Before Montgomery County Council President Kate Stewart won her first election 10 years ago, her then-pre-teen daughter was her most persistent critic.

Bridget Griffith pointed out every “um” and “like” Stewart uttered as she campaigned for Takoma Park City Council. She told her mom to ease up on the gesticulation.

“She was brutal,” Stewart, 55, said with a laugh. “I used to talk a lot more with my hands in a way that is actually distracting.”

At a campaign event in Kensington earlier this fall, Stewart spoke smoothly, restraining her hands, as she defended her controversial decision to vote for a proposal to increase the housing density allowed in parts of the county. Her strong support for the zoning initiative has led to calls from some critics for her to be removed from office.

Stewart, who has served on the council since December 2022, and as its president since December 2024, hasn’t softened her stance on the issue, which she told the crowd is rooted in her childhood. Growing up in Brooklyn, Stewart’s family moved every few years because they could not afford the rent.

“I know what it’s like to not be able to plan for your future,” she said.

That understanding, she told The Banner, undergirds her political career, and positions she has staked out that have drawn the most criticism, locally and — more recently — nationally.

Stewart took the helm of the council at the beginning of the tumultuous months following President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. The 11-member board, all Democrats, has since scrambled to respond to massive federal layoffs and cuts to SNAP benefits and other federal programs. Montgomery County is also grappling with ICE operations that target its sizable immigrant community.

And, with just a few weeks left leading the county’s governing body, Stewart is attempting to keep the peace as three council members vie for the Democratic nomination in the county executive race – a race Stewart, pundits predicted, might enter herself until she announced her reelection campaign in August.

She has until the end of February to change her mind, but said she won’t.

“I made a promise,” she said. “I think the best place I can be for District 4 residents and residents across Montgomery County is to continue in my current role.”

Stewart remains, though, by many standards, the most powerful woman in the county. Still, few county residents know Stewart well. She rarely reveals much publicly about her private life. She agreed, though, to allow a Banner reporter to interview her family and accompany her this fall to meetings and campaign events.

Stewart has not endorsed in the county executive race, and said she will remain as neutral as possible as three of her council colleagues — Andrew Friedson, Evan Glass and Will Jawando — run for county executive.

She has left the door open to a more senior leadership role in the future, though even her husband doesn’t know what she’ll do next. Stewart told The Banner he asked her on a recent dog walk.

“I’m kind of busy right now!” she said she told him. But she wasn’t more specific than that.

“I want to feel like I’m actually doing something to help move a conversation or a policy along,” she said.

Family politics

Stewart’s political career has always been a family affair. Cecily Thorne, Stewart’s chief of staff and a member of her reelection campaign team, calls Stewart’s husband, Jonathan Griffith, who works in housing finance, “our number one voluntold” (as opposed to “volunteer”).

Bridget and her friends worked on Stewart’s campaigns during their teen years. And Barbara Griffith, Stewart’s mother-in-law, often cooks family meals, walks Gracie, the family dog, and helps with campaign events.

Even Gracie — whom Stewart describes as a “terrier bulldog beagle chihuahua” mix — sometimes shows up for her, as she did at a June Pride event.

Stewart calls her family her rock and motivation.

“Anytime I ran for office, that was really a full family decision,” she said.

Stewart is perhaps the council’s most vocal advocate for the transgender community, particularly when it comes to gender-affirming medical care. She knows about it firsthand: her son, Jamie, is trans.

During the early days of Jamie’s transition, the family found it hard to get care in the county. Stewart frequently took time off from her communications job to take Jamie to other parts of the state for appointments.

“I think that is kind of something that stays with me, is a sense of isolation,” Jamie said. “The act of transitioning was something that felt so private because I had to leave my community for that.”

Bridget, who identifies as queer, said that well before she and her brother came out, her parents encouraged discussions about LGBTQ+ history and rights, like the time Stewart brought them to the National Mall to see the National AIDS Memorial Quilt.

Stewart has championed programs for queer Montgomery County residents, including the creation of a brick-and-mortar headquarters for the MoCo Pride Center. Her advocacy also put her in the national spotlight when she defended Montgomery County Public Schools outside the Supreme Court. The case pitted MCPS against parents who sought to have their children excused from classroom discussions involving books with queer themes or characters.

Jamie said he appreciates his mother’s unwavering advocacy amid a “culture war.”

“It is so easy for politicians to get rewarded for doing the bare minimum,” he said. “But my mom is out there, standing up.”

Stewart’s career in politics has intruded into family life, she acknowledged, and said her children were sometimes “caught in the crosshairs.” One morning, she recalled, a constituent walked into her home to complain about something while she was still wearing her bathrobe.

But her family seems to have accepted their semi-private life, and Bridget has been drawn to politics herself. This year she worked on the campaign of a candidate for City Council in Boston, where she went to college.

“I’ve definitely been inspired by the way my mom listens to people,” Bridget said. “I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for her.”

And to Jamie, it’s just a Takoma Park thing.

“Living in Takoma Park, a lot of kids had politically involved parents,” Jamie said. “It didn’t feel like a huge surprise for her to focus more on the stuff that she was passionate about.”

Fans and foes

Stewart points to other issues where she feels she’s made a mark, including tenant safety following the death of one of her constituents in an apartment fire, and affordable housing access. She said much of her work has been undergirded by her service on the council’s influential Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee, which she chairs.

In heavily Democratic Montgomery County, Stewart has many fans. She beat four challengers in a hard-fought District 4 primary in 2022 and won the election with nearly 85% of the vote. Her council colleagues unanimously made her their president in 2024. She enjoys the support of Maryland’s delegation to Congress, including fellow Takoma Park resident U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, who has endorsed her reelection and counts her as a friend.

Her detractors include Republicans like Reardon Sullivan, chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee, who fault her for backing regulations they believe stymie economic growth and impinge on individual freedom.

“Kate Stewart is as guilty as the rest of the council members who feign community concern, but do as they damn well please in the end,” wrote Sullivan in an email statement to The Banner.

Stewart is advancing, Sullivan said, “a narrow political agenda.”

But Stewart’s recent push to increase density in some parts of the county has also drawn the ire of some Democrats and progressive colleagues. She came in for particular criticism this summer when she temporarily halted a council meeting over posters that critics of the re-zoning plan had illustrated with what she thought looked like bombs.

The people holding the posters said they depicted wrecking balls, and accused Stewart of stifling speech she didn’t like.

“This council has not only failed to listen — it has fostered a culture where resident input is treated as an inconvenience rather than a foundation for decision-making,” SpeakUpMoCo, a coalition opposed to the zoning change, wrote in a statement following the incident.

Stewart said her primary concern isn’t pushing back on her critics; she hears them and takes them seriously. She said she hates “disappointing people.”

“I know people have instilled a lot of trust in me by electing me to this position,” she said. “So I try to be upfront and explain my positions ... we’re going to disagree on things. But I don’t want it to be a surprise for folks.”

A second career in politics

A friend encouraged Stewart to run in a special election for a Takoma Park City Council seat in 2014, following the death of a council member. Before that, Stewart said, she didn’t dream of holding office.

She had been a political activist, though.

Stewart worked for ConwayStrategic, a communications firm that supports the reproductive justice movement, prior to her first run for office. Before that, she served as executive vice president of Advocates for Youth, an organization focused on reproductive and sexual health education for teens.

She won the Takoma Park mayoral race in 2015 and won her council seat seven years later.

Many attribute Stewart’s staying power to her alignment with most voters in Montgomery County, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 4 to 1.

Others talk about her deft and decisive handling of discord. At-large Council Member Gabe Albornoz recalled a recent public meeting where attendees heckled speakers. Stewart paused the hearing to remind them to speak respectfully and calmed the room.

“As council president, your primary job is to do conflict resolution,” Albornoz said. “She has a master’s in it — not literally. But I think she should have one.”

Stewart said council members have tackled difficult issues this past year, which sometimes led to tension.

“But what I’m proud of is that the council has done its business,” she said. “While we’ve disagreed, I think we’ve always been very respectful.”

Stewart said she owes her stamina to a workout routine that includes running and weightlifting, watching “bad television” and enjoying orchestra concerts with her husband.

She’s ready to leave the council presidency, though, she said, and to get back to district work and spending more time talking to constituents.

She lists problems she wants to focus on — including homelessness, mental health and public safety. She wants to prioritize how those issues affect young people.

“Those issues are a hard thing to compromise on,” she told The Banner.

So far, no challengers have filed to run against Stewart — though the deadline isn’t until February. And some aren’t willing to write her off as a candidate for county executive next year until the filing deadline passes.

“There’s a lot of uncertainties in the world right now,” Stewart said. “I have to ask myself, ‘Where is the work that needs to get done and where can I be most useful?’”