party Chair Ken Ulman and former Social Security Administrator Carolyn Colvin.
• With Democrats from all 24 counties participating, satellite events calling attention to the cruelty and chaos created can be found here, like the event in Frederick, which consisted of over 500 community members rallying to make their voices heard.

WYPR (3/8/25): Maryland Democrats Push Back Against Trump at Weekend Rallies

• Maryland Democrats fanned out over the weekend to try to rally people to oppose the federal budget cuts being made by the Trump administration.
• They were getting people to honk their horns in solidarity as they held signs at a busy intersection decrying cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
• They heard elected officials like State Senate President Bill Ferguson let loose on the Trump administration.
• U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who has been an outspoken critic of the president and his policies, assured the crowd that Democrats will attack the Trump administration on multiple fronts.
• “We will fight them in the courts,” Van Hollen said. “We will fight them in the Congress and we will fight them in communities like this, all over America.”
• Carolyn Colvin, who once led the Social Security Administration, said elected officials need help from their constituents.
• “I want you to go back and organize,” Colvin said. “I want you to have rallies. If you do these things your elected officials will come.”
• Colvin said the Trump administration is slashing and burning social security.
• “And the ultimate plan would be then to privatize social security,” Colvin said. “That’s what it’s about.”
• Judy Hammett was there with her adult daughter Mya Hammett-Aron, who has cerebral palsy. Hammett-Aron was holding a sign that read “Don’t Cut My Medicaid.”
• “I’m just very worried about her future,” Hammett said. “Some day I’m not going to [be] able to take care of her and she’ll need to have some kind of group home situation. Medicaid pays for that.”
• Van Hollen cited a study released this week by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that found it is not possible for Republicans in Congress to meet their goal of cutting at least $1.5 trillion from the budget over the next 10 years without cutting Medicaid and Medicare.
• “Mathematically it does not add up,” Van Hollen said.
• Janice Washington made a sign that read “Trump, Musk, don’t mess with my Social Security,” followed by three exclamation points.
• Democrats held rallies throughout the state Saturday on the Trump cuts, including one in Frederick and in Bethesda near the National Institutes of Health.

MedPage Today (3/10/25): Scientists, Supporters Rally Against NIH Dismissals, Budget Cuts

• People will suffer and die if NIH funding is cut, speakers said Saturday at a rally here in front of the NIH campus.
• “All of you here understand that when you cut off funding for NIH, people suffer unnecessarily,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told the crowd of about 1,000. “When you cut off funding for NIH, people die prematurely. And so, we are here to say to Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, that this has nothing to do with government efficiency. This is all about needing to save lives.”
• NIH is one of many institutions being affected by Trump administration personnel cuts, with nearly 1,200 probationary employees being let go, and one of its top leaders — Lawrence Tabak, DDS, the NIH’s principal deputy director — resigning. States are also suing to prevent the Trump administration from cutting funding for indirect costs incurred by NIH grantees.
• Several speakers at the rally, which was sponsored by the Montgomery County (Maryland) Democratic Party and the Maryland Democratic Party, discussed the work they were doing as NIH employees. “Like everyone I know at NIH, I love what I do here,” said Shahriar Zamani, PhD, a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute and the son of a cancer survivor.
• “We all work very hard to usher in a new era of treatments, early detection and screening for patients, and we know that that’s going to save lives over time. This work builds on decades of fundamental discoveries made by NIH scientists through consistent, predictable support for NIH. We need that now.”
• Cancer researchers “have been tripped with confusing directives that limit our ability to communicate our research,” he continued. “We’ve been stopped from finding the next researchers to give the [research] baton to, and even the research baton was taken out of our hands by arbitrary terminations of our colleagues. For example, my colleagues and I are not given any certainties that we can start a new research project focused on cancer genetics, even if we win our very competitive research grant.”
• “We’re in a race against cancer,” Zamani said. “Cancer doesn’t wait. So why would they slow us down — the very people who are working on new ways to prevent cancer?”
• Participants also heard from Haley Chatelaine, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow studying basic cellular functions at the NIH and vice president of UAW local 2570, the NIH fellows union. “We are fighting for our science here with our union power, because you know what these guys want to do? These guys want to intimidate and isolate us.”
• “How do you fight intimidation and isolation? You organize,” she said. “We have hosted phone banks for thousands of people to call our elected representatives and demand an end to grant freezes.”
• Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) had some questions for the scientists at the rally. “I work on Capitol Hill, and I’m confused about these things,” he said. “Number one, Can you cure COVID-19 by injecting yourself with bleach?” After the crowd shouted “No,” he continued: “Can you treat autism with right-wing conspiracy theories? Can you stop climate change by banning the words ‘climate change’? Can you maintain America’s scientific preeminence in the world by destroying the NIH?”
• “Well, look,” Raskin said. “If you can’t stop COVID with bleach or hydroxychloroquine, and you can’t stop climate change by banning the words climate change, and you can’t address autism with right-wing conspiracy theories, my question for you is this: Are you going to lie down and let the know-nothings and the autocrats and the kleptocrats and the plutocrats and the theocrats roll all over you? No? Then let’s fight for America. Let’s fight for science.”