Cathy White, a Montgomery County production worker, is running for Maryland governor on the Working Class Party ticket. The general election is Nov. 3.

Asked in our candidate questionnaire why she is seeking office, White said: "Because I think the working class needs its own party. The two big parties represent the billionaire class and have been running this country for 170 years in the service of the wealthy."

White faces Democrat Wes Moore, Republican Dan Cox and Green Party candidate Steven Ellis. Her running mate for lieutenant governor is Cathy Permut, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Candidate information

Party: Working Class Party

Occupation and work history: "I have worked in a factory for 40 years. Before that I worked at UPS and at a pizza place. So I know and have experienced the difficulties of many people in the working class. In the last decade while I was working full time I also had to care for my aging mother and disabled sister," White said in our questionnaire.

Family: "I grew up in Maryland. There were five of us children. Even though my father had a steady federal job, we were still on food stamps. Having had to care for my family members, I see what my friends and co-workers with children go through."

Education: "I feel I have learned more about living from working with so many different people than I ever learned in school."

Best advice received: "My grandfather, who was an immigrant and worked as a machinist, told me never to cross a picket line."

Experience and public service

Asked about previous office, White said in our questionnaire: "I ran as lieutenant governor candidate for Working Class Party in 2022." Asked what accomplishments show she can handle the job, she said: "Like most women and even some men, while I have worked full time, at the same time I was responsible for family members, and in addition I helped Working Class Party gain ballot status by getting signatures and campaigning, talking with lots of Maryland voters and hearing their concerns."

Asked whether anyone in her family works in politics or government, White said: "No."

On the issues

Top priority: "I would say accountability and transparency – open the books of every state agency. It's our money. What they're hiding is the welfare that's going to corporations. I want to reveal that."

Differences from other candidates: "I am not a professional politician. I am not going to make promises that I will never keep. I cannot by myself make the changes that we need. These changes need to be made through a mass struggle of people, like they were in the past, in the 1930s and 1960s."

Economy and cost of living: "Our wages are not keeping up with inflation, [e]ven though Maryland has more than doubled the minimum wage in around a decade, it still doesn't even begin to keep up with the cost of living. Our standard of living is going backwards. … It will get worse until workers organize and fight back against this."

Education: "On the first day of school, more than 10,000 students in Maryland couldn't even get to their school because the government can't even do their job of organizing the buses. … The schools are dilapidated and falling apart. Not enough teachers. The class sizes are too big."

Public safety: "We need after-school programs, we need good-paying jobs. Without this foundation, we cannot hope to address the issue of crime."

State budget: "Tax the rich. Stop giving wealthy corporations and developers money they don't need, like tax abatements and tax credits, because they already have too much money."

Transit and housing: "A lot of workers can't afford cars. So we absolutely need way better public transportation. And workers cannot afford housing -- not rent, and forget about buying a new house. … wages need to go up. And that will take a fight by workers."

Chesapeake Bay: "Whistleblowers often tell people about corporate polluters. Why does the state only give these big companies and corporate farms that pollute the Bay a slap on the wrist? The fines are pocket change."

White's campaign committee, WCP Committee to Elect Cathy White, was filed as party designated on June 22, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections.