On a recent Sunday afternoon, Sharonda Huffman began her pitch in a downstairs meeting room at the Essex Public Library, speaking to an audience of more than a dozen people.

She said the Baltimore County Council had long neglected her community in Essex-Middle River. She said she thought the current councilman for District 7, which covers Dundalk, Edgemere, Essex, Rosedale and Sparrows Point, paid more attention to its southern portion than its northern part.

That sense of disenfranchisement, though, could change soon.

Last November, county voters overwhelmingly approved a charter amendment to expand the council from seven to nine members, part of an effort to bring more diversity to the body. The council has tentatively agreed to new political boundaries, which include two new districts covering the county’s southwestern and southeastern portions. Huffman’s Essex-Middle River area would fall into the latter.

That’s why she’s already campaigning for the new council seat. If she wins, Huffman, a Democrat, could be the first Black woman elected to the council, which is composed now of seven men, only one of whom — Julian Jones — is Black.

“Not only am I a woman of color — I have different experiences. I’m originally from Delaware. I’ve lived here for 20 years but have traveled and been in different spaces and counties,” Huffman said, saying that makes her well-equipped to find innovative solutions to the county’s problems.

Jones agreed that the council isn’t representative enough of the county, where women make up more than half of the population and Black people more than a third. He hopes the new districts bring more diversity.

“When you have a variety of voices with different lived experiences, it helps make decision-making a lot better,” said Jones, a Democrat.

Huffman said she launched her campaign recently to establish more name recognition.

“Running two years in advance is something you need to do if you want to be a serious candidate,” Jones said.

“It’s a smart strategy,” added County Councilman Izzy Patoka, a fellow Democrat who pushed for council expansion as chair last year. “Sharonda is doing what a good candidate does, and what a good candidate does is they wake up every morning and they think, ‘What can I do today to win and win that day?’ ”

The council now has a 4-3 Democratic majority.

On Jan. 10, Huffman set up a fundraising account and convened with her staff to officially kick off her campaign.

Ryan Coleman, president of the Randallstown NAACP, said it’s unclear whether Huffman will have a good shot in the emerging new district. Essex, for example, is 56% white and 31% Black.

“I think it’s an uphill battle” because it’s harder for people of color to win in majority-white districts like Essex, he said. “I’m hoping people will judge her on her merits, on her competency and what she can bring to the table, and that they’re not necessarily voting for her because she’s a Black woman.”

Huffman, 49, is no stranger to local politics. She recently completed the 2024 Emerge Maryland course, a training program and political career accelerator for women. She has volunteered for the Maryland Democratic Party, serving as a delegate for the state’s 2nd Congressional District and as a central committee member, and previously had stints in real estate, workforce development training and therapy for autistic children.

She currently oversees disability accommodations for Montgomery County’s housing authority.

Huffman said she is particularly interested in accelerating housing development in the county. She believes housing production has been unjustly limited by a county policy — the Urban Rural Demarcation Line — meant to protect rural farmland by limiting major development to a relatively small swath of county land surrounding Baltimore City.

Policies like these, Huffman said, have put Baltimore County in a chokehold at a time when tens of thousands of households are burdened with high housing costs.

Baltimore County is seeking to attract more housing and, in turn, reduce costs. In 2016, the county committed to “supporting and incentivizing the creation of 1,000 affordable rental housing units before March 2028.″ The commitment, which aims to preserve the Urban Rural Demarcation Line, is part of an agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to expand the county’s affordable housing stock.

“You see this?” she said at her campaign event, waving at the demarcation line on a map. “That’s made up. … The planning department kept telling me, ‘Yeah, you’re not allowed to build there.’ Who said that? You can just change the law if we’re facing a housing crisis.”

Local advocate Peta Richkus said the line was a “good idea” at one time, “but that was in the ‘60s.”

She says there are probably ways to develop land beyond the line without compromising the county’s rural farmland.

“Even just small developments in those particular areas would be good for farmers,” said Stacy McNish, who attended the event.

Local farms host public events, particularly during the holidays, and new housing development near the farms could bring more business, she said.

Huffman also said she wants to bolster health care, particularly after caring for her eldest son, who is autistic. That means developing the right housing and treatment facilities for people like her son

Elections for county executive and the expanded County Council will be held in 2026. Three county councilmen have indicated they plan to run for county executive that year.

Huffman hopes her early entry will inspire more women and people of color to run for public office in the county, where the council recently named its first female county executive. On Jan. 24, Huffman is helping organize campaign finance training with her Democratic club and the Maryland State Board of Elections to teach aspiring politicians how to become elected officials.

“People don’t know what it’s like to be a legislator,” Huffman said. “What I want to do is start teaching them at the first step: community fundraising.”

“If we don’t do succession training,” she said, “we’re never going to take these spaces.”