ELLICOTT CITY, Md. — Howard County is on pace to have a minority-majority council for the first time in its 175-year history.
“Change tends to be slow,” democratic primary winner for District 1 Kevin Chin said. "What I heard from other people: that it's about time.”
Last month, during primaries, Democratic voters elected Chin, Jessica Nichols, and Janssen Evelyn to represent Districts 1, 2, and 4. None are facing challengers in the general election this fall, paving the way for the first-ever Asian American, Afro-Latina, and immigrant, respectively, to hold seats on council.
Diversity wins: Howard County on track for first-ever minority-majority county council
"I think that we're finally, with this council, saying this is the acceptance of all of the diverse parts of Howard County that we've always needed," Nichols said. "We are ready to rock this."
"We have a council that actually represents what Howard County looks like, what Howard County sounds like, what it smells, tastes like, and I'm proud to be part of that wave," Evelyn said.
Evelyn was originally born in Barbados before moving to Maryland. He ran previously for District 4, but lost by less than 300 votes.
This time, he’s made a successful comeback in what was the most crowded primary race for council this year.
"As an immigrant growing up working class knowing struggle, it's very humbling to know I get to sit at the table and help create a different, better future for people who may be growing up the way I grew up," Evelyn said.
Nichols, a community advocate and the 2024 Howard County "Teacher of the Year," is also on track to be the first woman of color elected to the council. During election season, she wore her Puerto Rican heritage proudly while knocking on doors in the form of a silver machete necklace.
“The machete in Puerto Rican culture is a symbol of strength and resilience and power," she explained.
She purchased it at a fair at the Harriet Tubman Center, formerly the county's only all-Black high school until segregation ended.
"You understand how deeply important this is to so many different people, but also that there are so many giants on whose shoulders that you stand," Nichols said.
Each candidate will also bring a fresh professional perspective to the dais. Nichols is an educator, Evelyn is a longtime government administrator currently working in neighboring Anne Arundel County and Chin is an emergency medicine doctor, another first for council.
Chin said he is running to address the problems he sees every day in the emergency room at the root, through public policy.
"I think [the voters] appreciate a diversity of viewpoints, a diversity of outlooks, diversity of backgrounds, and kind of different life experiences that people bring in," he said.
The three are also friends and have helped out each other's campaigns. Both Nichols and Evelyn also serve on the board for Columbia Community Cares, a food distribution non-profit.
"There's a lot that we agree on, but you know there's gonna be things that we disagree on and that's OK,” Chin said. “I think we saw in the last council that there's a lot of contentiousness and I think we all can work together, work through our differences."
If nothing changes before November, they will join Vanessa Atterbeary, the first African American female county executive, to lead a new era. The former state delegate beat out three challengers to win the Democratic primary on June 23 and is also not facing a Republican candidate come November.
Sitting Councilperson Christina Rigby, District 3, will be a familiar face as she also won her primary and is facing no challenger.
The only contested race this November at the county level is District 5, a traditionally Republican seat, where Democrat Cat Carter and Republican Ryan O'Connor are both running.
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