In bid to unseat a District 18 delegate, first-time candidate ruffles feathers

Challenger Kate Stein privately took aim at Del. Aaron Kaufman's spot in General Assembly

June 12, 2026 8:00 a.m. | Updated: June 11, 2026 7:42 p.m.

Del. Aaron Kaufman (D-Chevy Chase), one of three District 18 delegates, is pictured at the Mobilize Montgomery Federal Workforce Career Center in Wheaton. Credit: Benjamin Sky Brandt for the Montgomery County Council

Leading up to the Feb. 24 deadline to file as a candidate in this year’s June 23 gubernatorial primary election, three incumbent delegates for state legislative District 18 said they felt sure they would not attract any challengers. Then came candidate Kate Stein.

During a Monday candidate forum hosted by the District 18 Breakfast Club in Silver Spring and featuring the four candidates, Stein, of Chevy Chase, acknowledged that her decision to run for delegate in this month’s Democratic primary election “surprised a lot of people — maybe myself included.”

Ultimately, Stein said, she decided to run because “there’s still a huge gap for a lot of people between what the state offers and a decent life.”

“That’s true, at least in part, because of choices that are made in Annapolis,” she told the crowd at Silver Spring’s Parkway Deli on Monday. “I think to have better choices, which we all deserve, we do need some new voices.”

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Stein, 58, is a relative newcomer to Maryland’s political scene. She retired from her consulting job at Deloitte in 2023 to become a “full-time volunteer advocate,” she wrote in response to Bethesda Today’s 2026 Voters Guide questionnaire.

As part of her second act, Stein joined the influential Women’s Democratic Club of Montgomery County and the county’s volunteer Commission on Aging.

More recently, she was a 2025 participant in the University of Maryland’s Legacy Leadership Institute on Public Policy — a program that connects state residents age 50 and older to volunteer opportunities during the 90-day Maryland General Assembly session — and a 2026 alumna of Emerge Maryland, which trains women to run for public office.

District 18 — encompassing parts of Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, Bethesda and Kensington — is currently represented in the state House of Delegates by Dels. Aaron Kaufman, 39, (D-Chevy Chase), and Emily Shetty, 42, and Jared Solomon, 41, (both D-Kensington). All three are seeking re-election to their seats.

Candidate forum jabs

There appeared to be some bad blood between the incumbents and Stein during Monday’s candidate forum. At one point, Shetty accused Stein of “misleading” attendees about how often she votes, pointing out that while she has “definitely had a consistent voting record in the federal election, she has missed multiple gubernatorial primary elections while living in Maryland.

Solomon during the forum called out Stein for one of her responses to a Baltimore Sun voters guide questionnaire in which she wrote she would not have gotten herself excused from a vote on a controversial special elections bill, as Solomon did.

“The reason I was excused was because I was actually with my wife at a doctor’s appointment,” Solomon said, noting his wife experienced a scare with skin cancer. “It’s really kind of insulting and disappointing that my opponent who’s running on a platform of supporting caregivers … had the audacity to impugn my character in the Baltimore Sun.”

In a Tuesday statement to Bethesda Today, Stein said she did not remember whether she voted in the 2014 or 2018 gubernatorial primary elections, but that she is registered and does vote regularly.

“I was a full- time working parent for many years and, if I was in town and not at a client site, I likely decided that I could not take the time off of work in order to vote in the primary,” she wrote, adding that she had “no intention of running for office at the time.”

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In response to Solomon’s statement about her own response to the Baltimore Sun, Stein wrote she was “not aware of the nature of this absence” and had apologized to Solomon for singling it out when asked to list a recent General Assembly vote she would have cast differently.

She added that people would be “hard-pressed to scrutinize” her opponents’ responses to voter guides, noting she was the only District 18 candidate to respond to the Baltimore Sun questionnaire. As of Thursday, Stein also was the only candidate to respond to Bethesda Today’s candidate questionnaire for its voters guide.

“One might guess that they had hoped to run unopposed and then trusted that you would remember their names and not mine and so they would not have to campaign at all,” Stein wrote of her opponents.

Request to team up denied

Almost immediately after jumping into the District 18 delegate race, Stein ruffled feathers.

In a Tuesday interview with Bethesda Today, Shetty recounted a Feb. 26 phone call in which Stein asked to team up with her and Solomon to oppose Kaufman’s re-election bid. Shetty said Stein earlier approached Solomon with the same offer.

During the call, Shetty alleged, Stein made “ableist” comments about Kaufman, who was born with cerebral palsy. Ableism refers to discrimination against people with disabilities.

Shetty declined to repeat the comments to Bethesda Today, but recalled hanging up from the conversation “pretty upset.”

“I didn’t appreciate hearing such negative comments about someone I consider to be a friend,” Shetty told Bethesda Today.

Solomon confirmed he spoke with Stein shortly after she filed to run for delegate, but he declined to discuss the details of their conversation with Bethesda Today. Kaufman told Bethesda Today he was aware of Stein’s attempt to knock him off the District 18 team, but said he had not spoken with her about it as of Tuesday.

“I’m used to being underestimated,” Kaufman said. “I’ve been dealing with people’s stigmas and preconceptions around cerebral palsy for my whole life.”

In a Tuesday interview with Bethesda Today, Stein confirmed that she approached both Shetty and Solomon about running as a team for District 18 delegate, but denied making ableist comments about Kaufman.

“I have not and would not,” Stein said, adding she did not know what comments Shetty was referring to.

Stein also provided Bethesda Today with a text message she sent Shetty following their Feb. 26 phone call thanking her for the earlier conversation.

“I ask you to consider: Are we aligned? Do you think I will be effective in engaging with constituents, businesses, other legislators? Do you think I will be more effective than others? Particularly now, I think these are important questions,” the message read in part.

Stein told Bethesda Today her qualms with Kaufman stemmed from an online Progressive Maryland call during which she said Kaufman “took credit” for a bill barring local jurisdictions from entering into formal agreements with U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). Progressive Maryland is a statewide nonprofit advocacy organization with a presence in county Democratic politics.

“We need someone who’s going to fight, and who’s not going to take credit for the fight that other people have waged,” Stein said.

Kaufman was one of more than 80 delegates who sponsored the House version of the bill, which Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed into law in February. Shetty and Solomon were also among the sponsors.

Legislative accomplishments

Despite the terse exchanges toward the end of Monday’s forum, all four candidates also used the time to tout their legislative accomplishments and make their cases to voters.

Stein spoke about a General Assembly bill to establish a feasibility study for a statewide caregiver support program, which she championed as the advocacy chair for the county Women’s Democratic Club. Moore signed the bill into law late last month, with Stein in attendance.

Solomon said he has focused heavily on early childhood education during his eight years in the General Assembly, helping to put together a “massive package of child care support” using COVID relief funds and working to increase provider reimbursement rates.

Shetty said she has been a strong advocate for expanding access to health care, working to codify the state’s guarantee of zero-cost preventative care and to reform the way the state funds its hospital network.

Kaufman said he is proud to have been the lead sponsor of legislation to crack down on scams targeting seniors’ public benefits. He also said he brings a unique perspective to the state legislature.

“I am the only individual in the Maryland General Assembly with cerebral palsy, and I think I may be the only one that is disabled. So if I am not re-elected, that voice will be lost,” Kaufman said.

Recent campaign finance reports show the three incumbent delegates held a significant financial edge over Stein less than a month before primary Election Day, thanks in part to fundraising throughout their current terms.

Kaufman, first elected in 2022, reported raising nearly $92,750, with about $129,500 remaining in his campaign treasury as of mid-May. Shetty and Solomon, both first elected in 2018, reported total fundraising of $85,930 and $122,550, respectively; Shetty had just under $76,700 remaining on hand, with about $98,500 for Solomon.

Stein reported raising a total of $16,650 and loaning her own campaign $25,000. As of mid-May — the end of the period covered by the most recent round of finance reports — she had $21,534 remaining on hand.

The top three vote-getters in the District 18 delegate primary are guaranteed a return to Annapolis next year because no Republicans have filed to run in that constituency in November. District 18 Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher (D-Kensington), seeking his third term, is unopposed in both the primary and general elections this year. He previously served three terms as a delegate.

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine