‘Proud of my record’: Q&A with county executive candidate Evan Glass

Second of Bethesda Today’s interviews with the three top Democratic contenders

May 28, 2026 8:00 a.m. | Updated: May 27, 2026 7:37 p.m.

At-large Montgomery County Councilmember Evan Glass is seeking the Democratic nomination for county executive in the June 23 primary election. Credit: Jacqueline Kalil

Editor’s note: Bethesda Today government and politics reporter Ceoli Jacoby and contributing editor Louis Peck recently sat down with the three leading candidates for the Democratic nomination for Montgomery County executive to discuss their views on major issues and their visions for the county. This week, Bethesda Today is running each candidate’s interview in Q&A format, in alphabetical order of the candidates’ names. (Each Q&A has been edited for length and organization.) For more information on the candidates, check out our 2026 Primary Election Voters Guide.

Wednesday: Andrew Friedson

Friday: Will Jawando

Evan Glass

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Age: 49 (born Jan. 30, 1977, Long Island, N.Y.)

Home: Silver Spring; married, no children

Education: bachelor of arts (journalism and political science), American University, Washington, D.C., 1999

Professional background: congressional producer and journalist, Cable News Network (1999-2011); director, Reingold Inc. (2011-2012); principal, Community Communications (2012-2014); executive director, Gandhi Brigade Youth Media (2014-2018)

What differentiates you most from your opponents — and what makes you the most qualified to be the next county executive?

Montgomery County needs a leader who will be able to bring everyone together, so that we can realize the future that is needed — and fight back against Donald Trump. I am proud of my record on the council, passing the largest number of laws and bringing people together to tackle the big issues. I’m a firm believer that anyone who considers themselves a progressive needs to make progress. I’m proud of the tangible progress I’ve made working with every member of the council [while] finding compromise.

What are the one or two laws you regard as the most significant among those that you worked to pass?

It’s a hard question; the laws I’ve passed range in scope and specificity. When I learned that nearly 700 people were being injured on our roads every year, I passed the Safe Streets Act to protect our neighbors who were walking, biking and driving.

At the same time, I recognized that it was too expensive to build housing in Montgomery County, so I made a technical change to how we collect impact taxes that makes it cheaper to build housing, by changing when taxes are paid. It has actually saved hundreds of thousands of dollars on individual projects — and we’re still collecting the same taxes. It’s just when those taxes are paid, so that interest is not paid to Wall Street — and so the savings are here locally. One is a broad-scale piece of legislation that immediately helps people and is understood. The other is a technical change. Those are just two examples.

If elected, you would be first openly LGBTQ county executive in county history. What do you consider to be the significance of that, and how would might it affect the way you approach the job?

When I first got elected in 2018, I wanted to celebrate [gay] pride in Montgomery County. People were going to Baltimore, to D.C., but we weren’t having any tangible events here. I raised the pride flag in 2019, and it was a wonderful coming together for the community.

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But then we got to my office, and I started hearing from people who didn’t think it was such a celebratory event. The volume of calls and the hateful nature of those calls was so bad that we contacted the police. They advised that we not answer our office phone for three days.

What we ended up doing was regrouping and planning for next year, and we successfully held events year after year.

This past June, we raised the pride flag for the seventh year in a row. When we got back to my office, you know how many phone calls we got? None. We persisted, we resisted, we continued spreading love and light across Montgomery County. That is what we need at this moment, and, at the same time, pushing back against Donald Trump and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the hatred. When I’m county executive, I’m going to continue spreading love and light, and resisting and persisting.

What would you identify as the biggest policy issue or political challenge currently facing Montgomery County, and if elected, what moves would you take or propose to address it?

The biggest challenge we are facing right now is a stagnant economy that is affecting our ability to support our budget. We have incredible resources and the goals [of making] Montgomery County more equitable and to provide the best education, but our financial future is in question. For far too long, we’ve rested our laurels on being a bedroom community to Washington, D.C. People would work in the federal workforce and contracting services, and expect those jobs to always be there. What Donald Trump and Elon Musk did was break that compact. They fired thousands of our neighbors and terminated contracts that are affecting our community.

We need to rethink our local economy, and I have two major priorities. First, we need to continue supporting our life sciences sector, which is the third largest in the country. There will be a day when [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] is no longer [Department of Health and Human Services] secretary, and public health will once again become a public good. My goal is to make our life sciences sector the No. 1 in the nation. That means we have to protect it and continue investing in it now.

What’s your other priority in seeking to expand the local economy?

Ninety-five percent of our businesses are small businesses, and it is too hard to operate a small business in Montgomery County. Rules and regulations that we have put in place with very good intentions over the last 10, 20, 30 years just don’t meet the moment anymore. I talk to entrepreneurs who want to open up a restaurant, but they have to hire a lawyer and a lobbyist just to do so. That means we have failed them.

So, on day one as county executive, I’m going to hire a director of permitting services who will begin going through rules and regulations and updating and modernizing them. We can do that while maintaining workplace safety, environmental standards, and employment fairness. It just means less paper pushing and less lawyers, because we need our small businesses to grow from small businesses to medium businesses. That’s the best way to grow as a community, and increase our tax revenue so that we can invest that in our schools and social safety network.

This year, you pushed back against a tax increase proposed by the current county executive for fiscal 2027. Three years ago, when you were council president, you worked to achieve council consensus around a 4.7% increase in property taxes. Why the hard line now as opposed to 2023, when there were also widespread concerns about affordability at a time of high inflation?

The difference between now and then is that thousands of our neighbors are unemployed and are scared for their economic future, because of the changes in the federal government. We should not be adding additionaleconomic anxiety to our community. People are worried about paying their rent and paying their mortgage, and we should not be adding to that burden by increasing taxes right now.

Back in 2023, I did lead the council in finding significant cost savings — reducing the proposed tax increase [by the county executive] by more than 50%. And because I worked with all of my colleagues, seven of us supported that compromise after tough decisions. Three of my colleagues did not support [the compromise tax increase] because it was not high enough. And one of my colleagues did not support it because he said he didn’t want any tax increases — despite supporting all the labor contracts, despite supporting Montgomery County Public Schools’ record-level budget increase. What you will always get with me is honest leadership, where I engage in the tough conversations.

You earlier mentioned leading the council to find “significant cost savings” during your time as council president. What are some examples of that?

I’ll give you two examples. We delayed hiring for jobs that had been vacant for more than a year. And services continued, right? So, we found cost savings and efficiencies within the workforce. But one of the examples I go to all the time is that, back in 2023, I also created the Economic Development Committee — restructuring the council, recognizing that change is good. And within the Economic Development Committee are urban districts — downtown Bethesda, downtown Wheaton, downtown Silver Spring.

Buried in that 10% property tax increase [proposed by County Executive Marc Elrich] was hundreds of thousands of dollars for rat-proof garbage cans in our downtown areas. Sure, we might need to improve some sanitation in certain areas of the county, but I was not going to raise taxes to provide rat-proof garbage cans for people who had not asked for them. We got rid of them. There’s a lot of examples like that: That’s how we were able to get the 10% [increase proposed by the county executive] down to 4.7%.

While we’re on the topic of cost savings, Elrich campaigned for a first term in 2018 on reorganizing county government to find savings that could be directed to new initiatives. This led to a consultant’s report in early 2021 suggesting that millions of dollars could be saved due to pending retirements in the county workforce. But the effort never advanced beyond that. Would you pursue such a county government reorganization if elected?

When Marc Elrich was elected county executive and I was elected to the council, I was most excited about reforming Montgomery County government and updating our processes. But that never happened on the executive side. The county government has not changed measurably in decades. We’ve just continued lumbering forward, adding to our size, adding to the budget, without making any measurable changes with regard to technology or the level of services, or the types of needs that are in our community now.

I absolutely believe our labor partners recognize that our current path is unsustainable. And for our workforce’s own benefit, we need to do things differently. Those are the tough challenges that the next executive faces. I think all departments and agencies should be reviewed to see if we are operating at the level that the year 2026 demands.

There’s a widespread perception that Montgomery County is at a disadvantage in competing with Northern Virginia. Elrich believes the problem is not higher taxes in Montgomery, but that businesses here see little direct benefit from such taxes — and has advocated for a system of higher tax rates for commercial properties, which Virginia jurisdictions have the option to create. He argues it would expedite construction of public infrastructure that would help attract private investment. Do you agree?

We absolutely need to look at what Northern Virginia is doing, because they’re eating our lunch. But it’s not simply the result of one tax difference. It’s systemic. Their leadership does not propose tax increases year after year after year, and they actually support small businesses through regulatory reform. So, it’s not a fair apples-to-apples comparison.

Back in 2022, the county executive convened a working group to figure out how to pay for infrastructure. I was part of this informal working group, with the [Montgomery County] Department of Transportation and some in private industry. We had agreed that a one-cent property tax increase would happen, and it would be devoted to bus rapid transit. The business community gave their approval for this at the early stage, and then, mere weeks later, the county executive introduced a 10% property tax increase, and the business community walked away. We had a framework in place, and the county executive’s decisions basically rendered all of our work… [Pause]. I’m trying to find a nice word here, but it was basically a waste of our time.

Housing affordability has been a major issue in the county, with competing perspectives on the County Council about how best to address it. What are your specific plans to decrease the cost of housing and increase the supply of homes people can afford?

I’m proud to have passed legislation that actually decreases the cost to build housing — as I shared earlier — by changing when impact taxes are paid. It is too expensive to live in Montgomery County. And I do firmly believe that if we want there to be more housing that is affordable, we need more housing. And that means being thoughtful in where we place that housing. I have strongly supported transit-oriented development, making sure that people can move into our community without having to purchase a car — as younger people prefer not to. I also recognize that we are nearly built out in Bethesda and Silver Spring and other transit hubs, and so we need to think differently.

I also reflect on the fact that right now, any home in Montgomery County can be torn down and rebuilt into a McMansion. And perhaps, sometimes, those homes should not be built into a McMansion. Maybe they should be built into a duplex so that the person who owns them can have their family live right next door — whether it’s a caregiver or an ailing parent — so that they don’t have to live far away. Our kids and grandkids are not moving back to Montgomery County, largely because the homes are too expensive and there [are] not enough jobs here. I’m open to suggestions that are smart, targeted, and result in more housing for more residents.

What is your view with regard to corridor-focused growth, particularly relating to the University Boulevard Corridor Plan and future plans utilizing a similar approach?

I live in Four Corners, along the University Boulevard Corridor, and there are actually homes that are being torn down and built into McMansions. And in a corridor where 82% of the residents are homeowners, I think they deserve the right to determine what they do with their homes, just like homeowners in all other parts of the county … and to determine what type of houses they have.

And ultimately, this plan was also about road safety. That is one of the most dangerous stretches of road in Montgomery County. We were working to make that road safer for everybody, especially students who go to Northwood High School or [Montgomery] Blair High School.

When you combine road safety and housing affordability, it resulted in the University Boulevard Corridor Plan, which I supported. Yeah, I know the transportation safety element of that plan got overshadowed by the housing changes. But it was definitely something that the [Montgomery Planning] folks who worked closely on that plan felt strongly was an equally important goal.

In 2023, there were competing proposals to enact rent stabilization. After keeping your powder dry for several months and not sponsoring either of them, you voted for the final version of the bill that passed the County Council. Three years later, do you have second thoughts and are there changes you would make to the current law, in light of one recent study indicating the law has had an adverse effect on housing construction?

In 2023, when I was council president, we were seeing people’s rent increase by double digits — 25%, 35%, 45%. It was happening, and it was unconscionable. So every member of the council supported rent control at some level. I tried to navigate the body, to find a reasonable level that would protect tenants, and also ensure that we continued building more housing. Every member of the council said that they wanted to protect tenants and also build housing for future residents. Three years later, we have done a very good job of protecting tenants, but we have failed at building more housing for future generations. That is a problem.

One-third of our residents in Montgomery County are foreign born. If we do not continue building more housing, we are walling ourselves off and telling people from around the world that we no longer have homes for them. Our kids and grandkids are moving elsewhere. We need to make sure that there’s a place for them to move back to — to care for their parents, to start their own families. And so we need to figure this out. I want to bring all of our stakeholders together, from our home builders to our tenant advocates, to determine what changes need to be made — because the goals that everybody stated when we passed this law I don’t think are being achieved right now.

When this law was passed, it was applied to rental housing at least 23 years old. Do you think this needs to be adjusted to include newer housing? And should the law be expanded to apply to smaller landlords in the county?

That [23-year threshold] was my proposal. As the legislation moved through the council and had majority support, it was at 15 years. We were told that 15 years is too short a time period for housing to be built and for the investors to be able to make a small profit. I led the effort to extend it to 23 years. As the legislation moved through the body, it originally covered everybody, and it was amended to exempt small landlords with two or fewer properties. Those are mom and pop investors, who are trying to create a nest egg for themselves and for their families — and who do not operate on the same margins as large institutions. So, I think we need to provide them with the latitude.

It also needs to be noted that at the same time that the county executive and others want to increase property taxes, they also want to change the rent control rate. The math doesn’t add up at some point in time, especially for mom and pop [investors] —who bought an apartment, and that’s their retirement. Or they want to pass it down to a child or a grandchild because other housing has gotten so expensive. So they’re renting it out in the meantime, and we need to help them.

MCPS recently approved a six-year, $2.7 billion capital improvements program. Superintendent Thomas Taylor has said the district’s capital needs are actually closer to $5 billion, but that the $2.7 billion is an amount MCPS hopes the county actually will be able to fund. What is your plan for how the county can avoid a backlog like this is the future, and, more immediately, is there a way to cut that $5 billion backlog while addressing some of the unsafe conditions in the public schools?

MCPS has been mismanaged for years. Budgets have not been transparent; money has gone to lawyers and lawsuits instead of to classrooms and students. I have been a leader on the council in calling for greater transparency of our budgeting process, and that goes to our operating budget and our capital budget. The debates that we are having right now, about schools and clusters, are a direct result of the county making billions of dollars of investments and then being told that changes were needed.

As county executive, I’m going to go to rebuild trust in the community with MCPS. I’m going to review those budgets with our students, our parents, our teachers and our taxpayers to make sure that what’s in that budget actually is the needs of our community — and that the money is going to where it’s supposed to go. We need to be open to all new ideas; what is currently being done is not working. Community trust has eroded. The budgets have exploded, and we need leadership that’s not going to rubber stamp [the MCPS] budget year after year.

On the subject of transparency, in 2023 there were some criticisms from your council colleagues toward you as council president on this front. One council member criticized you publicly — and there was some private grumbling as well — about the council going behind closed doors in a multi-day process to consider the budget. What is your response to the criticism pointed at you at the time? And, going forward, are there steps you might consider — as a former journalist — to improve the county’s communication with its citizens, on the budget and other issues as well?

Two very separate questions; I see how you tie them together, though. On the budget, I’m proud to have led the most transparent budget process that I have been a part of. People can share their thoughts in real time on multiple platforms, and just because you disagree with someone on a budget decision does not change the process. Leadership is difficult; not everybody has had the opportunity to serve as president of the council, and to lead 11 members to consensus. It’s very easy to criticize when you are a back bencher. That’s why I am very proud of my legislative track record and of my leadership, with bringing people together, finding consensus, and making actual progress. It doesn’t mean everyone agrees with it, but that’s leadership.

[Regarding] communication, it goes back to how our government has operated for decades. We need to update and modernize. We need to communicate with people where they choose to engage. Old-style cable television channels might not meet the mark in the year 2026. We need to do much more on social media. We need to do much more on other platforms. And that will require some changes internally.

One of your rivals for county executive has advocated for a two-year moratorium on construction of data centers in Montgomery County. You recently called for a six-moratorium — in the context of bill proposing a task force on the subject that did not move out of committee. If elected county executive, would you use your authority to bypass the council and implement a moratorium on data center development — and perhaps convene a task force on your own, as the executive in neighboring Frederick County did?

I was extremely disappointed when the council did not support a data center task force. Everybody has questions about data centers, including my colleagues, yet they did not want to create a task force that would be designed to answer these very specific questions. They were playing politics, and it was at the detriment of our community. The county executive currently has the ability to issue a moratorium. I also believe that since that task force was not created, a six-month pause is the right thing to do to answer those questions.

I’m not done with that effort. This is about our environment and the Potomac River and our land use. This is about ever-increasing utility costs, which is directly the result of data centers in Virginia and Ohio. And it is also about the community that we want to live in. We have to get this right, and that means doing our due diligence. That’s what a task force was designed to do.

Editor’s note: On May 5, after Bethesda Today conducted this interview, Glass introduced a bill to prevent the county’s Department of Permitting from accepting, reviewing or issuing building or grading permits for data center projects for a period of six months. The proposal is currently under the council’s consideration, with a public hearing scheduled for June 16. The clock on the moratorium would start as soon as the bill — if approved — takes effect.

You currently chair the council’s Transportation and Environment Committee, and earlier alluded to discussion several years ago of a tax increase to finance construction of bus rapid transit (BRT). In addition to the BRT line now running along Colesville Road, there are four other such lines in the design or planning stage. Would you support moving ahead with this effort if elected, and back a dedicated tax for funding it?

The bus rapid transit project was originally thought of by County Executive Elrich when he was on the council; nearly 20 years later, we still haven’t built it out. I am a huge proponent of public transportation: I had to get my own car to run for the County Council all those years ago, and still believe that we need to get out of the concept of single-occupancy vehicles for the betterment of our community.

I was part of a conversation in Annapolis that has allowed us to [obtain] more money for bus rapid transit [through bonds], which is what we’re currently doing. We need more dedicated funding for that, and so I think there needs to be some real conversations with the community as a whole. If we recognize that traffic is a problem, the solution should not necessarily be widening lanes, and building more roads; It needs to be rethinking how we use those roads. And that’s where public transportation is important — not only with the Purple Line, but with bus rapid transit as well.

Speaking of widening roads … former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) came up with the idea of a public-private partnership (P3) to widen the Beltway and I-270. Gov. Wes Moore (D) initially appeared to toss aside the idea of a P3 in favor of seeking federal funding. But recently, after a meeting with the U.S. transportation secretary, he seemed to revive the P3 option. What are your views regarding a potential widening of the Beltway and I-270, as well as reconstructing the American Legion Bridge?

We need to rebuild the American Legion Bridge: It is a bottleneck, and it is aging infrastructure. Gov. Moore was in the process of getting funding for the American Legion Bridge under the Biden administration, and then the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, and all the funding and support moved to Baltimore — understandably.

There are conversations about fixing the American Legion Bridge, but as far as I’m aware, nothing has changed with regard to the toll lanes in general. My primary concern all along was taking a public lane and turning it into private gain — an international company from Australia (Transurban) taking one of our public lanes. I’m an old-fashioned FDR Democrat, and still believe that if we want there to be public transit projects, the government should operate them and build them. That’s where I would prefer to go. We have seen how difficult large-scale transportation projects through public-private partnerships have been, notably with the Purple Line.

You noted earlier that the bus rapid transit system, which Elrich pushed when he was on the council, made very little progress during his years as executive. What kind of grade would you give him for his two terms in the executive office?

When I first got elected alongside County Executive Elrich, I was excited about the prospect of transforming county government, making the big structural change to which he had committed. That never happened. Those are details that sometimes were elusive. I also think that the county executive could have done a better job of realizing his visions if he worked more collaboratively with people.

I am proud of my record, serving as council president, and working with all of my colleagues on different pieces of legislation — recognizing that in government, you’ve got to work with everybody. And I think that is a major difference between me and my colleagues, including the current county executive — but notably, even my colleagues who are running for county executive. We have had elections here in Montgomery County that have been won or lost by 32 votes, and that means more than half of the voters are silenced. I’m the only one in this race who is able to work with everybody, and bring people together to solve the tough problems that we need to fix.

Realizing your background is journalism and not teaching, we’ll ask again — what kind of letter grade would you give Elrich, who happens to be a former teacher?

Needs improvement.

You’d be the eighth county executive since the county went to the current form of charter government more than a half-century ago. Is there one or more of your predecessors whom you regard as a role model?

Ike Leggett, for sure. Ike Leggett’s leadership is one of bringing people together, doing the tough work and moving forward — and that is exactly what my track record has been. It doesn’t mean you stake out a position and alienate everybody on day one. It means you sometimes have to negotiate and find common ground. And that is what I’ve done on the council.

My colleagues will only perpetuate the great divide in our political system, where they cannot speak to people who they disagree with. I’m the only one in this race who can work with everybody, we’ve got real issues here in Montgomery County that deserve leaders focused on solving these issues — so that we can remain united and fight Donald Trump and the existential issues down on Pennsylvania Avenue. That’s what my track record would be, and Ike Leggett is the leader I would aspire to be.

You have often said on the campaign trail that you are the only candidate in this race who has consistently used public financing for your campaigns. Why do you feel strongly about that?

Since getting elected, I am the only candidate who has consistently rejected corporate money and political action committee money. We see in Washington, D.C., the corrupting influence of special interests — and while Elon Musk may not be donating millions of dollars in Montgomery County, there are special interests that exist here. And I want people to know that I am making decisions that I believe are in their best interest. I never want anyone to second guess or to make assumptions. It doesn’t mean we’re always going to agree, but by being in public financing, it means that no one gets special access to me.

It’s no secret that, a couple of years ago, you seriously contemplated running for the U.S. House of Representatives if Jamie Raskin had given up his seat to run for U.S. Senate. If you are elected county executive, you could serve up to two terms, ending in 2034. Would you hold open the option of seeking another office between now and then?

I am fully committed to doing the job of county executive for two terms, because it’s the job that’s required right now. I never aspired to be an elected official. I used to be a journalist, working to ensure government worked for the people. And once I learned that I could make a real impact in my own community building sidewalks and supporting affordable housing, that’s what got me into a local government.

The first time I ever got a government paycheck was the first day I became a [County] Council member. which is a big difference between my colleagues and I. I never worked for elected officials; I never worked for members of Congress or state leaders. I’m here to work for the people of Montgomery County, and that’s what I’m committed to doing.

Louis Peck, a contributing editor for Bethesda Magazine, can be reached at lou.peck@bethesdamagazine.com.   

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine