The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee (MCDCC) has elected new leadership for the coming year, selecting Pamela Luckett to serve as chair.
Luckett, who represents District 20 and lives in Silver Spring, was elected during the committee’s Dec. 10 meeting. She had served as the committee’s vice chair since 2022. Luckett has worked in the office of County Councilmember Gabe Albornoz (D-At-large) since 2019 and is currently serving as his director of strategic policy initiatives, according to the council website.
“I am honored to step into the position as Chair and thank my fellow MCDCC members for placing their confidence in me. As we move into the next biennium and prepare for the 2026 elections, we must be laser focused on the mission to elect Democrats up and down the ticket,” Luckett wrote Monday in an email statement to MoCo360. “Our goal will be to strengthen our MCDCC infrastructure, continue to build our Precinct Organization and increase voter turnout. We also want to engage our diverse voter base at every level, creating a welcoming atmosphere where ALL Democrats feel they are part of the party, and that their voices and concerns are heard as we work together to defend our democracy.”
Luckett succeeds Saman Qadeer Ahmad, who was elected as chair in 2022 and represents District 15 on the committee.
Luckett beat out Michelle Whittaker, an at-large member, for the role. Whittaker is currently the executive director of Ranked Choice Voting Maryland, an organization advocating to implement ranked choice voting across the state. She previously was chief of staff for Councilmember Will Jawando (D-At-large). She did not hold a leadership role with MCDCC at the time of the election.
Whittaker was selected as an MCDCC representative to the Democratic State Central Committee alongside fellow at-large committee member Jovy Lopez. Shruti Bhatnagar, who represents District 18, was selected as an alternate.
Marko Rivera-Oven (At-large) was elected the committee’s vice chair, Andrew Saundry (At-large) as secretary and Christa Tichy (Dist. 19) as assistant secretary. Ed Fischman (Dist. 18) will serve as treasurer and Sarah Brand-Wiita (At-large) as assistant treasurer.
None of those positions was contested, according to MCDCC member Seth Grimes.
The MCDCC is the local branch of the Democratic Party in Montgomery County. Committee members are elected by registered Democratic voters during primary elections. The committee works to support Democratic political candidates within the county, state and nation through local campaigning and fundraising.
Committee members have frequently served as voting delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Under the state constitution, the committee is also tasked with filling legislative vacancies in the event a Democratic member of the Maryland General Assembly representing Montgomery County vacates a seat outside of an election cycle.
