The following Benstorming column is not an endorsement of a candidate. It is just an observation of a race.
Baltimore County Executive candidate Nick Stewart was considered a long shot to win the Democratic primary.
He is running against three County Councilmen Jillian Jones, Izzy Patoka and Pat Young.
As a political outsider, it seemed like Stewart was an underdog story destined to finished fourth in the race.
He has had success by attacking the three Councilmen on the pension situation, getting endorsements from old school Democrats Jim Smith, Vicki Almond and Tom Quirk and raised a respectable amount of money.
But the reason why Stewart has a chance is his time spent on the east side of Baltimore County.
We know that in Democratic primaries, westside candidates typically perform better over their east side counterparts. (Bartenfelder-Kamenetz 2010)
This year, all three Councilmen and main candidates are from the westside. They all should perform well in their respective districts but could split some of the western Baltimore County overall vote.
There is no major Democratic County Executive candidate east of I-83 in 2026, but Stewart, a Catonsville resident, has focused on the east Baltimore County Democratic voters.
He has been on an eastside podcast, had a friendly boxing match with a Dundalk social media star and held key campaign announcements in Essex.
With the expected anti-establishment Democratic vote countywide and with a respectable portion of the Eastern Baltimore County Democratic votes, Stewart might be able to get a third of the vote in the Democratic primary countywide.
That’s not enough to beat Jones, Patoka or Young in a one-on-one contest, but could it be enough to win if the three Councilmen split their votes?
In the 2018 Baltimore County Executive Democratic primary, Councilwoman Vicki Almond and state Senator Jim Brochin were in a close battle and split a lot of the vote.
John Olszewski Jr., who was out of politics before the race, took over first place with 32.9 percent of the vote to win the race by 9 votes.
Could Stewart pull off a similar upset in 2026? Maybe. Maybe not. Anything is possible.
Again, just an observation and not an endorsement.