One week out from primary election day, where do MoCo Council races stand?
Yang appears to have won Dist. 1 open seat, Dist. 3 contest too close to call; mail-in ballot count resumes Wednesday
By
Ceoli JacobyJune 30, 2026 12:00 p.m.
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One week out from the June 23 gubernatorial primary election, Montgomery County election workers have yet to process more than 15,000 remaining mail-in and roughly 5,000 provisional ballots.
In some contested County Council races, just a few hundred ballots could make the difference in determining who wins the Democratic nomination. In others, candidates have a clear path toward election in November.
Here’s a look at where the voter counts stand:
Four at-large seats
Three of four at-large seats on the County Council were open this election cycle.
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At-large Councilmembers Evan Glass and Will Jawando sought the Democratic nomination for county executive instead of re-election to a third term. Though ballots are still being counted, Jawando appears to have won his party’s nomination, defeating Glass and fellow Councilmember Andrew Friedson (D-Dist. 1).
Gabe Albornoz resigned his at-large seat last year to lead the county’s Department of Recreation. Councilmember Shebra Evans (D-At-large), who was appointed to finish Albornoz’s term, pledged not to run for office this year as a condition of her appointment.
Those decisions made Laurie Anne-Sayles the lone incumbent in the Democratic primary for County Council at-large. As of Tuesday, she was second out of 17 at-large candidates with about 12.6% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Maryland State Board of Elections.
The top vote-getter in the Democratic primary for council at-large was County Executive Marc Elrich, who sought a return to the council after a 2024 referendum barred him from serving a third term in his current post. As of Tuesday, he had 14.7% of the vote.
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Third in the at-large race as of Tuesday was Scott Goldberg, the former chair of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee. He had 12% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the state elections board.
Two candidates — county Board of Education member Karla Silvestre and attorney Fatmata Barrie — are jockeying for the fourth spot. Barrie held the edge after all precincts reported results on election night, but Silvestre has pulled ahead during the mail-in ballot count. As of Tuesday, Silvestre had 40,319 votes to Barrie’s 39,422, unofficial results show.
Both candidates have issued statements urging patience during the counting process.
“Voters participated in this election in different ways, and we owe it to every one of them to let the process work,” Silvestre said in a statement from her campaign after the close of polls on June 23. “We are hopeful, we are patient, and we are grateful.”
In a June 25 statement on social media, Barrie said she is “grateful beyond words” for the support her campaign received.
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“We will see this process through and remain hopeful about the road ahead and the opportunity to serve and fight for all of Montgomery County,” she said.
District 1
Friedson, like Jawando and Glass, had to forgo seeking re-election to a third term on the council to run for county executive.
County school board member Julie Yang is the apparent winner of the Democratic primary for council District 1, which includes Bethesda, Chevy Chase and surrounding areas. As of Tuesday, she was first out of three candidates with about 48.7% of the vote.
Yang’s opponents in the Democratic primary, longtime Elrich aide Debbie Spielberg and transportation policy adviser Drew Morrison, both posted statements on social media in recent days congratulating Yang on her victory.
In a Monday statement to Bethesda Today, Yang said Spielberg and Morrison ran “impressive campaigns that centered on our community.”
“Though the [Democratic] primary is over, my commitment to building a stronger Montgomery County continues,” Yang wrote. “I look forward to earning the support of [the] community this fall and, ultimately, serving every resident with integrity, compassion, and a commitment to delivering results.”
Yang will face Reardon Sullivan, the past chair of the Montgomery County Republican Party, in the Nov. 3 general election. Sullivan ran unopposed for his party’s nomination.
District 3
District 3 — which includes the incorporated municipalities of Rockville, Gaithersburg and Washington Grove — will also have a new representative on the council come December. The district’s current councilmember, Democrat Sidney Katz, is term-limited.
As of Tuesday, two candidates for the Democratic nomination in District 3 were still neck-and-neck. Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman had 6,525 votes to Rockville City Councilmember Izola Shaw’s 6,101 votes. Former federal worker Allison Eriksen was third with 1,435 votes.
Data from the state elections board as of 6 p.m. Monday shows there were at least 1,925 mail-in ballots left to count from District 3 voters — enough to potentially change the trajectory of the race.
There were also about 5,000 provisional ballots cast countywide, some of which are likely to be from District 3 voters. Elections officials can begin counting provisional ballots on Wednesday, when the mail-in ballot canvass is also set to resume.
In a June 24 statement posted to social media, Ashman offered a “fond salute” to his opponents in the District 3 race. “It has been a hard fought campaign,” he wrote. “Everyone made their cases, left it all on the field and gave the voters real choices, which is what you want in a democracy.”
Shaw told Bethesda Today in a Tuesday phone interview that she remains optimistic about the election outcome. Whoever wins the Democratic primary, she said, “I still would be an elected official and I will still continue to work with [Ashman]” on behalf of District 3 residents.
Other council districts
Council President Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6) and Councilmembers Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4), Kristin Mink (D-Dist. 5) and Dawn Luedtke (D-Dist. 7) all appeared to have fended off Democratic primary challenges and are on their way to re-election in November.
Out of the incumbents for district council seats, Fani-González appeared to have won her party’s nomination by the slimmest margin. As of Tuesday, unofficial results showed she had about 64.5% of the vote to biologist Sonia Garcia’s 35.5%.
District 6 includes Wheaton, Aspen Hill, Glenmont, Kemp Mill and North Kensington.
Stewart and Mink both received more than 80% of the Democratic votes in their districts.
Unofficial results as of Tuesday showed Stewart received about 82.6% of the vote, putting her far ahead of local education advocate Paula Bienenfeld and Peter “Rocky” Whitesell, a former National Institutes of Health employee. District 4 includes Takoma Park, North Bethesda, Kensington, Garrett Park and parts of Silver Spring and Chevy Chase.
Mink had about 83.5% of the vote in the District 5 Democratic primary as of Tuesday, according to unofficial results. Her lone challenger, technology sales manager Charles Kirchman, had about 16.6% of the vote.
Like Stewart, Luedtke — whose district covers the northeastern part of the county — faced two Democratic primary challengers this election cycle.
As of Tuesday, unofficial results showed Luedtke was first with about 66.5% of the vote, followed by former Montgomery County police officer Sharif Hidayat with about 19.3% of the vote. In third was small business owner Van Free with about 14.2% of the vote.
Council Vice President Marilyn Balcombe (D-Dist. 2) was unopposed in her primary. She also is unopposed in the Nov. 3 general election, practically guaranteeing her a second term.
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine