Dan Rupli, lawyer, congressional candidate, civil rights enforcer and progressive activist, died Thursday at 82 from a fall and complications of dementia.
Dan first came to prominence in 1976 when he mounted a liberal challenge to Rep. Goodloe Byron in the 6th Congressional District, a conservative Democrat Rupli came close to defeating in the primary. He lost again to Byron two years later.
Rupli never lost the political bug and was heavily involved in numerous political campaigns. In 1992, he was the Maryland coordinator of the presidential campaign of Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, with whom he stayed in touch over Harkin’s 30-year Senate career.
UPDATED 3/20/2025: “I loved Dan Rupli,” said Harkin in a posting. I always enjoyed my times with him during my years in the Senate and when I ran for President in 1992. He was a true progressive, just the best! … His memory brings a smile to my face and thanks for his life.”
Rupli also served in the 2004 presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, the 2006 Senate campaign of Kweisi Mfume and other political campaigns through the years. He stayed in touch with many of the candidates he had supported for years, pitching new ideas and giving advice.
“Dan was one of the more principled political people that I have ever known,” said Rep. Mfume, who reclaimed his old 7th District House seat in 2020. “His sense of fairness and justice was exceeded only by his belief in the ability to bring about change. He gave so much of himself and offered himself up – over and over again – to communities across the state of Maryland as someone willing to fight the good fight. He was a friend who will be deeply missed.”
Dan had urged then State Sen. Chris Van Hollen to run for Congress in 2002. Van Hollen won a competitive Democratic primary against Del. Mark Kennedy Shriver and ultimately defeated incumbent Republican Congresswoman Connie Morella.
“Dan Rupli understood the importance of participating fully in our democracy and using your voice to make a difference,” Sen. Van Hollen said on Dan’s passing. “He used his to make our state and our nation stronger, for which we were always grateful. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this difficult time.”
Against his better judgment in 2014, Dan was persuaded by Democratic Party officials to run for the State Senate in conservative northern Frederick County’s District 4. He wound up getting only 32% of the vote against Republican Michael Hough.
Last hurrah
Dan Rupli
Finally, last year at the last minute, Dan filed again to run for Congress in the open seat for the 3rd Congressional District.
Why shouldn’t someone with 50 years of political experience be taken seriously as a candidate?, Dan asked Maryland Reporter at the time. “I’m doing it because I have an 8-year-old daughter,” said Dan, who has grandkids twice her age.
“Kids are turned off right now. Democrats don’t inspire them. They have a very cynical view of the future. … I’ve got nothing to lose.”
In that race, Dan didn’t raise enough money to file finance reports and there was no evidence of an active campaign. He wound up running dead last among the 22 Democrats in the race, garnering just 34 votes. State Sen. Sarah Elfreth won the primary and the general election.
Early in his career, Dan was an attorney in the U.S. Justice Department enforcing the Voting Rights Act in the South. He then turned to private practice of law, and in the 1990s, Gov. Parris Glendening appointed him as a trade representative to China.
Dan’s sister, Robin Rupli, a retired reporter for Voice of America, said, “Dan had the most astute political mind of anyone I ever knew. He had the experience of working in so many campaigns, a deep knowledge of history and an innate sense of what motivated people that tapped into so many winning strategies.”
“Dan had no patience with the status quo,” she said. “He thought positive change was as obvious to everyone else as it was to him. He was ‘a dreamer’ – but those dreams were rooted in his parents’ mid-western upbringing, common sense and a desire for public good.”
Danny Craig Rupli was born Feb. 23, 1943, in Chicago but grew up in Silver Spring, Md. where he attended Montgomery Blair High School and Montgomery College. He graduated from the University of Maryland College Park with a degree in history and earned a juris doctor from the University of Baltimore in 1969.
Dan spent the last years of his life in Columbia, Md., working on causes such as gun control, affordable housing and youth engagement in politics, as well as offering counsel to the many politicos he came to know over the years.
Dan is survived by his wife, Mary Ann, a much younger Filipina he met in his Asian travels, their daughter, Jacqueline, and children from his first marriage to Brenda Rupli: Randy, Andrew and Erika (Rupli) Auchterlonie; daughter-in-law Danielle Rupli; sisters Kathryn Parker and Robin Rupli; grandchildren, Seven Auchterlonie, Kristopher and Sophia Rupli and nephew, Jason Rupli.
A memorial service will be held Friday, April 11, noon, St. Paul’s Episcopal Parish, Rock Creek Church Rd. and Webster St, NW, Washington. DC 20011.
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