Andrew Friedson’s public service career started in the fifth grade.

He was 10 and volunteering on a school bus patrol, as a sort of student safety monitor. And he was concerned that his school bus route to Wayside Elementary School in Potomac was dangerous.

The route called for a left turn onto Falls Road near the Potomac Community Center, a turn his parents would avoid making because of the blind spots for drivers.

So, as Friedson recalls it, he asked to meet with the principal — multiple times.

“I drew out issues on a notepad and found her in the hallway and stated my case, but she didn’t want to listen to a 10-year-old tell her what the bus route should be,” Friedson said. “I was pretty dejected based on her response.”

One week after their conversation, Friedson’s bus was involved in a serious crash while making that left turn, and several students were taken to the hospital. Friedson was angry. The next day, when he saw a story about the crash printed in the local newspaper, he cut it out and pinned it onto his bulletin board in his bedroom.

“It became a North Star — if you see something, you should say something. And if there’s a problem, you should speak up and speak out.”

Now, at age 40, the two-term Montgomery County Council member is running for county executive, focusing on economic development and housing affordability. Friedson has the largest war chest and the most support from state and county politicians, which gives him enviable advantages in a competitive race. However, he has also faced harsh criticism, with some detractors accusing him of being an establishment candidate influenced by special interests.

And in deep-blue Montgomery County, Friedson has to somehow find a way to distinguish himself when his values and priorities largely align with those of other prominent candidates, including at-large members Evan Glass and Will Jawando.

“Frankly, they’re all in the wheelhouse of what I would call the governing ideology of Montgomery County,” said David Lublin, a political science professor at American University and a former mayor of Chevy Chase. “They support nice, liberal things, but these also all seem to pair that with making development into social-justice initiatives.”

So Friedson is marketing himself on what he sees as the major differentiators: his record of never voting for a tax increase, his successfully passed legislation to increase development of affordable housing and his work to cut red tape for businesses.

“We are falling more and more behind other regional counterparts, and that is a new dynamic, and that’s why we need a new direction,” Friedson said.

What’s driving Andrew Friedson?

Friedson was active in student government throughout his childhood in Montgomery County Public Schools, winning his first election, as secretary in sixth grade.

“I was a little concerned. He was young to run for office,” John Keller, Friedson’s middle school student government adviser, told The Banner at Friedson’s campaign office launch party in March. “But then he got up to speak, and he had the other students in the palm of his hand. And he won.”

Friends encouraged him to continue his involvement at the University of Maryland, where he built connections with future state leaders, including U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth, who now endorses his campaign.

“He hasn’t changed much since college,” Elfreth told The Banner. “I mean, incredibly tenacious, very well-organized, very thoughtful person.”

She remembers him as being dedicated and serious about policy, but not without some levity — he won a student election while growing out his hair to donate to a cancer charity, to a length his friends found comical.

“What you see is what you get with Andrew. He’s a big personality,” she said. “But at the same time, he backs it up with just a tremendous work ethic.”

After college, Friedson’s sights turned to Annapolis and Baltimore, but he never moved outside the county. He worked for the College Savings Plan of Maryland and later the Office of the Comptroller.

It wasn’t until 2018 that he became frustrated with the county. He felt it wasn’t living up to its economic potential and was concerned about its growing lack of affordability. So he decided to run for council on a platform of modernizing the county’s economy and public services.

In the nearly eight years since he won that race as the youngest council member in county history, Friedson has held one-year stints as council vice president and president, in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

In his tenure, Friedson has championed finding new funding sources for green energy, increasing paid parental leave for county employees and providing security grants to religious organizations at risk of hate crimes, a program created in response to the 2018 synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, which he calls one of his proudest accomplishments.

But he has focused primarily on increasing the county’s economic development and housing supply. He cites a zoning text amendment he supported that allows religious organizations to build affordable housing on their land as one of his proudest accomplishments, as well as a recent bill to fast-track affordable-housing developments.

Like his younger, safety patrol self, Friedson hasn’t been afraid to speak his mind, even if his ideas are unpopular in some circles. Acknowledging his critics, he has defended his willingness to collaborate with developers. Friedson believes the county needs to work with the private sector to address its housing crisis.

“The idea that we would exclusively be able to subsidize affordability out of this, or expect the private sector to, on their own, provide housing affordability without subsidies — it’s just not realistic, and it’s not serious,” Friedson said.

Supporters say Friedson is bringing the right players together to improve the county.

Del. Lily Qi, stumping for Friedson at a March 8 campaign event, said the District 1 council member has the right approach to economic development.

“We are not carving out and capitalizing on our niche as an innovation-driven economy,” Qi said. “And I firmly believe Andrew Friedson gets it.”

But his detractors argue that he’s too cozy with developers, focusing on their interests rather than what residents want. Friedson’s More Housing NOW legislative package, which aims to increase “missing middle” housing density near transit hubs, passed with great controversy.

Somerset council member Rohit Khanna is critical of the plan. He said he’d like to see a future county executive candidate prioritize what he called a “holistic” view of the housing crisis.

“Any candidate who just simply mouths ideology-driven talk about how single-family homes are the problem, or we need to have more density everywhere ... to me, that is not thoughtful,” Khanna said.

Friedson has also pledged to vote against County Executive Marc Elrich’s proposal to raise taxes to increase funding for the county school system. He argues that the county needs to focus on economic growth, find new sources of income and limit spending to fix fiscal problems.

“This budget is the equivalent of getting a bonus or coming into a small amount of money and using that to put a down payment on a car with no plan and no ability to actually pay the monthly payments on the car,” Friedson said at an April 7 council meeting. “There is no financial adviser, no reasonable, rational person who would recommend any resident doing that.”

Money and influence

Criticism has brewed over Friedson’s campaign fundraising. In the latest campaign finance reporting period, Friedson’s campaign said it had amassed more than $2 million since he launched his campaign for county executive, nearly three times more than the next closest candidate in the race, Jawando.

Glass and Jawando, who are both using the county’s public fundraising system and cannot accept corporate or PAC money, have criticized Friedson’s decision to forgo public fundraising and have argued that he is doing so to receive funding from housing developers and special-interest groups.

Friedson calls that narrative frustrating. While he has received large contributions from some developers, he has also received support from firefighter unions and more than 1,600 community members. He argues that, unlike his competitors, he ran an unopposed race in 2022, which allowed him to carry over money he didn’t need for his campaign at the time.

“We have ground to make up in order to reach county-wide and in order to communicate with voters,” he said. “That takes resources.”

Brian Anleu, vice president of government affairs for the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington, said the organization’s PAC chose to support Friedson because of his “pro-housing” record. However, he said AOBA also supports some of Glass’ efforts — they just aren’t able to contribute to his campaign due to public financing restrictions.

“[Friedson’s] been the champion for land use and zoning reform to create more supply of housing,” Anleu said.

Friedson said that he gets that not everyone likes or agrees with his ideas about fixing the housing crisis or his willingness to collaborate with developers.

“It’s a deeply emotional issue,” he said. “Everything is tied to a middle-class family’s housing. It’s where your kids are raised. It’s what access they have to opportunities. It’s where much of a middle-class family’s wealth is generated and accumulated.”

Friedson says caring for his infant daughter, Joelle, has given him a new perspective on public service and reinforced his motivation to run, as he considers whether Montgomery County will offer her the same opportunities he had growing up as a frustrated county student who was worried about bus safety.

“I do question very significantly what Montgomery County is going to look like. What are the services? What are the opportunities, whether or not we’re going to be the same compelling place for Joelle as this was for me?” he said. “Going home to Joelle at night is the reinforcement of what it is we’re doing here and why it matters.”