I have lived here for almost 35 years, first in Rockville’s West End, then in North Bethesda’s Luxmanor neighborhood, and now in Silver Spring’s Seven Oaks neighborhood. My professional career as an environmental and historic preservation consultant and my decades long successful experience as a community advocate on schools, traffic, and transparency make me the clear choice to represent District 4. I am your neighbor and I am committed to addressing the needs of our diverse neighborhoods.
Affording a home purchase is the key to building generational wealth, something all our families want. We are a large county, so I support extending housing locations across the county (ag reserve excepted) rather than limiting hyperdensity to our District 4 neighborhoods. Equity means equity. I oppose disruptive rezoning that advantages investors but not our neighborhoods. Finally, I am committed to true transparency and neighborhood consultation before zoning plans are unveiled as a done deal.
Providing services we depend on is challenging without financial controls. I want to eliminate redundancies; push to attract high-target corporations to increase revenue; decrease property taxes and fees, including property recordation fees, to increase affordability; decrease excessive admin. costs (e.g., MCPS: 45 percent overhead); rebalance employment with more jobs in the private sector; push to attract businesses so taxes on gov. employees salary and property are less central to revenue.
Effective safety net services are critical for residents who need help through difficult times or help getting established in a new career or a new country. But these are threatened by other less important expenditures, like admin. costs and nobid contracts that drain our budget. I support more family facing school employees and programs; effective nonprofits; neighborhood outreach; medical support; free school lunches; free no questions asked meals for kids on weekends, distributed at libraries
I have four key issues: schools; minority communities under threat; general assaults; dangerous roads and pedestrian deaths. Schools: support close coordination with principals regarding SROs; minority communities: support communities to stop ICE’s illegal arrests and protect religious schools and houses of worship; general assaults: police presence in all neighborhoods; roads: increase hardened bicycle pedestrian infrastructure based on neighborhood knowledge of where infrastructure is needed.
Campaign Phone
301-257-0098
Campaign Instagram
votekatestewart
I serve as the District 4 Councilmember and chair the Government Operations and Fiscal Policy and Audit Committees. In 2025 after a unanimous election, I served as Council President. Last year, I received the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ highest award for public service in recognition of my work on regional collaboration, to address homelessness, and my advocacy for long-term funding for metro. Before serving on the Council, I was the Mayor of Takoma Park for seven years.
We are in a housing affordability crisis. We must make housing affordable for our workforce and the next generation. We need to advance zoning changes and tax incentives. I led the FAITH ZTA enabling faith institutions to build affordable housing on their property, supported zoning changes to allow workforce housing along transit corridors, and also supported tax credits incentivizing conversion of office to residential. I will continue to support efforts to build more affordable housing.
We need to fund the essentials – education, programs to address housing and food insecurity, and with cuts to medicaid, we need to ensure residents have the healthcare they need. Last year as Council President, I was proud of the budget we passed which funded our schools, safety net services, and left the County with healthy reserves without raising taxes.
We need to work with departments and ensure funding for programs that have shown success, such as the SHARP program, which moves unhoused families out of our shelters and into supportive housing. We also need to support our local non-profits as they provide essential services to residents as their federal funding is gutted by the federal administration. This is work I led on the Council last year when we put forward a $7.75mill supplemental to assist residents during the government shutdown.
Given the current federal administration’s harmful and cruel policies targeting members of our community, it is essential we do all we can to support residents. It is why I voted for the Trust Act which codifies into law our policy that our local police department and other agencies do not assist with civil immigration enforcement. During my term, I have also worked closely with the police department to address safety issues and residents' concerns and we have seen a decrease in crime.
Campaign Phone
4102005184
My background spans laboratory science and public policy, most recently serving as a policy analyst at the National Institutes of Health. I’ve worked directly on large public budgets and within major organizations, but I’ve also spent years hands-on in laboratories and understand how policies affect people on the ground. Good science requires weighing evidence clearly and honestly, yet it never loses sight of improving lives. That perspective guides how I approach public service.
To urgently increase housing supply countywide: increasing the Housing Initiative Fund and supporting the Housing Opportunities Commission’s use of gap financing; expanding transit-oriented zoning near major hubs; allowing more missing-middle housing and duplexes, quads, and townhouses; moving key reviews and community input earlier so projects are less financially risky; and proactively engaging with the community to find the most minimally disruptive areas to focus.
I will prioritize funding for housing supply tools such as the Housing Initiative Fund, frontline services residents rely on, fair pay for the workers delivering those services, and ensuring schools can address safety issues immediately rather than waiting for major renovations. My priority is that core services reach a high and equitable standard in every community before the county pursues new discretionary initiatives.
I want to particularly focus on addressing gaps. People who need help rarely fit neatly into the categories and requirements many programs operate within. If we can give workers across safety net services as much flexibility and discretion as possible, it could greatly increase the impact and reach of their work. Expanding forums for coordination with county non-profits can help here too.
Frankly and definitely, the largest single threat to the safety and security of our residents is the current federal administration. It must be explicit policy for county law enforcement to intervene, peacefully, when federal agents clearly violate residents' civil rights. Federal agents have substantial leeway by precedent, but it is not unlimited, and we cannot leave it solely to unarmed civilians to defend the rights generations of Americans fought and died for. Non-cooperation is not enough.
