Green Party candidate takes on Vanessa Atterbeary for Howard County executive

A Green Party candidate from Ellicott City is challenging Vanessa Atterbeary for Howard County executive in the 2026 general election.

Nater Kane decided to enter the contest in July after realizing Atterbeary’s victory in the primary election meant she was running unopposed in November.

County Executive Calvin Ball is term-limited, and no Republicans have stepped forward to challenge the former Maryland lawmaker, who beat out three other Democrats for the party nomination in June. If Atterbeary wins, she will become the first woman in 40 years and the first-ever Black woman to serve in the office.

“People do deserve a choice,” Kane said of his candidacy this week.

The 47-year-old said he spent most of his adolescence in Ellicott City and was close with his grandparents, who lived nearby in Columbia. Kane has a background in digital graphic design, auto repair and contract work in the public sector.

He has at times registered as a Democrat and unaffiliated but switched to the Green Party for the current election cycle. Kane briefly considered running for county executive four years ago against Calvin Ball, whom he describes as “a nice person,” but decided to focus instead on building an online tool for job seekers. The tool, which allows job applicants to provide feedback on recruiters, was partly inspired by his own struggles in the job market.

Kane said he has gone without a steady income for the last five years, accruing five figures in credit card debt, and worries he will need to list his house for sale soon. He cannot use Howard County’s citizen election fund, which provides public financing for candidates who agree to not accept money from certain private interest groups, because he filed to run for office after the deadline to qualify.

Kane said his personal financial struggles will inform his campaign for county executive.

“I know firsthand how hard it is,” he said, adding that he wants to develop policies that “make people’s lives more humane.”

Some of those policies include:

• Moving the county away from outsourcing some of its services to nonprofits and private companies, such as transportation for public school students.
• Capping the county executive’s salary, which is $238,504 in 2026, to no more than five times Howard’s minimum wage of $16 an hour, or about $166,000 a year.
• Stabilizing rent by tethering increases to 2.25% or the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ consumer price index, whichever is cheaper.

“We have to do the things that allow people to have the kind of life that Howard County wants to promise, or claims to promise,” Kane said.

Education, which was a major issue for candidates during the primary race, is also important to Kane. He believes that the Howard County school system failed him after he attended classes held in temporary trailers and drank from water fountains with lead pipes. He wants to address the system’s maintenance backlog by making changes to the county’s tax formula and ensuring that everyone pays their fair share.

Howard’s school board and county leaders have faced funding shortfalls in recent budget cycles that have forced officials to make tough decisions every spring as they prepare the annual budget.

“I think that I have a lot to offer everybody in this county,” Kane said.