A note from the author: This article was written by Tony Parchment, who normally serves as editor of this newsletter. Tony is also a board member of CERG 2.0, one of the organizations referenced below. That relationship is disclosed here so readers can weigh his perspective accordingly.

Montgomery County’s 2026 Primary is June 23. For early voting dates, locations, and other election information, visit the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

Every election cycle, well-meaning voter guides point people to candidate questionnaires, debate videos, and campaign websites. The assumption is that if voters just had enough links, they would do the research and make informed choices. But let’s be honest about what really happens — especially in the final days before a primary.

Most people don’t read those questionnaires. And even when they do, candidates largely tell voters what they want to hear. A business owner juggling clients, employees, and cash flow does not have time to cross-reference a candidate’s forum answers against their actual voting record, their donors, and their history of follow-through. And without that context, a questionnaire is just a polished pitch.

There is a better way. And it starts before you look at any candidates.

Step One: Get Clear on Your Own Priorities

Before you evaluate anyone on the ballot, you need to know what issues really matter to you. As a Black business owner in Montgomery County, what are the issues that most directly affect your ability to operate, grow, and build wealth that can be used to support your family and the community?

Here are some questions worth considering:

• Are county permitting and licensing processes making your life harder or easier?
• Is the cost of commercial space pushing your business — or your customers — out of the county?
• Do transportation and infrastructure decisions affect how your employees get to work or how customers find you?
• Are county contracting and procurement opportunities actually accessible to Black-owned firms?
• Does public safety in your commercial corridor affect foot traffic and business confidence?
• Do county policies that sound progressive or protective actually limit your flexibility to compete — on pricing, hiring, scheduling, or operations — against businesses operating in neighboring counties, other states, or globally?

That last question deserves special attention. Local regulations may be passed with genuine good intentions by politicians that don’t understand business often end up creating compliance burdens, cost structures, or operational constraints that businesses outside of our do not face. For a Black-owned business already navigating capital gaps and market access challenges, that kind of policy friction is not a minor inconvenience. It is a competitive disadvantage. A candidate who understands the difference between a policy that helps and one that merely sounds helpful is worth paying close attention to.

These are not abstract political questions. They are operational realities. And they are exactly the kinds of issues that county government — the County Council and the County Executive — has real power to affect. A candidate who speaks concretely about these levers is worth our attention. One who stays at the level of national talking points that local officeholders cannot actually control is not because, in the end, they won’t help the county move forward.

Step Two: Understand the Local Challenges

Understanding Montgomery County means looking past the commercials and the noise of national politics. The county has its own unique opportunities and challenges, and the candidates who will actually move it forward are the ones speaking to those realities — not borrowing national talking points that have little to do with what happens here.The county is navigating real tensions around affordability, commercial development, transit investment, and how equitably county resources reach diverse communities and business owners. These are not new issues, but the decisions made in the next term (on budgets, zoning, master plans, and small business programs) will have consequences that will have long term impacts in the county.

One resource worth bookmarking is Montgomery Perspective, an independent outlet that covers the policy debates, fiscal decisions, and governance challenges specific to Montgomery County. It is particularly useful for understanding the structural issues that do not always make it into mainstream coverage but directly shape the environment in which businesses operate.

A voter who understands these dynamics will not be fooled by a candidate who sounds good but has no concrete plan. A voter who does not understand them is essentially choosing based on name recognition, yard signs, or whoever showed up at the last community event. That is not a criticism…it is just the reality of the behaviors of most voters in local elections.

Step Three: Trust the People and Organizations Who Have Done the Work

This is the most important and most underused step. There are organizations in Montgomery County that have spent real time — not just election-season weeks, but months and years — studying these candidates, attending their public appearances, reviewing their records, and asking hard follow-up questions. When an organization or individual with clearly defined values and priorities puts their name behind a candidate, that endorsement carries something a questionnaire answer never can: accountability and track record.

The key is to match the endorsing organization to your own priorities. An endorsement from a group focused on housing affordability tells you something specific. One from a teachers’ union tells you something different. One from a PAC focused on Black economic empowerment tells you something different still. None of these is right or wrong — they reflect different lenses. Your job is to find the organizations whose values overlap most with yours and see where they land.

Here are several organizations that have done formal vetting and issued endorsements for the 2026 county executive and county council races. Visit their sites to see who they endorsed and, just as importantly, why:

Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) — The county’s teachers’ union, representing more than 14,000 educators, conducts an extensive multi-stage endorsement process involving classroom teachers and school staff from across the system. Their well-known “Apple Ballot” reflects a deep focus on public education funding and support for educators. If a strong public school system matters to your workforce pipeline and community, this is a relevant lens.

Greater Capital Area Association of REALTORS® (GCAAR) — GCAAR represents more than 11,000 real estate professionals in Montgomery County and DC and evaluates candidates through the lens of housing production, affordability, fiscal stewardship, and business climate. For business owners focused on commercial real estate, development, and the county’s economic competitiveness, GCAAR’s vetting process and detailed reasoning are worth reading directly.

CERG 2.0 — CERG 2.0 is a Montgomery County political action committee focused specifically on advancing economic growth and opportunity for Black residents, organized around three pillars: homeownership, business ownership and entrepreneurship, and jobs and workforce development. For Black business owners, this is one of the most directly relevant lenses available — an organization whose priorities map closely to the challenges this community faces.

When organizations like these point toward a candidate — or raise concerns about one — that signal carries far more weight than any self-reported questionnaire answer. The endorsements are the product of work most voters cannot replicate on their own. These organizations do not all agree, and that is actually useful information. Where they converge, take note. Where they diverge, understanding why often reveals exactly what tradeoffs are at stake.

You don’t have to rely solely on organizations, either. Think about the people in your network who follow local government closely, stay current on county issues, and whose judgment you trust. A quick phone call or conversation with the right person can tell you more than hours of reading campaign literature. If someone whose values align with yours has already done the homework on these candidates, there’s no reason not to benefit from that.

The Risk of Voting Without This Foundation

It is worth saying plainly: voting without understanding your own priorities, the local context, and what trusted organizations think is not a neutral act. It is a guess. And in local races, where margins are often small and the winners have direct power over budgets, zoning, and business programs that affect your livelihood, a poorly informed vote can do real damage; not just to the community in the abstract, but to the specific conditions in which your business operates.

This is not about telling anyone who to vote for. It is about making sure that when you vote, your choice actually reflects your priorities for your priorities for our Montgomery County community, not what a campaign mailer told you to think three days before the election.

The Practical Path Forward

You do not need to spend twenty hours on this. You need to spend time on the right things:

1. Write down your top two or three business and community priorities
2. Spend some time on Montgomery Perspective to get grounded in the real policy challenges facing the county
3. Review the endorsements from organizations whose values most closely align with yours — MCEA, GCAAR, CERG 2.0, or others in your network — and read their reasoning, not just their conclusions
4. Reach out to a trusted person in your network who follows county government closely — as noted in Step Three, a quick conversation can be one of the most efficient research tools available
5. Then…vote!

The primary is June 23. For early voting dates, locations, and all other election information, visit the Montgomery County Board of Elections.