Trone and Perez burn Will Jawando’s campaiign to the ground!
By Barry O’Connell
The Maryland Wire
The 2026 Montgomery County Executive race just got flipped on its head.
What was once a clean ideological duel between progressive firebrand Will Jawando and centrist rising star Andrew Friedson has now detonated into a three-way knife fight for the soul of Maryland’s largest Democratic stronghold, and the spoiler is none other than Evan Glass, armed with heavyweight endorsements from David Trone and Tom Perez.
Yes, that David Trone, the billionaire who once dismissed the progressive base as the “Looney Tune far-left crowd” is now backing Evan Glass, a councilmember who spent years standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Will Jawando on issues of racial equity, housing, and labor. And that Tom Perez, the polished ex-DNC chair who failed to consolidate Democrats in the governor’s race, is suddenly singing the praises of Glass as Montgomery County’s “effective progressive.”
What’s going on here?
Simple: the progressive movement is in open schism. Will Jawando was supposed to own the progressive lane, running as the unapologetic champion of rent stabilization, union labor, and racial justice. He had Marc Elrich, Kristin Mink, and Laurie-Anne Sayles at his side. He was supposed to be the movement candidate.
But now, with establishment Democrats also branding Evan Glass as the “true progressive,” the vote splits, and the center lane swings wide open.
Enter Andrew Friedson.
While Jawando and Glass cannibalize each other on the left, Friedson has been quietly consolidating his power base in the county’s highest-income, highest-education precincts. He’s raised over \$1 million, has the backing of firefighters, state senators, and business leaders, and has positioned himself as the adult in the room. With no need for public financing constraints, he can flood the zone with ads, data, and old-school ground game.
And here’s the kicker: Friedson doesn’t need to win Takoma Park. He doesn’t need Silver Spring. He needs Potomac, Bethesda, and the swingy, suburban zones where voters are done with performative politics and desperate for competence.
This isn’t just a race anymore, it’s a referendum on the future of Montgomery County governance. Do voters want:
The Movement (Jawando/Elrich-style activism),
The Makeover (Glass suddenly rebranded as a “pragmatic progressive” by Trone and Perez), or
The Manager (Friedson, fiscally disciplined, policy-savvy, and laser-focused on results)?
Thanks to the Trone-Perez endorsement bombshell, the answer is becoming clearer by the day.
Evan Glass may have just burned Will Jawando’s campaign to the ground, but in the ashes, it’s Andrew Friedson who stands to rise.