Maryland Democrats are poised to select Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman as the party’s chair, responsible for guiding the state’s dominant party in the 2026 election cycle.

Pittman, a former community organizer who owns a farm, is in his second and final term as county executive — the only elected office he’s ever held.

As he wraps up his time in office, he’ll also focus his attention on the broader needs of his party, at a time when Democrats across the nation are assessing their priorities.

Pittman was the pick for the top Maryland Democratic Party post by outgoing chair Ken Ulman and Gov. Wes Moore, who is the party’s de facto leader as the highest-ranking Democrat in the state.

Ahead of Saturday’s party election, where Pittman’s the only candidate on the ballot for chair, The Baltimore Banner spoke with him about his efforts to keep Maryland blue and whether he thinks about former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. (Spoiler alert: He does.)

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Banner: Tell me how it came together that Gov. Wes Moore approached you about running to become the next party chair.

Pittman: It started with lunch with Ken Ulman, and he told me that he was stepping down and that he had spoken to the governor, and they together had come up with my name and he hoped that I would step up and do it. Then there was a follow-up call with the governor.

So why did you say yes to running for this position when the governor and Ken Ulman asked?

Very good question, my wife asked me the same one.

One is that I feel that the Democratic Party is the most important organization in the country, particularly right now. We have a two-party system and the other party, in my view, is fully engaged in cruelty, and we have to defend ourselves from that, and the Democratic Party is the institution best positioned to do that.

Two, the Maryland Democratic Party has a reputation across the country for electing extraordinary leaders. To me, it’s very important for the Maryland Democratic Party to live up to its reputation, to continue to elect extraordinary leaders, but also to show others what a strong political party is capable of being.

And then the third is that I look at myself and question whether I’m the right person. They believe I am, but I have to believe I am as well. My life has been devoted to building organizations. I love to grow organizations, whether it’s the Retired Racehorse Project or it’s community organizations. I spent a decade with ACORN being a community organizer, and the science of building grassroots, community-based organizations is what I’m particularly experienced in and love.

I want to build the Maryland Democratic Party, strengthen it in every way, in terms of numbers to win elections, in terms of stability, both financial and grassroots, community-level support. It’s what I love, I think it’s what I’m good at.

I also have experience winning in purple districts, winning in a purple jurisdiction, flipping Anne Arundel County from red to blue and governing in a way that you then actually increase your margins, rather than lose support once you’re in office.

I just feel like this is a historical moment when the Democratic Party has to be strong and win and I think I’m the right person for the job in the moment — so you can’t say no.

As you noted, in Maryland, the Democratic Party has been very successful. Nationally, the party is struggling with a way forward. Any concerns that the national conversations about the future of the party could be a challenge here in Maryland?

That is why this moment is so important to me. I don’t see that as a concern, I see it as a mandate to improve the brand and build support for the party. It’s easier to do in Maryland with a popular governor who’s got incredible talent at messaging, communication and governing.

But it makes it that much more important that we succeed here.

I’m not hugely concerned about the narrative that the Democratic Party is not in good shape nationally. That’s clearly to me a function of losing the last election to a dictator. There’s a lot of trauma that goes with that and with that trauma comes a lot of self-criticism, as it should be. When you lose, you retrench and you figure out what could be done better and that’s what’s going on right now. It’s always happened after a loss.

In Maryland, we’re coming off of wins, so we have a different view. But we also have to be better than we are today.

2026 is rapidly approaching. There are multiple county executive seats, including your own, currently held by Democrats that will be open. How would you plan for Democrats to keep those seats?

The Maryland Democratic Party is made up of county parties, and that’s one of the things that I love about the organization. There are organized groups in every county in Maryland and in Baltimore City, and they work to recruit candidates, they work to support candidates. They work on messaging and work with candidates and their campaign committees.

For the Central Maryland counties that have elected Democratic seats, we work with each of those counties and each of those campaigns. I see the role of the party as almost being a consultant to these local organizations, helping them grow and doing the same with the campaigns. Where we see weaknesses, we try to help. Where we see strengths, we try not to get in the way. And it is a county-by-county strategy.

2026 is also an election year for governor, and Gov. Moore will be up for reelection. How concerned are you about Republicans, and specifically whether Gov. Larry Hogan might throw his hat into the ring? Do you think about that?

Pittman: Yeah, yeah. I know the old governor well and have watched the work of the Hogan Companies in my county, watched them around the state. I would think that he wouldn’t want to get involved when the public knows about what happened with the low-income housing tax credits and his company.

But if he does, it’s a different kind of race than if it’s just another MAGA Republican that ends up getting nominated. I think we’re ready for either kind of race, and I think we’re in a very strong position. We beat Hogan once, we’ll beat him again.

If you’re elected as party chair, it’s technically a volunteer gig, but there’s a lot to it. How do you plan to balance the party work with your responsibilities as you’re finishing your term as county executive? It sounds like that would be a lot on your plate.

I’ve had conversations with my county staff about this. We have a year-and-a-half left to go. We have said from the beginning of the term: Finish what we started.

The implementation of the things that we started is really done at the staff level. So they’re comfortable with me spending some time on an outside project — that’s a nice way to say it, right?

I feel as though we have an extraordinary staff in the county. We have wonderful relationships with our council and with electeds across the state, with the governor’s office. We’re really finishing up a lot of amazing work and we’re also setting the county up for the future, and I’m very confident in my ability to finish that job while also putting significant time into a political campaign — a campaign for everybody, really.

If I were running for reelection, I would be putting my time into the reelection campaign. If I were running for another office, I would be putting that time into another campaign. That’s normal at the end of an elected representative’s term, they’re working on the next step.

I don’t intend to run for another office. Therefore, I’m putting my time into the Maryland Democratic Party. I think it’s a wash and it works.

What do you say to Democrats who might be demoralized right now with the Trump Administration? What’s your pep talk for Democrats?

My pep talk is: This is the moment that I’ve been waiting for, and I think many of them have been waiting for. Where we have more opportunity to build this party than any time in my life.

The amount of harm that is being done to people — even people who voted for Donald Trump in the last election — is extraordinary. They’re going to be looking for a new political home and our job is to open our arms and invite them in and connect with them on a personal level.

How are you doing? Not well. Why not? Because of these policies. Would you like to work with us to improve, to change those policies and make your life better?

That’s why I’m prepared to do whatever it takes. I think that’s why when you ask people, they’re showing up at protests, they’re showing up at rallies, they’re showing up everywhere.

Everybody’s trying to figure out what they personally can do to take advantage of this moment where we’ve got an effort to take over the country and to become an authoritarian country, where so many people — small businesses, farmers, individual people — are under attack economically, and it’s time to come together and fight economic injustice. And we can win this time.