Reviewing the big stories of the year to determine what individual or organization made a significant impact on the state and deserved the title of Marylander of the Year, it quickly became clear that most were continuations of big stories from last year, including the tragic level of gun violence in Baltimore, the highs of an Orioles’ winning season, the urgency of ensuring access to abortion care and the righteous battle being waged to give survivors of sexual abuse the means to hold their abusers accountable.

Our finalists for the 2023 Marylander of the Year reflect this. Here they are, in alphabetical order. The winner will be announced before the end of the year.

US Sen. Ben Cardin

In May, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin said he was retiring next year from what will then be a 57-year career in Maryland politics that began when he was elected to represent Baltimore City in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1966, at the age of 23. The Democrat’s focus in Congress has been on helping the underdog, whether it be through intensifying sanctions on human rights abusers, winning grants to better Baltimore, passing legislation to protect the fragile habitats of the Chesapeake Bay or continuing his half-century-long fight for an Equal Rights Amendment for women. This year, Cardin, 80, also was named chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and took on the task of strengthening the country’s diplomacy worldwide.

Krystal Gonzalez

In heart-wrenching testimony before the Baltimore City Council about the murder of her 18-year-old daughter, one of two young people killed in the Brooklyn Day mass shooting this summer, Krystal Gonzalez became the voice of all loved ones left behind to live with the aftermath of a young person’s killing in gun-saturated Baltimore. Gonzalez’s emotional description of her relationship with her child, the grief over the teen’s death and the extreme toll it’s taken on her family left the room in tears, and with a question reverberating that every official charged with ending violence should hear echoing in their heads each night before they go to sleep: “What’s your normal?” she said. “I challenge you: What is your normal?”

Orioles Manager Brandon Hyde

He might not have led the Orioles all the way to a World Series victory this year, but Manager Brandon Hyde came remarkably close in his fifth season, giving O’s fans something to cheer about all spring and summer long. He guided the team to win the most games in the American League (and second most in all of Major League Baseball) along with the AL East title, and to their first postseason play since 2016. And he beat out the World Series-winning coach of the Rangers to take home the American League Manager of the Year designation. We can’t wait for next year.

Maryland Del. Adrienne A. Jones

State Del. Adrienne A. Jones this year won her two-year battle to put the question of whether abortion should be enshrined in the Maryland Constitution on the ballot, with the passage of the “Right to Reproductive Freedom Act,” which will put a referendum before voters during the 2024 general election. The Democrat began the effort in early 2022, amid challenges to overturn Roe v. Wade, which ultimately came to pass in June of that year. The ballot question gives Marylanders the final, critical say in their own access to reproductive health care.

Maryland Del. C.T. Wilson

In 2015, Del. C.T. Wilson bravely outlined the years of sexual abuse he endured as a boy at the hands of his adoptive father, in an effort to push forward legislation that would extend the timeline for filing lawsuits against such abusers. It was a painful moment before his lawmaker colleagues, delivered at great personal cost, yet it did little to move the needle. But he never gave up, bringing the legislation and his story back year after year, and in the process becoming a hero to other survivors. This year, after an explosive report chronicling the horrors of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore was released — and Wilson vowed to “punish anybody that opposed [his] bill” — the Child Victims Act finally passed and was signed into law, giving survivors who’ve taken decades to come to terms with their abuse a way to hold their perpetrators accountable.