Union representing most MoCo government workers won’t endorse in county executive race
UFCW Local 1994 MCGEO also refrains from backing Elrich for council seat
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Louis PeckMay 21, 2026 8:31 p.m.
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UFCW Local 1994 MCGEO—the union representing a majority of Montgomery County government workers–late Wednesday issued its endorsements for next month’s primary election, while declining to back a candidate for county executive.
MCGEO also pointedly did not endorse the term-limited incumbent executive, Democrat Marc Elrich, for an at-large seat on the County Council—capping an escalating series of disagreements the union has had with Elrich in recent years over management of the county government. Elrich had MCGEO’s endorsement when he ran for his current post in 2018 and 2022.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Local 1994 President Gino Renne said three different groups within MCGEO, including the union’s board, had deliberated on the county executive endorsement. “So, our decision wasn’t taken lightly, given its significance,” Renne said.
He added, “Unlike a lot of past executive races, there wasn’t a sufficient comfort level with any of the candidates to get an endorsement from the board, and hence the decision to stay out of it.”
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Renne said that a no-endorsement decision had occurred only once before in more than three decades of his union representing county workers—in 2014, when then-County Executive Ike Leggett, seeking a third term, was challenged by former County Executive Doug Duncan.
This year, after the board of Local 1994 initially decided not to endorse, the matter was discussed again following this month’s County Council consideration of the county budget for the next fiscal year.
According to Renne, at-large Councilmember Will Jawando, one of the five contenders for the Democratic nomination for county executive, “took such a public position in defending” union contracts negotiated with the county that “I felt it at least warranted another discussion at the board level.”
On Thursday, the council voted to adopt a $7.9 billion operating budget that included union-negotiated pay increases for firefighters, police, corrections officers, sheriff’s deputies and nonuniformed county government workers.
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But the union’s board reaffirmed its decision not to make an endorsement, with support for Jawando within MCGEO apparently dampened by his vocal advocacy of police reform legislation during his council tenure. MCGEO’s membership includes sheriff’s deputies and corrections officers, and nearly one-third of its more than 5,000 members are said to work in law enforcement and public safety-related roles.
Jawando’s leading rivals in the Democratic primary race are District 1 Councilmember Andrew Friedson and at-large Councilmember Evan Glass. Friedson previously won the endorsements of the unions representing county police officers and career firefighters—FOP Lodge 35 and IAFF Local 1664, respectively.
Jawando has the backing of the unions representing teachers and support staff in the county’s public schools: the Montgomery County Education Association and SEIU Local 500.
Meanwhile, simmering management disputes—ranging from the governance structure of the county’s pension system to a lack of progress on Elrich’s 2018 promise to restructure the county government bureaucracy—laid the foundation for MCGEO’s decision not to endorse the incumbent county executive’s bid for an at-large council seat.
“He was a great partner at the bargaining table—but what he could not appreciate was that once the contract is ratified and funded, and people get their [benefits] and get their wage increases, the contract takes a back seat to what they have to deal with on a daily basis in the workplace environment,” Renne observed.
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“The fact of the matter is that he was tone deaf to bad management and mistreatment of our members. As a result of that, he drove up our legal costs to a historic high, because we’re fighting over grievances that could be settled in a phone call,” he said. “Every step of the way, he’s allowed his administration to obstruct and resist common-sense good government and common-sense good labor relations.”
Elrich’s campaign did not immediately respond Thursday afternoon to Bethesda Today’s request for comment regarding Renne’s remarks.
Renne also noted that neither of the other two county government employee unions—IAFF Local 1664 and FOP Lodge 35—had endorsed Elrich for County Council this year. Local 1664 endorsed Elrich for executive in 2018 and 2022, while Lodge 35 remained neutral in the 2022 Democratic primary for executive after endorsing Elrich four years earlier.
MCGEO opted to make three endorsements for the four at-large council nominations up for grabs in this year’s Democratic primary: incumbent Laurie-Anne Sayles, former county Democratic Central Committee Chair Scott Goldberg and current Board of Education member Karla Silvestre.
In a county where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 4-1, victory in the Democratic primary is regarded as tantamount to re-election: There has not been a Republican elected to office in Montgomery County in nearly a quarter of a century.
IAFF Local 1664 late last week announced its endorsement of Goldberg, Silvestre, and Gaithersburg City Councilmember Jim McNulty for the at-large seats. FOP Lodge 35 also has endorsed Goldberg, McNulty and Silvestre.
Elrich did recently receive the endorsement of the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO, of which MCGEO is a part. That regional labor group also has endorsed Jawando.
“This is the first time, quite frankly, that we’ve taken opposite positions [to the AFL-CIO] on so many candidates because typically I’m a big proponent of solidarity,” Renne said. “But at the end of the day, if the candidate does not fit the needs, hopes, and dreams of my membership, then we’ll lone wolf it.”
In district council contests, MCGEO on Wednesday announced its endorsements of Board of Education member Julie Yang for the District 1 seat being vacated Friedson, and Rockville City Councilmember Izola Shaw for the open District 3 seat. Incumbents Kate Stewart (District 4), Kristin Mink (District 5) and Dawn Luedtke (District 7) also were endorsed.
But the union declined to endorse current County Council President Natali Fani-Gonzalez for re-election in District 6 — in the wake of Fani-Gonzalez’s proposal during recent budget deliberations that negotiated raises for union workers be cut back.
“We’ve always been a proud supporter of hers,” said Renne, noting that MCGEO had endorsed Fani-Gonzalez four years ago and in an earlier run for the General Assembly’s House of Delegates. “But when she proposed the budget and one of the first things on the chopping block were the union contracts, she put me in an untenable position.”
“We were moving forward with her endorsement, and we had a redo because of the budget situation and dynamics around it,” Renne said, while striking a conciliatory tone toward Fani-Gonzalez: “I look forward to getting back on the same page with her … but it’s going to take a little time to rebuild our trust with her. I’m comfortable that we will get there.”
Also not endorsed by MCGEO this year was District 2 Councilmember Marilyn Balcombe, currently the council’s vice president, after Balcombe—along with several incumbent state legislators seeking re-election—declined to withdraw their endorsements of the re-election of Sheriff Maxwell Uy.
The union also did not endorse District 17 Sen. Cheryl Kagan and Dels. Lily Qi (District 15) and Joe Vogel (District 17) for the same reason, although Kagan and MCGEO have had a frosty relationship going back several decades over other issues.
MCGEO has endorsed a challenger to Uy, former Prince George’s Chief Assistant Sheriff Will Milam, while sharply criticizing Uy’s management of the sheriff’s office.
“We gave all the entire Montgomery County political infrastructure the opportunity based on just cause, if you will, to withdraw support of an incumbent who has maintained a hostile work environment for our members in the sheriff’s office,” Renne said. “You can’t profess to be a supporter of labor and a supporter of workers, and then consciously continue to allow your wagon to be hitched to an elected official who [has] allowed his staff to be abused, threatened, and intimidated.”
In recent comments, Uy has acknowledged that some of his decisions related to low staffing issues in the sheriff’s office have caused unhappiness, but has maintained that MCGEO’s criticisms of the sheriff’s office are not accurate.
Louis Peck, a contributing editor for Bethesda Magazine, can be reached at lou.peck@bethesdamagazine.com.
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine