Will Jawando’s big win was years in the making

In Maryland’s most expensive local race, Will Jawando’s strong base of support and powerful endorsement propelled the County Council member past a candidate who far outspent him.

Jawando, who declared victory on Friday and as of Monday had won more than 40% of the vote, will almost certainly be sworn in as the next Montgomery County executive in December. Primaries generally decide elections in the deep-blue county.

“We just built the broadest, most diverse coalition of people,” Jawando, 43, said in an interview on Monday.

“We had a message that resonates right now, of fighting and supporting working people who are feeling like it’s becoming harder and harder to make it,” he added.

Jawando and two of his council colleagues, Andrew Friedson and Evan Glass, were long considered frontrunners in the five-person field. Internal polling from the three Democrats, who were aligned on many issues, showed the race could be a nail-biter.

Jawando raised and spent far less than his closest opponent. His supporters and others who closely followed the race say he prevailed by growing his base of support during several campaigns and eight years as a council member — and thanks to endorsements from Gov. Wes Moore and the influential Montgomery County Education Association.

The at-large council member had won county-wide twice before, in 2018 and 2022. But also he lost races for state delegate in 2014 and U.S. House in 2016. And he ran for U.S. Senate in 2023 but dropped out after a few months.

Now, as the top official in Maryland’s most populous county, which some consider the state’s economic engine, his political profile is sure to rise.

Jawando positioned himself as the most progressive candidate in the race, with plans to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for after-school programming and child care, and maintain caps on rent increases to protect low-income tenants.

He also aligned himself with public sector unions during a budget battle this spring that centered on the unions’ contracts with the county government. The unions had already endorsed Jawando, but the budget negotiations gave him an opportunity to stand out.

Jawando did not win the money race.

He and Glass relied on the county’s public campaign financing program, which limited their fundraising. Friedson raised more than Jawando and Glass combined — nearly $2.4 million, according to campaign finance reports that cover spending through early June.

Friedson also spent millions more than his rivals, and drew criticism from opponents who alleged that he would be beholden to the developers and real estate firms that contributed to his campaign.

The Affordable Maryland PAC, a group funded by real estate and business interests, also spent more than $1 million in the race, including several hundred thousand dollars for television ads attacking Jawando.

Jawando, though, also benefitted from outside spending.

The Working Families Party PAC, a Brooklyn-based group that backed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, had spent $88,000 to support Jawando as of mid-June.

The PAC’s contributions triggered an anonymous complaint to the State Board of Elections, which alleged that Jawando’s campaign coordinated with the group and violated campaign finance laws.

The board, though, cleared the campaign of any wrongdoing.

A strong base

Former Montgomery County Council member Nancy Navarro said Jawando connected with “certain communities,” including immigrants and African American communities, that other candidates often overlook.

“There needs to be a revamping of the usual political formula,” said Navarro, who endorsed Jawando. “And I think Will was able to do that very effectively.”

Both Friedson and Glass declined to comment for this story.

Friedson’s campaign touted his work to expand government services for immigrants and support entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities. He also won support from the CERG PAC 2.0, which raises money to support candidates who align with its mission of “advancing economic success for Black residents.”

Ron Wright, who leads the CERG PAC’s community engagement efforts, said that Navarro is correct about Jawando appealing to communities in the county that’ve been overlooked. But, he said, “she omits what Andrew has done.”

“He certainly has demonstrated his heart for the people of Montgomery County,” he said.

And Glass’s team pointed to his efforts to close the gender and racial wage gap in county government and to a task force he created to address the rising incidences of racial, ethnic, gender and sexual-orientation-based hate and violence.

Council President Natali Fani-González, who endorsed Glass, said Jawando won because he brought together groups and people “who care about everyday issues,” like access to affordable housing.

“He was able to speak to the realities of communities,” she said.

Jawando’s supporters also say his lived experiences resonated with voters.

He is the son of a father who emigrated from Nigeria and a white mother who raised him in Long Branch after she and his father split.

Jawando has said his family had little money and that his mother was often on the hunt for a more affordable apartment. By eighth grade, he had moved five times.

He’s now a homeowner with eight others — including his wife, four children, a niece and in-laws — living under his roof.

Jawando has said that his many living arrangements made him uniquely qualified for the role.

Fred Yang, pollster to Jawando and many of Maryland’s most high-profile candidates, including Moore, said his research showed Jawando particularly enjoyed strong support among Black, Latino and Asian American and Pacific Islander voters.

That base, Jawando’s “home port in the storm,” helped him weather negative advertising campaigns in the final weeks of the race, Yang said.

Jawando’s support was strongest in the eastern part of the county, where he was raised and now lives with his family. A Banner analysis of voting data shows he also garnered strong support in and around Gaithersburg.

With only provisional ballots left to count, it appears Jawando’s margin of victory will be more decisive than recent Montgomery County executive races. He was leading Friedson, his closest opponent, by nearly 6,700 votes on Monday.

Outgoing executive Marc Elrich won his 2018 and 2022 primaries by a combined 109 votes.

Key endorsements

Without public polling, internal polls conducted by candidates presented political observers’ their only gauge of how close the race would be.

Ike Leggett, county executive from 2006 to 2018, said candidates’ internal polling showed the race would be tight.

The polls, though, also showed a significant number of undecided voters. Leggett said this group pushed Jawando over the top.

Support from the county teachers union, whose members hand out “Apple Ballot” flyers with the union’s preferred candidates to voters arriving at polling places, likely swayed some of them.

“He’s been very active in the community for a long period of time, and it built up a large network of supporters that were able to come out and take advantage of the undecided voters,” Leggett said of Jawando.

But the governor’s endorsement, Yang said, was critical.

Moore refrained from weighing into the Montgomery County executive race during his first round of endorsements in May, but he threw his weight behind Jawando in a second batch announced in early June.

Jawando had endorsed Moore early on during his first campaign for governor, and he dropped out of a U.S. Senate race in 2023 to throw his support behind then-Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a Moore ally. Alsobrooks, now a U.S. senator, also endorsed Jawando in the race.

Yang said endorsements can play a significant role in Montgomery County executive races. The Washington Post Editorial Board‘s endorsement was coveted among local candidates before the paper ceased the practice.

In 2022, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin’s eleventh-hour endorsement of Elrich helped him squeak out a win over Blair, for whom Yang was working at the time.

“This is 110% Will Jawando’s victory. But I think having the base of voters he had, and then I think the governor coming at the end adding further validation,” put him over the top, he said.