Nancy Kopp


Nancy K. Kopp has been the Treasurer of Maryland since 2002. Previously, she was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, representing the 16th legislative district in Montgomery County, Maryland, from 1975 to 2002.

Education

Kopp attended Wellesley College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965. In 1967 she graduated from the University of Chicago with a Master of Arts degree in government & public administration, before moving to Bethesda, Maryland to take a U.S. Department of Justice job. Before the move, Kopp had completed coursework and preliminary exams for a PhD degree in political philosophy though did not complete her dissertation.
Kopp also has honorary degrees from University of Maryland, Baltimore, the University of Maryland University College, Towson University, and Hood College. Additionally, she is a Sarah T. Hughes Fellow from Goucher College and a Yale Gordon Public Affairs Fellow from the University of Baltimore.

Political career and tenure as State Treasurer

After two years working with the Department of Justice, Kopp took a staff job with Montgomery County's delegation to the state legislature. In 1974, Kopp was elected at the age of 31 to the first of seven four-year terms in the Maryland House of Delegates.
Appointed by Maryland's General Assembly, Kopp became the state treasurer in 2002, the second woman to serve in the position, as Lucille Maurer held the position from 1987 to 1996. A bipartisan panel recommended in mid-February 2019 that Kopp keep the job, besting two other applicants who each earned single votes. A week later, the state's lawmakers re-elected Kopp to a fifth four-year term.

Construction of toll lanes on I-270 and I-495 Beltway

Kopp is one of three members of the Maryland State Board of Public Works to decide on the governor's plan to expand the Beltway and I-270 highway. The plan implements toll lanes on the Capital Beltway where it passes through Maryland and has support from 60% of residents of the Washington area, although in the same poll, respondents also express concern about home seizures, pollution and increasing traffic from the plan.
A plan to hold the Board of Public Works vote on May 9, 2019 generated outrage, in particular because Kopp was scheduled to be out of the country, on a long-planned celebration of her fiftieth wedding anniversary. Among 36 lawmakers who wrote a letter calling for postponement, a delegate to the state assembly, Kumar P. Barve, said during an interview: "This is bullshit. This kind of behavior is why people hate American government."
Under pressure to delay the vote until after Kopp's return, Hogan agreed to do so. Kopp had not publicly announced how she intended to vote on Governor Hogan's proposal, though she was described as an "avowed skeptic" of the plan. On June 5, 2019, Kopp's was the opposing vote in a 2–1 approval of Hogan's plan to solicit private companies to build and operate toll lanes, on I-270 first and then the beltway.