Chao Wu
2023 - Present
2027
1
Chao Wu (Democratic Party) is a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, representing District 9A. He assumed office on January 11, 2023. His current term ends on January 13, 2027.
Wu (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Maryland House of Delegates to represent District 9A. He won in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Wu completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Chao Wu earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2001, a graduate degree from the National University of Singapore in 2003, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2009. His career experience includes working as a data scientist. Wu became a member of the Howard County Board of Education in 2018.[1]
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Committee assignments
2023-2024
Wu was assigned to the following committees:
Elections
2022
See also: Maryland House of Delegates elections, 2022
General election
General election for Maryland House of Delegates District 9A (2 seats)
Natalie Ziegler and Chao Wu defeated incumbent Trent Kittleman and Jianning Zeng in the general election for Maryland House of Delegates District 9A on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Natalie Ziegler (D) | 26.7 | 17,656 |
| ✔ |  | Chao Wu (D)  | 26.4 | 17,486 |
 | Trent Kittleman (R) | 26.3 | 17,373 | |
 | Jianning Zeng (R) | 20.6 | 13,609 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 44 | ||
| Total votes: 66,168 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Maryland House of Delegates District 9A (2 seats)
Natalie Ziegler and Chao Wu defeated Steven Bolen in the Democratic primary for Maryland House of Delegates District 9A on July 19, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Natalie Ziegler | 41.8 | 5,308 |
| ✔ | | Chao Wu | 31.0 | 3,942 |
 | Steven Bolen | 27.2 | 3,448 | |
| Total votes: 12,698 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Maryland House of Delegates District 9A (2 seats)
Incumbent Trent Kittleman and Jianning Zeng defeated Saif Rehman in the Republican primary for Maryland House of Delegates District 9A on July 19, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Trent Kittleman | 50.4 | 4,612 |
| ✔ | | Jianning Zeng | 27.6 | 2,531 |
 | Saif Rehman | 22.0 | 2,015 | |
| Total votes: 9,158 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2018
General election
General election for Howard County Public Schools Board of Education At-large (4 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Howard County Public Schools Board of Education At-large on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Vicky Cutroneo (Nonpartisan) | 15.1 | 58,426 |
| ✔ | | Chao Wu (Nonpartisan) | 14.1 | 54,254 |
| ✔ |  | Jen Mallo (Nonpartisan) | 13.9 | 53,766 |
| ✔ |  | Sabina Taj (Nonpartisan) | 13.4 | 51,842 |
| Bob Glascock (Nonpartisan) | 12.2 | 46,929 | |
 | Robert Wayne Miller (Nonpartisan) | 11.4 | 43,847 | |
 | Anita Pandey (Nonpartisan) | 9.9 | 38,109 | |
 | Danny Mackey (Nonpartisan) | 9.6 | 36,923 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 1,685 | ||
| Total votes: 385,781 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Howard County Public Schools Board of Education At-large (4 seats)
The following candidates ran in the primary for Howard County Public Schools Board of Education At-large on June 26, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Vicky Cutroneo (Nonpartisan) | 14.1 | 20,602 |
| ✔ | | Bob Glascock (Nonpartisan) | 12.0 | 17,503 |
| ✔ | | Robert Wayne Miller (Nonpartisan) | 11.3 | 16,469 |
| ✔ | | Chao Wu (Nonpartisan) | 10.7 | 15,600 |
| ✔ | | Jen Mallo (Nonpartisan) | 9.3 | 13,545 |
| ✔ | | Sabina Taj (Nonpartisan) | 9.2 | 13,326 |
| ✔ | | Anita Pandey (Nonpartisan) | 6.9 | 10,041 |
| ✔ | | Danny Mackey (Nonpartisan) | 6.9 | 9,980 |
 | Carleen Pena (Nonpartisan) | 5.7 | 8,301 | |
| Saif Rehman (Nonpartisan) | 5.2 | 7,582 | |
| Mavourene Robinson (Nonpartisan) | 4.0 | 5,828 | |
| Timothy Hodgson Hamilton (Nonpartisan) | 2.5 | 3,691 | |
| Christopher Michael Hilfiger (Nonpartisan) | 2.2 | 3,171 | |
| Total votes: 145,639 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2022
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released May 24, 2022 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Chao Wu completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wu's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
I am running for Maryland House of Delegates, District 9A. I am a data scientist with a PhD in Electrical Engineering, a proud father of two, an immigrant, and a community volunteer. I have been serving on the Howard County Board of Education since 2018, and as the Chair in 2021. I served on the Audit Committee and County Spending Affordability Committee, and also on the board of Maryland Association of Board of Education.
- First, I have first-hand experience of what our educations are experiencing during the last four years and have worked hard to find solutions as a school board member and as a board chair. I want to address these issues at the state level, and support teachers, students and their families.
- Second, I have witnessed not well-planned developments which squeeze limited resources from the county. I will present solutions from the state level to address the over-development issue. We should find a balanced growth with consideration of jobs, schools, roads, hospitals, fire stations, and other infrastructure needs. An enhanced Adequate Public Facilities Ordinances (APFO) is needed.
- Third, transportation improvement and human health issues (beyond COVID, asthma, lead in the water, cancer with potential links to environmental hazards) are other major concerns for me. I will work to propose legislation for better transportation, a safe environment, and safe drinking water. For transportation part, in order to provide job opportunities and increase social mobility, we need to have fast, efficient and safe highways for commuters. Less traffic jams mean less air pollution, less fuel cost and less mental pressure for commuters
Improve education, regulate APFO, and improve transportation and the environment.
One historical event for me is that I am the first one in my family admitted into one of the best colleges in China considering my dad and mom did not graduate from elementary school.
My first job was selling watermelon and dried fish along the street while I was in middle school.
My first real job was a one-year fellowship at Food and Drug Administration to test medical device safety under EMI.
This is your land.
They work together and ask for accountability, transparency, and solutions from each other.
Our state's greatest challenge is how to provide service and support for its citizens and businesses.
We need to ensure our residents are able to live a decent life if they work hard while providing basic support for those families who are in need.
We need to motivate our students to learn and grow and be prepared for their future. We need to support our educators with a good work environment and a great compensation package.
We need to support our business to sustain and grow.
Yes. It is important to build relationships with other legislators. We need collaboration from others to create a good law and pass the law, then monitor its implementation and evaluate results for future improvement.
We need to get rid of gerrymandering.
Education, Transportation, Technology.
One story from a nurse in Damascus really touched me since my sister is also a nurse. She told me nurses were hit in hospitals by patients and the penalty is too low such that many nurses quit the job and want to quit. She wants our legislatures to pass law to protect them. I will work on this if elected.
Yes. This is a very diverse society and we have diverse opinions too. I always seek common grounds and look for pragmatic solutions.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2018
Ballotpedia survey responses
- See also: Ballotpedia's candidate surveys
Chao Wu participated in Ballotpedia's candidate survey on October 3, 2018. The survey questions appear in bold, and Chao Wu's responses follow below.[2]
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
| “ | 1) Work with all stakeholders to solve the $37 million school deficit and bring accountability and transparency BACK to the school system 2) Provide equitable learning opportunities and offer students vocational/technology training |
” |
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? Why?
| “ | I am a data scientist and providing analytic solutions for our customers using machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms. I am passionate about looking for data-driven, pragramatic, analytical solutions to many issues our school system is facing.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many[4]
|
” |
Ballotpedia also asked the candidate a series of optional questions. Chao Wu answered the following:
What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?
| “ | Be ethical, follow the law and listen to the people.[4] | ” |
| “ | It is my unique life experience which helps me understand issues from various perspectives in different systems. I was educated in China, Singapore and USA and each country has its unique system, including educatonal, culture and race relationships. These experiences teach me to strive to seek common grounds and find a common sense solution.[4] | ” |
| “ | The core responsibility is to follow the law, abide by the fiducial responsibility for the organization and listen to your constituents.[4] | ” |
| “ | I hope my legacy is that our school system keeps providing quality education to all students.[4] | ” |
| “ | Lunar New Yew Holiday. I can unite with families and friends, have lots of great foods, and look forward to a better tomorrow.[4] | ” |
| “ | At our family fun night, we play together with our kids.[4] | ” |
| “ | Friends Forever in the 90th.[4] | ” |
| “ | I always work to improve my spoken and written English and expand my vocabulary.[4] | ” |
| “ | The primary job for a school board is to advocate for the school system at all levels, hire the right superintendent, supervise his/her work, make the right school policy and listen to students, parents, teachers and the community.[4] | ” |
| “ | All the parents, students, educators and the community.[4] | ” |
| “ | We need provide differentiated resources based on different need. We need get our priority right.[4] | ” |
| “ | I will always keep my door open, listen to all sides and have an open and honest discussion with anybody.[4] | ” |
| “ | The school system needs be proactive to reach out to parents, understand their concerns and provide timely feedback to them. "Proactive" and "timely" are two key words.[4] | ” |
| “ | I believe it is very important to have a diverse workforce in our school system on top of quality workforce.[4] | ” |
| “ | Quality education means "meeting our students' needs". The top obstacle is the limited resources. So the school must spend the money effective and efficiently. We need a constant and timely performance evaluation for our school programs.[4] | ” |
| “ | Good teaching means "teach based on the capability and need". Every child and family is different. We want to give our student a personalized education experience such that they are motivated to learn and grow themselves.[4] | ” |
| “ | people's skill, analytic skill, independent thinking and digital skill.[4] | ” |
| “ | We want to make sure the high school diploma reflects the value, skills and knowledge students have received from schools truthfully.[4] | ” |
| “ | I really would like to expand the technology and vocational training programs. We would like to provide our high school students more career options after they graduate from high school.[4] | ” |
| “ | The best strategy is to keep the community, county council, county executive and our state legislators in the loop all the time, make sure they understand our school's priority to provide resources for our schools and plan ahead accordingly.[4] | ” |
| “ | We should look at both physical safety and mental health safety simultaneously.[4] | ” |
| “ | I totally support the mental health training for staff and mental health education for our students. These training and education should always be a top priority for our school system.[4] | ” |
| “ | Technology has been changing how our students learn inside and outside the classroom, communicate with their friends and families. The school system needs keep learning, piloting and adapting to the latest advancement in teaching philosphy in the digital age.[4] | ” |
Ballotpedia survey responses
- See also: Ballotpedia's candidate surveys
Chao Wu participated in Ballotpedia's candidate survey on March 17, 2018. The survey questions appear in bold, and Chao Wu's responses follow below.[5]
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
| “ | 1) Fixed the school budget problem 2) Increase board collaboration |
” |
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? Why?
| “ | I am passionate about education policy and school operation to provide a bridge for success for our children.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many[4]
|
” |
Ballotpedia also asked the candidate a series of optional questions. Chao Wu answered the following:
What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?
| “ | Honest, ethical and realistic.[4] | ” |
| “ | I am an engineer who seek common ground, look for practical and optimal solution.[4] | ” |
| “ | Follow the law[4] | ” |
| “ | I want the community remember that I have the right job and make good judgement.[4] | ” |
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Maryland scorecards, email suggestions to [email protected].
2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
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In 2023, the Maryland State Legislature was in session from January 11 to April 10.
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See also
2022 Elections
External links
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Candidate Maryland House of Delegates District 9A |
Officeholder Maryland House of Delegates District 9A |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 28, 2022
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ballotpedia's candidate survey, "Chao Wu's responses," October 3, 2018 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "BPsurvey" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23 4.24 4.25 4.26 4.27 4.28 4.29 4.30 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
