Four County Council members seem to have succeeded in their attempts to stave off challengers in Tuesday’s primary vote, with three of them in position to clinch re-election.
Council members Craig Rice in District 2, Sidney Katz in District 3, Nancy Navarro in District 4 and Tom Hucker in District 5 were all ahead of their respective opponents in the Democratic primary, with the unofficial vote totals released Tuesday night. The results will determine the overall winner in all but one of these races, since Rice is the only candidate heading into a matchup with a Republican in the Nov. 6 general election.
The vote counts released Tuesday night were preliminary and did not include absentee or provisional ballots.
With all the election day precincts reporting, Rice, 45, of Germantown, had captured nearly three-quarters of the vote to defeat Tiquia J. Bennett, 33, also of Germantown. Tuesday night’s standings would pit Rice against Republican Ed Amatetti, 59, of North Potomac in the general election. Amatetti, a former public school teacher, was poised to beat out Damascus resident Kyle Sefcik and Tom Ferleman in the Republican primary Tuesday.
In the District 3 race, Katz, a one-term incumbent, had scored about 52.5 percent of the vote, narrowly leading his 29-year-old rival, Benjamin Glickman Shnider of Rockville, who received about 47.5 percent of Tuesday’s vote total. Shnider had built momentum by racking up a slew of union endorsements, garnering support from the Montgomery County Education Association, Sierra Club, SEIU Local 500 and CASA in Action. Labor groups representing local law enforcement and fire and rescue workers threw their support behind Katz, 68, of Gaithersburg, as did The Washington Post.
Navarro, 52, of Colesville, seemed in the clear to win her third full term on the council with about 90.6 percent of the reported vote, claiming victory over Jay Graney, 54, of Olney. In that district, only 49 of 52 election day precincts had reported as of midnight.
Hucker, 51, of Silver Spring, also seemed to have succeeded in winning a second term in office with about 68 percent of Tuesday’s vote, outperforming his opponents Kevin Harris, 54, of Silver Spring, and Kenge Malikidogo-Fludd, 35, of Silver Spring.
The victors will be sworn into their four-year terms in December.
Bethany Rodgers can be reached at bethany.rodgers@moco360.media.
