Frank Kratovil

Frank Michael Kratovil Jr. (KRAT-uh-vil; born May 29, 1968) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist who represented Maryland’s 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2009 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served one term in Congress during a significant period in American history, participating in the legislative process and representing the interests of his constituents. Before and after his congressional service, he built a career in public prosecution and the judiciary on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, including service as State’s Attorney of Queen Anne’s County and later as a judge of the Maryland District Court.

Kratovil was born in Lanham, Maryland, and spent his childhood in Prince George’s County. He is the son of Frank M. Kratovil Sr. and Lynnda Kratovil. He attended Queen Anne School in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, graduating from high school in 1986. He went on to Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College), where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1990. While at Western Maryland, he joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and was a three-sport athlete, playing soccer, basketball, and baseball. In soccer, he served as team captain for three years, was named to the Middle Atlantic Conference All-Conference Team, and received both the Most Valuable Offensive Player Award and the Homer Earl Outstanding Player Award. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Bates Prize for the Most Outstanding Graduating Male, the Charles W. Havens Award—given to an intercollegiate athlete who demonstrates charity, altruism, benevolence, and humane concern for others—and the Carroll County Scholar-Athlete Award.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Kratovil attended the University of Baltimore School of Law, from which he graduated with honors in 1994. He began his legal career that same year as a law clerk for Judge Darlene G. Perry of the Prince George’s County Circuit Court, serving from 1994 to 1995. From 1995 to 1997, he worked as an Assistant State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County, Maryland, gaining experience as a prosecutor in one of the state’s largest jurisdictions.

In 1997, Kratovil moved to Maryland’s Eastern Shore and was appointed Assistant State’s Attorney for Queen Anne’s County. During his tenure there, he served as the county’s only full-time prosecutor and community prosecutor, handling a broad range of criminal matters and engaging directly with local communities. He continued in that role until 2001, when he was appointed Deputy State’s Attorney in Kent County, Maryland. Alongside his prosecutorial work, he was active in Democratic politics and civic affairs. He served as president of the Young Democrats of Maryland from 1997 to 1998 and, in 1998, was selected to represent the United States on the American Council of Young Political Leaders’ delegation to Taiwan. He also served as a member and executive committee member of the Queen Anne’s County local management board, which coordinated community partnerships for children and family services.

Kratovil entered elective office in 2002 when he ran for State’s Attorney in Queen Anne’s County. He was elected after defeating four-term incumbent David Gregory in the Democratic primary and Republican Paul W. Comfort in the general election. Assuming office at age 34, he became the youngest State’s Attorney in Maryland. He was reelected without opposition in 2006. Among his peers, he was chosen to serve as president of the Maryland State’s Attorneys’ Association in 2005. In that capacity, he advocated for stronger legislation to expand the prosecution of gangs and worked to increase awareness of growing problems with drugs and gang activity in Maryland’s rural areas. His prosecutorial and leadership roles brought him into broader professional circles, including involvement with the Maryland State’s Attorneys’ Association and the National District Attorneys Association.

On June 4, 2007, Kratovil announced his candidacy for Congress in Maryland’s 1st congressional district. In the Democratic primary held on February 12, 2008, he defeated Christopher Robinson, Steve Harper, and Joseph Werner. Initially, he expected to face nine-term Republican incumbent Wayne Gilchrest, a leading GOP moderate, in the general election. However, Gilchrest lost the Republican primary to State Senator Andy Harris, a more conservative candidate, transforming the race into a contest for an open seat. Although party registration in the district was nearly evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, the 1st District had a strong social conservative tilt and had been in Republican hands for all but 14 years since 1947. Kratovil, regarded as a moderate Democrat, received a significant boost when Gilchrest endorsed him over Harris. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added his campaign to its “Red to Blue” program, providing financial and strategic support. Kratovil garnered endorsements from local Eastern Shore Republicans as well as Democrats and was endorsed by the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally conservative House Democrats. CQ Politics rated the race as having “No Clear Favorite.”

The general election on November 4, 2008, was closely contested. On election night, Kratovil led Harris by 915 votes. After two rounds of counting absentee ballots, his lead increased to about 2,000 votes, and most media outlets projected him the winner on November 7; Harris conceded on November 11. Kratovil’s victory highlighted the geographic and political divide within the district. As an Eastern Shore resident, he carried all nine counties on the Shore, but he lost heavily in the district’s portions of Baltimore County, Harford County, and Anne Arundel County on the Western Shore, including Harris’s base in Baltimore’s more conservative eastern suburbs. The district’s voters were nearly evenly split between the two regions. Kratovil thus became only the third Democrat to represent the 1st District since 1947, and the first since Wayne Gilchrest defeated Democrat Roy Dyson in 1990. His win came even as Republican presidential nominee John McCain carried the district with nearly 60 percent of the vote, McCain’s strongest showing in Maryland.

In Congress, Kratovil aligned himself with the conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition and cultivated a reputation for independence. Analyses by Congressional Quarterly, The Washington Post, and others concluded that he was among the most centrist members of the House of Representatives, and CQ Politics ranked him in the top tier for independent voting records in 2009. At the same time, he supported many major Democratic priorities and was found to have voted with the House Democratic leadership approximately 85 percent of the time on key votes. Representing a district with a strong conservative bent, he broke with his party on some high-profile issues, most notably voting against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in both November 2009 and March 2010. He cited overwhelming opposition to the bill in his district, as well as concerns about its overall cost, its impact on the federal deficit, and the potential negative effects of employer mandates on job creation.

During his term from 2009 to 2011, Kratovil served on several House committees that reflected both his district’s interests and national priorities. He was a member of the Committee on Agriculture, where he sat on the Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research; the Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture; and the Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry, engaging in issues central to Maryland’s agricultural and rural communities. He also served on the Committee on Armed Services, including the Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces and the Subcommittee on Readiness, and on the Committee on Natural Resources, where he was a member of the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife. Through these assignments, he participated in deliberations on defense policy, environmental and resource management, and agricultural and rural development, contributing to the legislative process during a period marked by economic crisis and major policy debates.

Kratovil sought reelection in 2010, basing his campaign on what he described as an independent approach in Washington and arguing that he put the interests of his district ahead of partisan ideology. In May 2009, Andy Harris announced he would seek a rematch, criticizing Kratovil’s vote in favor of the final version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The race drew significant outside attention and spending. A Super PAC called the Concerned Taxpayers of America spent $150,000 on advertisements attacking Kratovil and $300,000 on ads targeting Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon. Federal Election Commission filings in October 2010 showed that the group was funded solely by $300,000 from Daniel G. Schuster Inc., a concrete firm in Owings Mills, Maryland, and $200,000 from New York hedge fund executive Robert Mercer, co-head of Renaissance Technologies. According to reporting by The Washington Post, the group stated that it had been formed in September “to engage citizens from every walk of life and political affiliation” against “runaway spending,” and its only expenditures were for these ads; Schuster was Harris’s top contributor. In the November 2, 2010, general election, Kratovil was defeated, receiving 42 percent of the vote to Harris’s 54 percent. Despite the loss, he remained one of only three Democrats since 1992 to secure at least 40 percent of the vote in the district.

Following his congressional service, Kratovil returned to the legal profession on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. In late December 2011, Governor Martin O’Malley appointed him as a judge of the Maryland District Court for Queen Anne’s County, filling a vacancy created by the retirement of Judge John T. Clark III. His appointment followed nomination by the Trial Courts Judicial Nominating Commission. As a district court judge, he presided over a broad docket of criminal, civil, and traffic matters, continuing his long-standing engagement with the administration of justice at the local level. In April 2022, he was reappointed to another 10-year term by Governor Larry Hogan, confirmed by the Maryland State Senate, and sworn in for continued service on the bench, extending a public career that has spanned prosecution, legislative service, and the judiciary.