Montgomery County voters to choose new county executive

Welcome back. In the race for Montgomery County Executive, affordability and data center development are the center of the debate. Fox 5's Regina Ureta joins us live from Bethesda with more on the candidates and where they stand. Hi, Regina. Yeah, hey guys, and while there's a lot of attention in our nation's capital, there's plenty at stake outside the Beltway, too. Here in Montgomery County, voters are getting ready to decide who will lead one of Maryland's largest and wealthiest jurisdictions. Now, there are two issues that are really gaining a lot of attention in this race, and that's affordability and the growth of data centers. The two candidates running, well, they have very different approaches. I want to show you right there on your screen the two side-by-side. There's Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando, the Democratic... nominee for county executive. He's going up against Republican nominee Esther Wells, a public accountant and president of the Montgomery County Taxpayers League. Now, affordability is a big part of both campaigns. Jawando argues the cost of living in Montgomery County has gotten far too high for many working families. His plan includes building more affordable housing, especially near transit and metro stations. He's also pointed to publicly owned land as an opportunity to create thousands of new housing units. on the other hand is focusing on lowering taxes. She argues the county has a revenue problem and has spoken out against tax increases. She's also called for restoring the homeowner's property tax credit. But there's another core issue getting a lot of attention across Montgomery County, and that is data centers. The county recently approved an 18-month pause on new digital infrastructure development. Jawando says he's not going against data centers entirely, but he wants to make sure developers aren't putting too much pressure on the We'll take a closer look at where the candidates stand on public safety and of course on the county's budget and of course schools and we'll have more on that in the next hour.