With all precincts reporting, sitting Baltimore County Executive and current MACo Second Vice President, John “Johnny O” Olszewski, Jr., has won the Democratic nomination for his current seat.
County Executive Olszewski took 84.23 percent of all early voting and election day ballots cast compared to his challenger’s, Adam Reuter’s, 15.77 percent. In 2018, County Executive Olszewski faced a deeply contested primary against former Council Member Vicki Almond and former Maryland Senator Jim Brochin, beating Brochin by 17 votes. The general election proved more favorable as the County Executive received 57.4 percent of the vote against Republican challenger Alfred W. Redmer, Jr.’s 42.5 percent.
County Executive Olszewski, a former school teacher, is a Dundalk, Maryland native. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Goucher College, a master’s degree from George Washington University, and a PhD from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The County Executive had previously served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates for eight years.
Facing County Executive Olszewski will be former Maryland Delegate Pat McDonough, who appears to have won the Republican primary, earning 40.77 percent of early voting and election day ballots cast. The next closest candidate, Henry Ciezkowski, received 17.38 percent of the vote. Former Delegate McDonough served in the House of Delegates from 1979 to 1983, then again from 2003 to 2019.
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Please note that vote counts are incomplete. Election officials still have to count mail-in and provisional ballots. For context, more than 500,000 Marylanders requested a mail-in ballot for this year’s primary, and those remaining votes are likely to be material to many contested races. However, local boards of elections cannot begin to canvass mail-in votes until Thursday, July 21. Therefore, for editorial purposes, MACo coverage will describe any races where the top runner-up remains within 10 percent of the apparent winner(s) as “pending” and those results as “apparent.”
MACo’s election coverage and analysis rely on unofficial results published by the State Board of Elections. Official results will follow after a full accounting of pending votes. Given delays in processing an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots, MACo advises readers that any close unofficial results are subject to realignment in the days ahead.
