This story, originally published at 12:36 a.m. Nov. 6, 2024, was updated at 12:03 p.m. to include a statement from the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA)
The Montgomery County Board of Education will welcome three new members come December, after school board candidates Natalie Zimmerman (District 2), Laura Stewart (District 4) and Rita Montoya (At-Large) took home the most votes, according to the latest election results from the Maryland State Board of Elections.
Six candidates were running for three open seats on the school board. School board elections are nonpartisan and board members serve four-year terms. The school board is divided into five geographic district seats, as well as the two at-large seats. To run for a district seat, candidates must live in the district they are running to represent. However, all voters in the county may vote for candidates representing each district regardless of where the voter lives.
With 256 of the 257 Montgomery County precincts reporting as of Wednesday morning, Montoya, a lawyer and former PTA president, had received about 53.1% of the vote in the at-large race while incumbent Lynne Harris won 45.8%.
In the District 2 race, Zimmerman, an MCPS elementary school teacher, had won 55% of votes cast while Brenda Diaz, an online teacher and former Gaithersburg High School teacher, received about 44.3%.
In the District 4 race, Stewart, a former Montgomery County Council of PTAs (MCCPTA) leader, won nearly 57.5% while incumbent Shebra Evans received 41.5%.
Sitting in McGinty’s Public House in downtown Silver Spring as the first results rolled in Tuesday night, Stewart and her campaign field director Jared Galley cheered and clapped. Stewart put her hands over her face, at one point saying she thought she would lose.
At around 10:30 p.m., Stewart held a 16-percentage point lead over Evans, which she continued to hold as the final results were tallied.
“I feel great. The margin was a little higher than I actually expected,” Stewart said.
She credited the endorsement of the local teachers union, the Montgomery County Education Association, and her inclusion on its “apple ballot” with helping her to win. The “apple ballot was strong. I think that’s what we learned tonight,” she said. “I do feel like the public in general have a lot of empathy for teachers right now, and so they did listen to them.”
The MCEA didn’t endorse either of the incumbents running for the three seats. Instead, the union endorsed Zimmerman, Stewart and Montoya.
Evans, Montoya, Harris, Diaz and Zimmerman weren’t able to be reached for comment on the election results on Tuesday night.
In a statement sent out Wednesday morning, the MCEA called the election a “decisive win” for the MCEA-endorsed candidates.
“It was gratifying to see that Montgomery County voters understood the importance of electing new voices to the school board,” MCEA President David Stein said in the statement. “We need champions – like Natalie Zimmerman, Laura Stewart, and Rita Montoya – on the school board who bring a commitment to greater transparency and oversight to the school budget and the budgeting process.”
In a traditionally nonpartisan race, Diaz’s campaign drew attention from both political parties for her views, with the Montgomery County Republican Party (MCGOP) endorsing her as a candidate and the Maryland Democratic Party targeting her as an “extreme candidate.”
All candidates raised thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, with Stewart bringing in the most money with $31,858 in contributions in 2024.