Action in Montgomery quizzes MoCo candidates on its ‘People’s Agenda’
Multi-faith community organization event among most well-attended this election cycle; housing, healthy homes and immigration were key issues
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Ceoli JacobyApril 23, 2026 5:25 p.m.
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Make a ContributionAbout 460 members of more than two dozen religious congregations gathered at Olney’s Harvest Intercontinental Church on Wednesday for an evening of song, prayer and conversation with candidates running for Montgomery County offices in the June 23 primary election.
The event, put together by the multi-faith community organization Action in Montgomery (AIM), began with individual interviews of the 17 Democratic candidates for four at-large seats on the County Council. The interview round was followed by a forum featuring six of the seven candidates running for county executive in the June 23 primary election.
“At AIM … we are known for identifying issues affecting people’s day-to-day lives and then supporting concrete and quantifiable solutions to address them,” said AIM member Marla Schulman ahead of the county executive forum. “We’re looking to identify elected officials with whom we can work together.”
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Participating Democratic candidates in the county executive forum included Councilmembers Evan Glass and Will Jawando (both D-At-large) and Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1), along with Silver Spring project manager Mithun Banerjee and Gaithersburg businessman Peter James. Republican candidate Esther Wells also participated.
AIM spokesperson Katie Wenger told Bethesda Today all seven county executive candidates were invited to participate, but Republican Shelly Skolnick was unable to attend.
The organization is publishing all candidate responses from Wednesday’s event on its website.
‘People’s agenda’
During the county executive forum, AIM members Sara Hull and Schulman asked the candidates questions related to the organization’s “People’s Agenda,” which lists housing, healthy homes and immigration among the community’s top priorities for 2026.
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Before questions were asked of the candidates, three other members of AIM spoke about the three prongs of the group’s agenda.
“My kids are 35 and 38 and have good jobs,” AIM member Lynne Stein Benzion told the forum audience. “Yet they are both stuck in rental housing, with lease terms and costs beyond their control and increasing faster than their wages do.”
Ibrahima Diallo, an eighth grader at Germantown’s Neelsville Middle School, spoke about AIM’s “healthy homes” agenda item, saying people should not have to live in places with mice, mold or gas appliances.
“My aunt, who took care of me while my parents were working, and my cousin currently live in an apartment like the one I just described, so this makes the issue very personal to me,” Diallo said.
On immigration, AIM member Ramatou Bakori noted that forum attendees and Montgomery County residents in general “came from every corner of the world.”
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“Our language and cultures may be different, but our hopes are the same,” she said. “We want our children to be safe. We want to contribute to the community we call home, … but right now, our families are being torn apart by [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and our immigrant community is living in fear.”
Immigrant legal aid
In response to a question about county-provided legal representation for immigrants detained by ICE, Friedson said the county currently partners with trusted nonprofit organizations to help county residents in need of assistance.
“We can build on that,” Friedson said. “We must, because it is part of our solemn responsibility as a local government to protect our residents.”
Jawando said if he is elected county executive, he would make legal representation for immigrant residents a line item in the annual county operating budget, rather than have the county continue to award grants to nonprofit organizations to provide the service.
“I’ll also make sure that organizations like CASA and others … have the resources they need to help residents,” Jawando said, referring to the immigrant advocacy group We Are CASA.
Glass spoke about his work on immigration as a councilmember, including the council’s unanimous passage of the ICE Out Act on Tuesday. He said he will soon introduce another piece of legislation that would add an additional level of screening for applicants to county public safety jobs who have previously worked for ICE or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“We have to do everything in our power to love and protect our neighbors,” he said, adding that he would also make legal services for immigrants a line item in the county budget.
Banerjee said if elected he would direct county police to respond to all in-progress immigration detentions to enforce the federal requirement for a judicial warrant to search or make arrests at private homes.
James, a small robotics company owner who has made opposition to big tech a central part of his messaging, said the county could help prevent detentions of immigrant residents by shutting down traffic camera feeds and license plate readers that could be used to locate them.
Housing and ‘healthy homes’
On the subject of housing, Glass and Friedson both said the county should co-locate housing projects near schools, libraries, transit hubs and other public facilities.
Wells said she would work to create new housing in a sustainable way that doesn’t overburden the county’s taxpayers. She said she is also focused on helping county residents move from being renters to homeowners so they can build “generational wealth.”
With regard to “healthy homes” — specifically, the presence of gas appliances in rental housing — Jawando said he would mandate landlords disclose expected energy costs for rental units.
“If you’re gonna be paying 800 bucks a month from an inefficient system, you should know that before you sign the lease,” he said.
He added that he would use a provision in the county’s rent stabilization law to prevent landlords from raising rents if levels of noxious gases from appliances exceed healthy limits.
“You need both incentives and mandates, and that’s what I’ll do as county executive,” Jawando said.
Wells said part of the reason residents’ electricity bills continue to go up is because current state and county policies do not allow for “energy choice.”
“As county executive, I will ensure in these older homes that we do hold landlords accountable for ensuring that there are safe spaces for tenants to be and those appliances are operating properly,” she said. “But we do not need to paint with a broad brush and take away choice from our residents.”
The primary election, in which voters select their party’s nominees, is June 23. The general election is Nov. 3.
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine