Ed Boyd has already chalked up one first this year by becoming the first African American ever nominated to run for Governor of Maryland. Although Ed appreciates the significance, he sees his nomination in a larger picture. "The African-American voter has been taken for granted for decades. Neither party owns our vote. I am not running as an African-American but as a Maryland resident who has seen how both parties have ignored the needs of people of color, blue collar and hard working residents.”

Ed was raised in a working class district in Miami and served eight years in the Navy before being discharged because of a leg injury. After the Navy, Ed did outreach work with homeless veterans for the Community for Creative Non-Violence in Washington, D.C.

Ed intends to use his campaign to champion the needs of the average working man and woman. Blasting the “$500 and $1,000 a plate fundraising dinners” of the two major parties, Boyd observed that “the average person can’t afford a seat at those things.”

In May, Ed received the gubernatorial nomination of the Maryland Green Party. “An African-American at the head of a Party's ticket symbolizes the need to accept a diversity of experiences, issues, and perspectives,” Ed says, “and to turn Annapolis away from the Good Old Boy way of doing business."

Presently Ed works as a part time employment recruiter and supplements his $14,000 pay with his military disability check. Ed understands the difficulties the average person has balancing their checkbook. He has made the huge electric rate increases that are a result of deregulation a central part of his campaign. “I’m concerned about my neighbors,” Ed says, “How many of them are going to become homeless because they can’t afford to pay the utility bills?”

Ed advocates what has become an increasingly popular solution to energy problems around the country: the creation of a public utility system. Ed would use eminent domain to take control of the electric plants and transmission systems. Public utilities are increasingly popular because they offer lower prices than private utilities.

Ed Boyd has been a crusader for the poor and working class all of his life and win or lose he intends to keep on fighting.