Sarah Kelly Elfreth[1] (born September 9, 1988)[2] is an American politician who is serving as the U.S. representative for Maryland's 3rd congressional district since 2025.

After graduating, Elfreth moved to Annapolis, where she successfully ran for the Maryland Senate in 2018, defeating Republican challenger and former state delegate Ron George in the general election.

[6] Elfreth graduated from Haddon Heights High School in 2006,[2] and attended Towson University on scholarship, where she served as a resident assistant,[7] submitted a thesis on how having students participate in governing boards can make them more effective,[4][8] and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 2010.

[9] In 2012, she earned her Master of Science degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University, where she worked as a research assistant in the Office of Government and Community Affairs from 2010 to 2012.

[11][2] Elfreth became active in politics while attending Towson University, when she became involved with student government and began traveling to Annapolis to lobby the Maryland General Assembly.

[13] In 2009, Maryland governor Martin O'Malley appointed Elfreth to be the student member of the University System Board of Regents.

[14] She didn't become involved with electoral politics until her senior year at Towson,[4] after hearing a speech by former Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin.

She briefly served in the office of House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer before working as the Government Affairs Director at the National Aquarium of Baltimore.

[17][18] Elfreth was a member of the Budget and Taxation Committee—including as the chair of its Pensions and Public Safety, Transportation, and Environment subcommittee and as a member of its Capital Budget subcommittee—and was the chair of the Joint Committee on the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bay Critical Areas and Joint Subcommittee on Program Open Space and Agricultural Land Preservation.

Her successor was nominated by the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee—which selected state delegate Shaneka Henson on January 4, 2025—and will be appointed by Governor Wes Moore.

[49] In June 2023, following a shooting in Annapolis that left three dead and another three injured, Elfreth attended a vigil to honor the victims of the attack and endorsed calls for accountability from state legislators.

[75][76] During the 2024 legislative session, Elfreth was one of three senators to vote against a bill to ease restrictions around backup generators for data centers in Maryland.

[78] During the 2024 legislative session, Elfreth introduced a bill to levy an eleven percent excise tax on firearm sales to fund the state's trauma system.

[80] Elfreth traveled to Israel for the first time in July 2023, visiting locations including an Iron Dome battery, the West Bank, religious sites, and a Hezbollah tunnel on the Lebanese border.

[82] In January 2025, Elfreth voted against a bill to place sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) for issuing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Following the vote, she signed onto a letter to the president of the ICC calling on the court to rescind its arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.

[87][88] During the 2024 legislative session, she introduced a bill to provide abortion clinics in Maryland with $500,000 in grants toward physical security infrastructure.

[89] During the 2019 legislative session, Elfreth introduced a resolution to designate June 28 as "Freedom of the Press Day" in honor of the five killed at the Capital Gazette shooting.

[19] In October 2022, after The Baltimore Banner published a report accusing Gunpowder Falls State Park manager Michael Browning of presiding over a toxic work environment that senior park service officials had failed to address despite receiving multiple employee complaints since 2015,[98] Elfreth and House majority leader Eric Luedtke wrote to Maryland Secretary of Natural Resources Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio calling for an independent review into the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' handling of employee reports.

[99] Haddaway-Riccio did not address legislators' call for an independent investigation in her response letter, instead saying that the department's human resources division was investigating the misconduct allegations "in consultation with the Maryland Department of Budget and Management and the Office of the Attorney General" and that she had taken "appropriate actions to address the situation"[100] by firing assistant Gunpowder park manager Dean Hughes[101] and state park superintendent Nita Settina.