Voters will select Prince George’s next county executive on June 3, with State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy (D) facing off against Air Force veteran Jonathan White (R) for the seat.
The next executive is entering the office amid serious economic concerns for Prince George’s, including the closing of Six Flags and the Trump administration’s efforts to fire federal workers and shrink the federal government.
Interim County Executive Tara Jackson has been serving since December after U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks was elected to the Senate and resigned from her position leading Prince George’s.
Despite the shifts the county is navigating, Braveboy is excited about taking on and overcoming challenges with innovative ideas.
“While some might look at it as assets leaving, I look at it as an opportunity to create something bigger and better,” Braveboy, who has served as Prince George’s state’s attorney since 2018, told NBC Washington.
She also expressed support for community policing, tutoring programs, and cleaning up litter.
“I am confident but not cocky, that we have done what we needed to do to secure a victory,” the state’s attorney said. “I want to unify the county, focus on cleaning up the county, expanding our commercial tax base, and increasing public safety.”
Braveboy won in a contested Democratic primary against former County Executive Rushern Baker, County Councilmembers Calvin Hawkins (D-At-Large) and Jolene Ivey (D-At-Large), the latter of whom dropped out of the race three weeks before the special primary, State Sen.Alonzo Washington (D-District 22), and several others.
Jonathan White, the Republican nominee, served in the Air Force for 20 years and also ran for the County Council in previous years as a Democrat.
He describes himself as a “concerned citizen” and promised a new approach to address property taxes and education.
“Political experience is not a requirement of good leadership, I think the county needs a leader instead of another politician,” he said in an interview with CTV. He pledged to do a town hall at every community center if elected.
“In my first 180 days, I would do a line-by-line review of each budget expenditure. My goal is to save 2% from that, roughly $109 million. We should reallocate that to hiring more police and firefighters, and creating an AI-assisted 911 system. That should cut our response times by 36%.”
District 5 Council Race
In addition to the county executive faceoff is the race to fill the District 5 Council seat, which became available when Councilmember Ivey won a special election to fill a vacant At-Large position.
Former Board of Education member Shayla Adams-Stafford (D) is facing off against Cheverly activist Fred Price Jr. (R) to fill the Council vacancy in District 5, which includes Glenn Dale, Glenarden, and Cheverly.
“We are so disconnected in our ability to advocate. We can’t properly push developers to bring the type of development we want to see,” she said in an interview shortly after announcing her campaign in December. “We can’t show up to these meetings in mass because you can barely get an understanding of when they are and I just think that that’s unfortunate.”
In March, Adams-Stafford beat a field of five candidates including CountyStat Director Ryan Middleton, Cheverly Councilmember Christopher Wade, and former County auditor Kendal Wade.
Adams-Stafford plans to improve transportation options and provide affordable healthcare for seniors while lowering County taxes. She announced her campaign alongside Braveboy at a union headquarters in Lanham.
Price ran uncontested for the Republican nomination. He has been at Cheverly parades for decades and is a veteran of the Marine Corps.
“The major thing I find is our political elite don’t have a vision for Prince George’s County anymore,” he said in an interview with Prince George’s Community Television (CTV).
He pledged to work out a deal between Cheverly and Bladensburg regarding the Hospital Hill site, for which the former sued the latter. Bladensburg withdrew their annexation attempts in January, and Cheverly withdrew their lawsuit thereafter.
Price also said he has a working relationship with former Gov. Larry Hogan and would use artificial intelligence to make budget cuts.
“I want to ensure that promises made,” he said, “are promises kept.”