Dear Neighbor,

The Board of Elections has certified me as the winner of the Democratic nomination for County Executive! All the ballots have been counted and we won by 35 votes! However, the 35-vote margin of victory is slim and subject to a recount that is certain to happen.

The close vote underscores the importance of your work - each one of you made an enormous difference. From the bottom of my heart, I want to extend my sincere thanks.

But we’re not finished. While 35 votes is a solid margin, it is also small, and according to press reports, the Blair campaign will officially request a full recount of all paper ballots. We have been told that a recount will likely begin Friday.

While I believe that my victory will hold after the recount, our team still has to prepare for it, and that requires staff and other expenditures. We used virtually all of our money to get our message out (we were outspent by millions of dollars), so we need to raise more money. We also need to prepare for the general election.

If you haven’t maxed out ($250 max) to my campaign, I’m asking you to consider contributing up to the maximum. If you have maxed out, you could ask family, friends and neighbors to also contribute. There will soon be an opportunity for maxed out donors to contribute to a contested election fund - stay tuned.   I believe in public financing, but my opponent has extraordinary wealth and virtually unlimited resources. By contrast, my financial resources are extremely limited, so I am asking for your help.

As I said in a statement last week after the initial count was finished, I am honored to be the Democratic nominee - I love this County and care about our residents very deeply. I am eager to continue my work to help all of us succeed and thrive. And I’m also eager to get to work for Wes Moore, our Democratic nominee for governor, and our entire Democratic ticket.

Please continue to hang in there with me - your support and work has been amazing and is deeply appreciated.

My heartfelt thanks,    

Marc