Baltimore term limits stay in place after repeal bill stalls

Chevall Pryce, Baltimore Sun on Jun 25, 2026

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BALTIMORE — Baltimore lawmakers will not ask voters this year to reconsider the city’s voter-approved term limits, after legislation seeking to repeal the measure stalled and missed a state deadline to qualify for the November ballot.

A proposal by District 3 Councilman Ryan Dorsey to overturn Baltimore’s term limits law has failed to advance out of committee and is unlikely to do so before a deadline required for ballot questions, effectively ending the effort for 2026.

“Councilmember Dorsey’s amendment has not seen any movement,” Emily Sullivan, spokesperson for President Zeke Cohen said. “It is unable to be approved by the new state-imposed deadline of July 1 in order to appear on November ballots.”

The legislation, introduced in May, sought to repeal term limits approved by Baltimore voters in 2022. Current rules restrict the mayor, comptroller and City Council members to serving two terms, or a maximum of 12 years in office.

Dorsey said voters should have the opportunity to revisit the issue.

“If people like their representatives, they should be allowed to keep voting for them,” he said.

The councilman has long opposed the term limits measure, launching an unsuccessful repeal effort just weeks after voters approved it. The 2022 referendum passed with roughly 72% support.

When introducing the latest repeal proposal, Dorsey argued both that term limits are poor public policy and that the original ballot measure received insufficient public scrutiny.

“There was virtually no public discourse about it before it showed up on the ballot,” Dorsey said at the time.

Councilwoman Odette Ramos, a co-sponsor of Dorsey’s bill, said term limits could cause multiple experienced leaders to be ousted at the same time, causing sweeping turnover of every office every eight years.

Critics of the repeal proposal argued that the limits get new people into political offices with new ideas that long-established leaders may not. Multiple opinion pieces published by The Baltimore Sun also expressed the same sentiment.

The bill did not end up reaching a vote, and the bill is still listed as “in committee” on the city Legistar website.

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