Melanie Combs-Dyer

By  LILY QI PUBLISHED: November 21, 2025 at 3:49 PM EST | UPDATED: November 21, 2025 at 4:13 PM EST In 2018, I ran for state delegate in Maryland District 15, which has the state’s highest concentration of Asian populations, most of whom are immigrants, with Chinese as the largest group. It should have been a huge cultural advantage for a Chinese immigrant like me. Yet, most of those voters were unaffiliated, making them ineligible to vote in Maryland’s closed primary elections. Since the...

"Hello.  My name is Melanie Combs-Dyer.   I’m a registered “Unaffiliated” voter because I don’t agree with all the Republican positions and I don’t agree with all of the Democratic positions.   I’m also the Executive Director of Let Us Vote Maryland which advocates for open primaries in Maryland and the addition of Independents on state and local Boards of Election.  In the 1st Congressional district, where I live, there are over 123,000 registered unaffiliated voters, which is 22% of the...