In their latest attempt to edge out a firebrand colleague, Montgomery County’s District 39 lawmakers have added a veteran of the Gaithersburg City Council to their campaign slate.

The incumbents on the slate, led by Senate Majority Leader Nancy King, are hoping that Councilmember Robert Wu will become the fourth District 39 representative.

Slate members are hoping he will replace Del. Gabriel Acevero, a Democratic Socialist who’s had tense relationships with others in the District 39 delegation and has at times been at odds with more moderate leaders in the legislature on issues like criminal justice reform and even the war between Israel and Hamas.

Acevero has had his share of dust-ups outside the legislature, too. He made national news in 2020 after claiming that his employer at the time, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1994, fired him over his push for police reform. And he was reportedly involved in a physical altercation with a former political opponent in 2024, as evident in a pair of peace order applications.

The slate members will benefit from their shared visibility and campaign resources, but they’ll certainly have their work cut out for them. Acevero has emerged as a force in his own right in the district.

He entered office after beating a two-term incumbent, and as a solo candidate in each of the last two election cycles, he has tallied the second-most votes among District 39 delegate candidates in the Democratic primary.

“I have every intention of running a strong race and making my case to the voters. And I think, like in 2018 and 2022, they won’t allow [the] establishment to decide who represents them,” Acevero said Friday.

The primary election will be on June 23, 2026. Among the candidates for three delegate seats, the top three vote-getters advance to the general election, where Democrats have an outsized advantage. Democratic voters outnumber Republicans more than 4-to-1 in District 39.

Dels. Lesley Lopez and Greg Wims are also on the slate with King and Wu. The foursome filed for reelection on Friday.

A fifth candidate, Amar Mukunda, has also filed. Mukunda recently worked as an assistant director for the Maryland branch of Roca, the violence intervention and behavioral health organization.

The district includes areas in Gaithersburg, Germantown, Clarksburg, Montgomery Village and Washington Grove.

District 39 isn’t the only Montgomery County district with the potential for political shake-ups.

In District 16, which includes areas in and around Bethesda, state Sen. Sara Love and Del. Marc Korman announced their plan to run as a team, but they didn’t include the two other delegates in the district in their announcement.

And in District 14, which covers the northeastern part of the county, three legislators are running together, but their fourth, Del. Pamela Queen, has said she will retire at the end of the term.