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Ashwani K. Jain, a former Obama administration official who ran unsuccessfully for Montgomery County Council in 2018, announced Wednesday night that he plans to seek the Democratic nomination for governor next year.

Jain, who is 31, is making an expressly generational appeal for votes, assertingin a campaign video, In a state thats becoming younger and more diverse than ever before, voices like mine are growing in Maryland and deserve to be heard, because decisions made about us should not be made without us.

During the course of his 20-minute speech, Jain quickly acknowledged that his youth and inexperience may turn off some voters.

I understand that some will say that this overly ambitious, eager millennial with a baby face and no elected experience is not qualified or ready for this position, he said. But, he argued, elective experience is not the only kind of experience that matters.

Jain becomes the second Democrat to enter the 2022 election for governor, joining state Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D) as the only declared candidates. Several Democrats and Republicans are eyeing the race.

Jain held multiple roles during the Obama administration, working at the White House and in the Department of Health and Human Services. He also served as director of outreach for the administrations cancer moonshot, which was headed by then-vice president Joe Biden.

Jain was one of 33 Democrats who sought the four at-large seats on the Montgomery County Council in 2018. He finished a relatively strong eighth in the impossibly crowded field, amassing 19,367 votes and impressing political professionals with his smarts and inspiring life story.

The son of Indian immigrants who grew up in Maryland, Jain was a childhood cancer survivor, who said his illness gave him a higher purpose. He recalled recovering in a hospital and watching young children die and their parents suffer financial ruin.

I turned from survivor to advocate, he said. I found my purpose in public service.

During the 2018 campaign, Jain often told a story about being in the Make-a-Wish program, which grants children with grave illnesses a fantasy wish. Jains was to meet actor Denzel Washington a meeting that took place backstage in 2005 at a Broadway theater, where Washington was starring in a revival of Shakespeares Julius Caesar.

Jain has been a volunteer with the Make-a-Wish organization ever since and a poster of Washington as Caesar hung behind Jain during his announcement video Wednesday, along with a printed sheet of computer paper that said, plainly, Jain for Governor, taped to a whiteboard.

Jain did not participate in Montgomery Countys public financing system for political candidates in 2018, and proved to be a skillful fundraiser. He took in about $233,000 for his council race, including $47,000 from his own pocket. President Obamas Housing and Urban Development secretary, Julian Castro, headlined a fundraiser for Jain during his 2018 campaign. Earlier this year, closing out his campaign account and opening one for his gubernatorial bid, Jain forgave the $47,000 debt.

In his announcement speech, Jain said that he would be the first millennial governor in the U.S. and the first governor of color in Maryland. But he would not be the first young Obama administration veteran to run for governor of Maryland.

In 2018, Krishanti Vignarajah, who had been policy director for first lady Michelle Obama, and Alec Ross, an author and entrepreneur who had been a tech adviser to secretary of State Hillary Clinton, both sought the Democratic nomination for governor. They finished fourth and seventh, respectively, in a nine-candidate field.

Jain may not be the only Obama administration veteran in the 2022 gubernatorial scrum. Two high-profile members of Obamas cabinet former Labor secretary Tom Perez and former Education secretary John B. King Jr. are also contemplating the race.

Jain said that, if elected, he would seek to make state government policies more equitable, would promote diversity in his cabinet, and would seek to eradicate the influence of money in state government and politics.

He invoked Obama toward the end of his announcement speech.

Yes, its true that we are the underdogs in this election, Jain said, but history is shaped by underdogs and those who are told to wait in line including a former community organizer who said, Yes, we can!'

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31-Year-Old Obama Administration Official Launches Bid for Governor Maryland Matters - Josh Kurtz

Charles M. Blow| The New York Times

I remember the Obama years well. There was a massive surge of national pride when Barack Obama was elected. America had done something important. It had overcome a hurdle on its path to racial inclusion. It had dealt a blow to its past.

That was the feeling. But it was just a feeling.

After a brief honeymoon period, the real work of governing set in and the opposition rallied. At times the vitriol coming at not only Obama, but at his family, was so beyond the pale that the natural impulse among many liberals was to circle the wagons around him.

Progressives felt it necessary to clip their own wings, to temper their demands and be restrained in their complaints, lest their fair critique become conflated with the unfair attacks of those opposed to any progressive achievements.

Leaning in could easily come to feel like piling on. There was a whisper in the air, an unspoken insistence, that the role of the left was to uplift a Democratic president rather than to task him.

But this is the presidency. The job is synonymous with pressure. No one who is unequipped to deal with pressure including pressure from people who helped them get elected should seek it.

I remember my own writings in the early days of Obamas presidency. I thought it fair. Much of it was praise and defense of him.

Conservatives would often respond positively to the criticism in my columns, even while making sure that I understood that they disagreed with me on almost everything else. They would say things like, Youre finally beginning to open your eyes or, Youre coming off the Democratic plantation.

Liberals, particularly other Black people, often took my criticisms as traitorous. I was called self-hating, an Uncle Tom and a handkerchief head, a pejorative for a Black person submissive to white people.

I felt that I was simply doing my job to call things as I saw them and to stand up for a set of values, liberal and progressive. But there was a brisk market at the time for Black people willing to criticize Obama. They could say things about him that would be considered racist, or racially insensitive, if coming from a white person.

I saw many Black people give in to the attraction of this check. It was a hustle.

Trying to not be grouped into that cohort became a task unto itself. Learning to turn down some TV appearances from producers who only called after my column had included a critique of the president, but never after it had praised him.

But, this burden of subconsciously modulating responses and demands of a presidency and administration is unfair to liberals and does real harm to liberalism itself.

For progressives to refrain from applying pressure is to abdicate responsibility, because it allows an unnatural imbalance in which the only pressure the president feels is from his staunchest opponents.

With the beginning of the Joe Biden administration, I sincerely hope that liberals have learned this lesson, and I believe that many have.

As Clayola Brown, president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, told The Washington Post, it is important not to do what we did with Barack Obama, which is sit back and think now we have it fixed. Its not fixed. Or to sit back and think that the work has been done. Its only started.

We understand that Biden takes office during a time of multiple, major crises facing the country and that he will have to clean up behind a destructive and disastrous Trump administration.

But progress must be made on the issues that progressives care about. When Republicans held power, they wielded it without regret and even tried to enshrine it. Now, they would like nothing more than to guilt and scare Democrats into not aggressively pursuing a transformative agenda, hoping to contain them to middling changes as they wait for the time the political winds once again shift in their direction, and they surely will shift.

Democratic politicians too often live under the illusion that if they moderate their aspirations and asks, they can appease the mushy middle of the electorate, often white, that sees no problem or contradiction in voting for Obama one election, Trump the next and Biden the next.

They chase the fickle at the expense of the fervent.

Progressives simply cant afford to let that happen again.

It is not apostasy to demand results from your leaders, elected by your support, on the issues that you care about. Nor it is apostasy to call them out if they are too eager to compromise away any real chance at substantive change.

Republicans are going to resist and obstruct at every turn. That is their strategy. The question is: What are Democrats going to do? What is their strategy?

They must be unflinching and bold, insistent of aggressive policy change, and the media and the public especially those who helped elect them must be similarly unflinching in their reproval.

Charles M. Blow writes for The New York Times.

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Blow: Avoiding the Obama-era silence trap - The Register-Guard

During this week's podcast, hosts Daniel Fienberg and Lesley Goldberg also explore HBO Max's next creative chapter and review the oddly light February TV calendar.

Welcome to episode 105 ofTV's Top 5,The Hollywood Reporter's TV podcast.

Every week, hostsLesley Goldberg(West Coast TV editor) andDaniel Fienberg(chief TV critic) break down the latest TV news with context from the business and critical sides, welcome showrunners, executive and other guests and provide a critical guide of what to watch (or skip, as the case may be).

This week's five topics are:

1. HBO Max's next creative chapter.After launching in May and undergoing an executive regime change, the streamer posted big gains in its recently wrapped fourth quarter driven by Wonder Woman 1984 and a Roku deal. This segment explores what the subscriber gains mean and how HBO Max is readying for its next creative incarnation, driven by you guessed it! high-profile IP like Game of Thrones and Harry Potter.

2. In memoriam.This segment pays tribute to the late and legendary Cicely Tyson, Cloris Leachman and Larry King and looks at the long-lasting mark they each made in the TV world.

3. February TV preview.Is it just us or does the list of February premieres seem a little lighter than usual? This segment explores if pandemic-related production delays impacted the release schedule as well as how April is slowly but surely becoming the new January.

4. Showrunner Spotlight. Ahead of third season of Showtime's late-night series Desus & Mero, Desus Nice and The Kid Mero join the podcast this week for an interview that's equal parts funny and insightful. The longtime collaborators and friends discuss their December sit-down with Obama and how that helped evolve Desus & Mero and why their show won't return to the studio anytime soon. Season three, which kicks off Sunday, will feature an interview with Stacey Abrams "a victory lap," per Mero as the hosts navigate a new political era.

5. Critic's Corner.As usual, every episode ends with Dan's guide to what to watch (or skip) in the week ahead. This week, he weighs in onThe Investigation, We Are the Brooklyn Saints and The Lady and the Dale.

Hear it all now onTV's Top 5. Be sure tosubscribeto the podcast to never miss an episode. (Reviews welcome!) You can also email us with any topics or Mailbag questions you'd like to be addressed in future episodes atTVsTop5@THR.com.

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'TV's Top 5': Desus and Mero on Landing Obama and Their Showtime Evolution - Hollywood Reporter

"For two months now, a political party and its accompanying media ecosystem has too often been unwilling to tell their followers the truth," former President Barack Obama said on Wednesday. Obama is seen here in October 2020. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption

"For two months now, a political party and its accompanying media ecosystem has too often been unwilling to tell their followers the truth," former President Barack Obama said on Wednesday. Obama is seen here in October 2020.

Former President Barack Obama said that the violence that gripped the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was the unsurprising result of two months of instigation by President Trump and his enablers.

"History will rightly remember today's violence at the Capitol, incited by a sitting president who has continued to baselessly lie about the outcome of a lawful election, as a moment of great dishonor and shame for our nation," Obama said in a statement Wednesday evening. "But we'd be kidding ourselves if we treated it as a total surprise."

"For two months now, a political party and its accompanying media ecosystem has too often been unwilling to tell their followers the truth that this was not a particularly close election and that President-Elect Biden will be inaugurated on January 20. Their fantasy narrative has spiraled further and further from reality, and it builds upon years of sown resentments. Now we're seeing the consequences, whipped up into a violent crescendo," wrote Obama, whose eight-year administration directly preceded Trump's.

Obama also pointed a finger at a larger group of Republicans for their role in inciting the fracas, as many denied for months that Biden was the lawful winner of November's election.

"Right now, Republican leaders have a choice made clear in the desecrated chambers of democracy. They can continue down this road and keep stoking the raging fires. Or they can choose reality and take the first steps toward extinguishing the flames. They can choose America."

Obama said he had been "heartened" to see many Republicans speaking up on Wednesday against the insurrection in the nation's capital Republicans who directly condemned the violence as Trump himself did not.

"Their voices add to the examples of Republican state and local election officials in states like Georgia who've refused to be intimidated and have discharged their duties honorably," Obama said. "We need more leaders like these right now and in the days, weeks, and months ahead as President-Elect Biden works to restore a common purpose to our politics. It's up to all of us as Americans, regardless of party, to support him in that goal."

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Obama: 'A Moment Of Great Dishonor And Shame For Our Nation' But Not A Surprise - NPR

Former President Barack Obama released his new memoir, titled Promised Land, earlier this fall, and he's been doing the interview rounds talking about both the book and his life post-presidency. One of the things he's discussed is how the Obama family does quarantine, and he revealed that at the beginning of the pandemic, his elder daughter Malia's boyfriend Rory Farquharson actually stayed with the family for a few weeks. Warning: The following story has big dad energy!

Obama shared the tale of quarantining with his daughter's main squeeze when he appeared on the Bill Simmons Podcast, saying that the initial weeks of staying home presented lots of opportunities for bonding time. I think, [like] a lot of families, we went through that first month where we were playing games every night and doing little arts and crafts projects and then slowly ... they started to get a little bored with us," the former President said. He also shared that his favorite activity in those early weeks was teaching his daughters card games. "Maybe teaching Malia and Sasha, and Malia's boyfriend who was with us for a little while, spades ... and teaching them how to properly trash talk and slam the cards down." (Both Malia and Sasha are in college; Malia attends Harvard, and Sasha attends the University of Michigan.)

According to President Obama, Rory had to stay with them due to obstacles with his visa. "He's British ... wonderful young man, and he was sort of stuck because there was a whole visa thing and he had a job set up," he shared. "So we took him in and I didn't want to like him, but he's a good kid." (Have you ever read anything more "dad" in your life?) "The only thing you discover ... young men eat. It's weird to watch them consume food. My grocery bill went up about 30 percent."

It seems as though the cohabitation with Malia and her folks went well, though, and the family had fun spending time together. "It's a blessing because all the teenage stuff is kind of gone now. They're just back and they love you again and they wanna spend time with you again," Obama said in the interview. Aww! Doesn't that just warm your heart?

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Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: Barack Obama Gave Graduating Seniors 3 Key Pieces of Advice

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Barack Obama Revealed That Malia's Boyfriend Quarantined With Their Family - Teen Vogue