Justin D. Ready (/ˈriːdiː/ REE-dee; born April 15, 1982) is an American politician who has served as a member of the Maryland Senate since 2015, representing District 5 in Carroll County.

[1] He graduated from Carroll Community College in 2002, and afterwards attended Salisbury University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 2004.

[10] He won the Republican primary, placing first with 39.3 percent of the vote,[11] and later defeated Democrats Francis X. Walsh and Sharon L. Baker in the general election alongside Stocksdale.

[29] In the Maryland Senate, Ready repeatedly introduced and supported bills to increase penalties on violent crimes, including those involving guns.

[37] He also introduced a bill that would prohibit courts from authorizing pretrial release for an individual accused of assaulting a police officer.

[39] In May 2015, Ready defended Governor Larry Hogan's decision to withhold $68 million in funding for Maryland's costliest public school systems, saying that the state needed to restrain its growth spending to settle its fiscal issues.

[45] In 2016, Ready opposed a bill to automatically register people to vote when getting their driver's license at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration.

[46] In March 2019, Ready said he supported Governor Larry Hogan's proposed redraw of Maryland's congressional maps—which saw Maryland's 6th congressional district redrawn to include Frederick and Carroll counties, thereby making it more favorable to Republicans—following the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit's decision in Benisek v.

[47] In June 2021, Ready participated in hearings for Hogan's Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, during which he advocated for districts that broke up communities as little as possible.

[48] He criticized the redrawn congressional districts passed by the legislature during the 2021 special legislative session, calling it "incredibly gerrymandered".

[53] During the 2018 legislative session, Ready said he supported a bill to repeal several sections of the Firearms Safety Act, including a ban on assault rifles.

[54] In 2019, Ready said he opposed a bill to abolish the state's Handgun Permit Review Board, which handled conceal carry applications.

[55] In June 2022, he celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which overturned Maryland's concealed carry laws.

[59] During the 2017 legislative session, Ready said he opposed a bill requiring companies to provide employees with five days of paid sick leave per year, which he claimed would exacerbate income inequality.

[65] In 2021, Ready opposed the Dignity Not Detention Act, a bill that would end all contracts between state correctional facilities and ICE, arguing that it would make communities less safe.

[77] During the 2019 legislative session, Ready voted against a bill to raise the age to buy tobacco and nicotine products from 18 to 21, calling it "government overreach".

[80] During the 2023 legislative session, Ready sought to amend a bill creating a ballot referendum on codifying abortion access into the Constitution of Maryland to include a provision protecting the right to make reproductive decisions without being coerced by health care providers.