Michael Joseph Hough (/hʌf/;[1] born November 4, 1979) is an American politician who served in the Maryland Senate, representing District 4 in Frederick and Carroll Counties, from 2015 to 2023.

[2] After serving in the Air Force, Hough worked as a sales associate for Sears from 2002 to 2004, after which he became a legislative aide to Maryland state senator Alex Mooney until his election to the Frederick County Republican Central Committee in 2007.

During his campaign, he was able to outraise Jenkins[10] walked from Sandy Hook to Monrovia, a distance of 40 miles (64 km), to meet with voters.

[12] Hough was sworn in to the Maryland House of Delegates on January 12, 2011, where he served on the Judiciary Committee during his entire tenure and as assistant majority leader from 2013 to 2015.

Hough disputed the complaint, saying that he received approval from state ethics advisors to send birthday messages so long as he paid for the postage.

[20] Hough was sworn into the Maryland Senate on January 14, 2015, where he served on the Judicial Proceedings Committee during his entire tenure.

[2] During the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries, Hough served as the chair of Ted Cruz's campaign in Maryland.

[31][32] In this capacity, Hough promised to work with Democratic lawmakers on issues including police reform,[33] but lobbied against bills opposed by the Hogan administration such as the Blueprint for Maryland's Future.

[37][38] During his campaign, Hough sought to cast himself as a moderate,[39] running on a platform of cutting property taxes and government spending, expanding county highways including U.S. Route 15 Interstate 270, and slowing urban sprawl through the preservation of farmland.

[59] He also expressed concerns with proposals to limit the police use of strip searches and shackles against youths, which he claimed would make juvenile facilities more dangerous.

[60] In 2017, Hough introduced a legislation to increase sentences for drug dealers who knowingly sell fentanyl, which passed and was signed into law by Governor Larry Hogan.

[63] He also introduced a bill to make gun theft a felony offense and to increase penalties for repeat firearm offenders.

[71] As a state legislator, Hough protested against bills granting voting rights to student members of boards of education.

[75] In 2015, Hough introduced a bill that would require parent to consent before schools could survey students about their drug use or sexual activity, which he called a "troubling trend".

[89] Also in 2017, Hough opposed a bill that would require Maryland use an independent redistricting commission to draw its congressional districts if six other states agreed to do the same.

[90] In March 2019, after the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Benisek v. Lamone struck down Maryland's redistricting plan as unconstitutionally gerrymandered, Hough said he supported maps proposed by Governor Larry Hogan, which would have redrawn Maryland's 6th congressional district to include Frederick and Carroll counties, thereby making it more favorable to Republicans.

[93] Hough's proposal was not adopted by the Senate Rules Committee, though legislators expressed openness to the idea of a bill limit and said that they would study the issue over the summer.

[101] During the 2018 legislative session, Hough introduced a bill that would allow speed up evictions of dangerous tenants from fourteen to seven days.

[111][112] In November 2019, he met with President Donald Trump and other White House officials to discuss federal legislation to increase the smoking age to 21, during which he expressed opposition to the proposal.

[113] In September 2020, following President Donald Trump's executive order establishing the Interagency Task Force for Building and Rebuilding Monuments to American Heroes to create a "National Garden of American Heroes", Hough wrote a letter to the committee to recommend a memorial dedicated to anti-communist Whittaker Chambers.

[115] During the 2021 legislative session, Hough spoke against a bill to eliminate the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases, criticizing state delegate C. T. Wilson, who introduced the bill, for going back on his agreement with the Maryland Catholic Conference to introduce no further legislation on child sexual abuse lawsuits after legislators passed a bill expanding the statute of limitations from 25 to 38-years-old, but including a statute of repose to prevent lawsuits against the Catholic Church.

[116] In 2021, Hough opposed a bill to extend the state's earned income tax credit to undocumented immigrants, and criticized Governor Larry Hogan's RELIEF Act, which provided more than $1 billion in tax relief and stimulus checks to small businesses and families, for not going far enough.