It was a sold-out Chrystal Ballroom at the Tidewater Inn in Easton Thursday night, October 23. One hundred fifty of Talbot County Conservatives packed the room to hear from local, state, and national candidates as we head into the 2026 Election year.
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L. Todd Wood, former special operations officer and current author and former columnist for the Washington Times and contributor to FOX News, Newsmax TV, Zero Hedge and various other outlets, was the keynote speaker. Wood is also the owner of CDM, a global news outlet which features thirteen news sites including the Easton Gazette.
Organizer of the event, Chairman of the Talbot County Republican Central Committee, Shari Wilcoxon, started the evening by emphasizing the importance of the 2026 Mid-term elections, particularly on the local level. She noted that the Maryland Democrat Party, which has the Governor's position and holds a supermajority in the state legislature, is targeting local seats where Republicans have made inroads. Wilcoxon reminded the attendees that they have to focus on these elections, run for office, or work hard to get conservatives elected.
Carol Landis Brinsfield then treated attendees to a stirring rendition of "America the Beautiful."
Talbot Sheriff Joe Gamble, who will be running for re-election, came to the podium and spoke about the current state administration and their lack of support for law enforcement. Gamble explained that he had been all over the state in a variety of law enforcement positions but chose to live here in Talbot. Gamble stated that the current Talbot county council members, particularly Council President Chuck Callahan and Dave Stepp, consistently work to make sure his department has what they need.
"I'll tell you who supports us and who doesn't." Gamble stated. "We have a governor now who doesn't support law enforcement."
He closed his remarks by calling out Attorney General Anthony Brown as someone who doesn't adequately pursue or prosecute cases against criminals in the State which increases the need for good judges. Gamble reminded the crowd to vote for Phil Cronan to continue in his position as Talbot County Circuit Judge. Cronan was appointed to the post last year and, if elected in 2026, would be in the position for 15 years.
Then it was time for current candidates for Lt. Governor and Governor to speak.
Dr. Brenda Thiam, who is running on John Myrick's Gubernatorial ticket as Lt. Governor, spoke for the campaign. Myrick was speaking at another event in the state. Thiam is an elementary special education teacher in Hagerstown. Thiam made the trip to Easton for the dinner after teaching for a full day. "I go all over this state."
Candidate for Lt. Governor Dr. Brenda Thaim Addresses the Crowd
She promised that if elected, a Myrick administration would scrutinize the state budget and plug the holes that have caused Maryland's financial woes and created a huge deficit. She also promised they would support police.
Thiam, who lives in Hagerstown, said she and Myrick are ready for "such a time as this."
Gubernatorial candidate Ed Hale (pictured above), who recently announced his candidacy, spoke next Hale is a long time Baltimore businessman, owner of the Baltimore Blast Indoor Soccer team, and owns a farm in Easton.
"I'm running for Governor, not President like Wes Moore," Hale said. Hale promised straight talk and says he has no aspirations beyond being Governor. Hale also promised to work with police and prosecutors to assure safety and accountability. One of his biggest concerns in Maryland is the increase in electric costs and the fact that power lines are being run over Maryland's privately owned farmland to give power to Virginia power plants while Maryland has closed almost all of its power plants. Hale proposes "repowering" old Maryland power plants with natural gas and coal.
"I've never seen anything as bad as this guy (Moore). He smiles, bobs his head and says nothing. He should get an academy award, not re-elected." Hale said. He concluded with "We need to make Annapolis great again. Help is on the way."
As Hale finished, Wilcoxon invited Congressman Andy Harris, who was a late arrival, to the podium to speak. Harris discussed the current government shutdown and promised attendees that Republicans would vote for the CR that would re-open the Government and strong against Democrats who want to continue to fund Medicaid for illegals to the tune of $200 Billion per year. Harris asked that Republicans write to both Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune and express their support, because the mainstream media is giving a biased account of the situation.
Harris is the lone Republican Congressman for Maryland.
Keynote Speaker Todd Wood
The evening continued as Keynote speaker Todd Wood took the podium. He described his experience in special operations before carrying on with the theme of putting people in office at the local level. Wood, who created an intell source group in Ukraine in 2015, explained that Zelensky has created a dictatorship in the country.
"We estimate only 30% of funds sent to Ukraine are actually used for their intended purpose," Wood explained. "He's not helping people in Ukraine. He's working for someone else besides the people, just like Biden, Starmer, Macron and all of them."
"The war didn't start in 2022, it started in 2014 and there were 14,000 dead civilians by 2022."Wood explained.
Wood described that Ukraine was conducting ethnic cleansing with indiscriminate shelling of villages in the Donbass region as well as shutting down the free press and practice of Christianity in the country. Zelensky also canceled elections due to the ongoing conflict. Wood also described the NAZI presence in Ukraine as being real and something he witnessed first-hand.
He stated that the Europeans don't want peace in the region.
" The European Union wants the Ukrainian war to continue, and they want a global war." He went on to warn the audience that if we don't stop this war, it will come here. " I don't want our boys and girls over there. It's a killing ground. It's not an existential threat to the United States. It's essentially a border war." Wood said that Trump is trying to stop it because he knows it will be an endless war.
He shared videos of the Ukrainian Army grabbing men and boys off the street to fill the depleting ranks of their military as they lose approximately 9000 fighters a week to the conflict.
Wood stated that over 2 million people have been killed or maimed and millions more have left Ukraine and billions of dollars have been laundered to the central banks and offshore accounts of various officials, politicians and oligarchs. Ukraine is "running out of people" and will replace them with migrants. He also described what is a global war on Christianity and that Christians are being killed in Ukraine, Armenia, Syria, Nigeria, and the Congo and no one seems to be paying attention.
He also discussed the need for election integrity in the United States in the form of paper ballots. Even with Dominion being sold, machine voting can always be manipulated.
In closing, Wood discussed how all of this could occur in the United States if we don't pay attention and get good people in office. Already, outlets like CDM are being censored, debanked and attacked daily by those who wish to suppress their unbiased reporting. "We need the free press for a free society," Wood said.
He described how CDM currently has outlets all over the world and over 6 million followers via social media. The outlet prides itself on balanced, well researched, and fact-based analysis of events and issues.
Afterwards, Wood took questions from the audience.
The evening ended with Wilcoxon thanking everyone for their attendance and with a prayer by former Easton Town Council President Frank Gunsallus.
