Ryan Dorsey is a lifelong resident of Baltimore’s 3rd District. Raised in the Belair-Edison and Mayfield neighborhoods, he attended St. Francis of Assisi and graduated from the Baltimore School for the Arts and the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Before running for office, Councilman Dorsey worked as a project manager in a small business that was founded in Baltimore in 1930, and has been in his family for three generations. In 2012 he thru-hiked the 2200-mile Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine, after which he worked various other jobs, mostly in and around construction.
Councilman Dorsey was first elected to the City Council in 2016. Having no background in government, politics, or campaigns, but growing up in Baltimore, still living within a block from his parents, virtually everybody he knew felt the same way about Baltimore. It's wonderful, and it's a mess. Or as he often puts it, "I love Baltimore, and it sucks."
Ryan intuitively knew that the city could be doing a lot better, and that leadership change was needed. He set his sights on an attainable goal and got to work figuring things out and putting in the hard work. He put together a strong campaign of direct voter contact and campaigned on real issues: housing, jobs, transportation, government accountability, and the racism that both fuels and results from problems rooted in public policy. He also promised to deliver top notch constituent services, have no other job, and have an office in the district.
During his first term he passed major legislation on transportation safety, fair housing, ethics reform, consumer protections, and government accountability. In 2018 he was awarded the National Complete Streets Coalition's annual Complete Streets Champion Award, in recognition of his Complete Streets ordinance and the coalition organizing effort undertaken to pass it into law. In 2019 Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition (now Economic Action Maryland) awarded him the honor of Consumer Advocate of the Year, for his advocacy and the introduction and passage of legislation to create Baltimore's Office of the Inspector General.
Ryan has been outspoken about many serious and challenging matters, including racism and accountability for corporations, police and public officials. In 2017 Baltimore City Paper readers voted him Baltimore's Best Troublemaker.