By Adam Pagnucco.
Of all the county council district members, no one shares County Executive Marc Elrich’s core base more than District 4’s Kate Stewart. Elrich was a Takoma Park City Council Member for 19 years, while Stewart was Mayor of Takoma Park for 7 years. In her successful race for council, Stewart dominated in Takoma Park and Downtown Silver Spring, which were Elrich’s biggest sources of vote margins in his race. So we should expect Stewart’s voters to correlate with Elrich’s voters and anyone else who follows their geography.
Let’s start with how Stewart voters voted for county executive.
As expected, Elrich crushed his opponents among Stewart voters and got an absolute majority. That’s not all – Hans Riemer, who ran well in Downtown Silver Spring and Takoma Park, finished second over David Blair by ten points.
Now let’s look at how Stewart voters voted in the council at-large race.
Stewart voters supported Will Jawando, Evan Glass, Laurie-Anne Sayles and Tom Hucker in that order. Glass was strong everywhere in the county. Jawando finished first in the southeast and east. Sayles shared many progressive endorsements with Stewart. Hucker represented Downtown Silver Spring and Takoma Park in the council and in the General Assembly for 16 years. There are no surprises here.
Stewart, along with Elrich, is the primary representative of Downtown Silver Spring and Takoma Park in county government. Expect that status to shape her career in county office in the future.