Pat Young did not have any grand plans to become a politician. But for the past decade, that’s what the father of two and Iraq War combat veteran has become. And the 41-year-old Democrat has found that the role suits him. He enjoys leading, solving problems, fixing things and creating order so that everyone knows what to expect.

After eight years as a delegate in Annapolis and a few as a councilman representing the same Catonsville district where he grew up, Young wants to continue the work on a larger scale. He is announcing Thursday morning that he is running for Baltimore County executive in 2026. It’s a decidedly larger role, overseeing a $5 billion budget and services for more than 800,000 residents in communities as diverse as the northern horse country to the southern rowhomes that abut the Baltimore city line.

“I grew up in Woodbridge Valley, and I went to elementary school there, and I left with this feeling that anything was possible within the world,” Young said recently as he fixed a broken sign in the neighborhood where he used to live. “I didn’t exactly know what was coming next, but I felt that I was supported and cared for, and I had a community of people who made my future seem like a pleasant possibility.” Young wants his children, ages 9 and 5, to have those same possibilities.

He will have competition for the county’s top job. Two of his fellow Democratic councilmen, Izzy Patoka of Pikesville and Julian Jones of Woodstock, are expected to run. Young’s friend Nick Stewart, a local attorney and former school board member, is said to be mulling a campaign. Several other candidates have openly discussed the possibility, though none have officially announced. The current county executive is Kathy Klausmeier, who was appointed last month to succeed Johnny Olszewski, Jr., now a member of Congress. She is not seeking the job in 2026.

Young grew up in a working-class neighborhood of 1970s-era split-levels and cul de sacs. After graduating from Mount St. Joseph High School in 2001, he enlisted in the Marines, following a tradition of family military service. He’d planned on a career in the Marines; he was still in training when terrorists attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

Young served two tours in Iraq. He fought in Fallujah, he said, part of a nine-month tour in which his unit lost 21 men. Among the dead were his two best friends, whom he’d planned to live with in a Parkville house when they returned and enrolled in Towson University together. As he talks about his friends, tears fill his eyes.

Young stuck to the plan, living in the house and enrolling in the university. With the help of one of his fallen comrades’ mothers, who was an administrator at Towson University, Young established a club for veterans to support and encourage their education. The efforts eventually led to establishing veterans’ offices at several local universities and colleges, and a concerted effort to engage an often-forgotten population. Towson University hired Young to staff the veterans office in 2010.

He said he’d never planned to leave what was a dream job. But some friends pointed out to him that a newly created legislative district, 44B, included his childhood home, his elementary school, his current home, and where he had been a Boy Scout. The field was crowded. Young knocked on 9,000 doors. He and Charles Sydnor, now a state senator, prevailed for the two seats. Young won by 34 votes in the primary.

His subsequent elections were not as close. In 2022, Young decided to run for County Council because, he said, he wanted to be closer to the roots of problems. As a delegate, he said, he was often referring constituents to their council person.

On the council, Young is known as a stickler for law and order, policy and procedure. He grills his fellow councilmen about why they filed a particular bill, asking what problem the legislation is going to solve. He pushed for agendas for meetings to be set and posted at least a few days in advance, and for councilmen to submit amendments a few days before a hearing so that everyone had time to review the proposals.

He is often quiet while the other councilmen joke around, always serious. He rarely touts his accomplishments. An announcement of an event this week with U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who lost both legs while serving as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot in Iraq, is among the only press releases his office has sent out all year. He’s not particularly comfortable talking about himself; he’d rather talk about community association presidents or firefighters he’s trying to help.

Young’s path to victory in the 2026 race will not be easy. No one from Catonsville has ever been elected to the position — though two county executives from the area were appointed. Don Mohler completed Kevin Kamenetz’s term, serving six months after Kamenetz died in office in 2018. Frederick Dewberry became acting county executive in 1974 after Dale Anderson, his opponent in the 1966 primary, resigned due to corruption charges. Southwest Baltimore sometimes feels forgotten, Young acknowledges, just as the East Side neighborhoods of Dundalk and Essex sometimes do. The drive to Towson from Young’s home can take an hour in traffic.

Young is undeterred. As he tells the story of a monthslong effort to fix a sign in his boyhood community, he is not angry, but rather animated. The bigger the barriers, the more committed he is to break through them.

“Serving in the Marines, leading the Marines, I think that gives me a perspective that’s unique from other folks,” he said. “I think I’ve shown over the last 11 years that it’s the work that makes the difference.”