PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, Md. — As a special education teacher, Ivan Johnson can’t stop worrying about what might lie in store for his students.
President Donald Trump has long vowed to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Though he says that his administration won’t slash funds for students with disabilities, teachers and advocates worry that moving special education to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — which Trump wants to do — might interrupt the resources schools provide to these students to ensure their success in the classroom.
“One of my biggest concerns is: Will my students actually get their needs met?” Johnson, 38, told Capital B, referring to tools such as the individual education program for special education students.
“The Department of Education is on fire,” added Johnson, who moved from Atlanta to Maryland’s majority-Black Prince George’s County in 2009 and has been a teacher in the Washington, D.C., region for more than 15 years. “The kids are going to be left behind.”
This is just one of many concerns that Prince George’s residents say that they’ll be thinking about on Election Day on June 3, when they vote for the next county executive after U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland vacated the seat following her Senate victory last November. Early voting began last week.
The race comes at a chaotic time for the county. Until around 2022, Prince George’s was the wealthiest majority-Black county in the U.S., its affluence propelled by federal employment. But that prosperity is now in doubt, as the community where the median household income is around $100,000 reels from federal cuts. Residents told Capital B that they want a county executive who will fuel stability and also pay attention to other matters, including business development and public safety.
These concerns aren’t unique to Prince George’s and its 947,000 residents, as other wealthy Black counties in the region, including Maryland’s Charles County, face similar challenges. But the Prince George’s race between Democratic nominee Aisha Braveboy and Republican nominee Jonathan White provides a snapshot of how Black political leaders across the U.S. are trying to address the needs of their communities at a moment rife with uncertainty.
The highest-ranking official in Prince George’s, the county executive manages the everyday operations of the county government, including delivering important services to residents and businesses and enforcing laws. Whoever wins this role could work alongside other leaders in the state to confront the fierce political headwinds from the Trump administration, as it takes a hammer to everything from education to health care.
What residents are saying
This volatile environment is gnawing at Talia Cadet in the run-up to the election.
She moved to Prince George’s in 2017, pulled by the possibility of living in an area where people who look like her are thriving and forging community. A lifestyle content creator who focuses on Black-owned businesses, she worries about the county’s economic future. (She was one of the TikTok stars who joined a lawsuit against the U.S. government over the effort to ban the platform.)
“Given the news about [Prince George’s losing] Northwest Stadium and Six Flags, my concern is: What will our next county executive do to bring opportunities here for residents? Not having those things will be significant,” Cadet, 35, told Capital B. “Lots of Black Americans chose to make Prince George’s their home because they saw how they could prosper here.”
Officials estimate that these losses could cost Prince George’s approximately $12 million in annual tax revenue, a small but not inconsequential portion of the county’s $5 billion budget. Also being eliminated are the positions of 70 full-time employees and 700 seasonal employees at Six Flags, where young people often work during the summer. Prince George’s 2024 unemployment rate was 3.3%, below the national rate of 4.2%.
“Even in a wealthy county like Prince George’s, we experience disparities when it comes to opportunities and businesses,” Cadet said, adding that whenever a major retailer shows up in the county, they tend to settle near College Park, where the University of Maryland’s main campus is located. “No shade to UMD, because it’s one of the things that makes Prince George’s great, but other areas in the county want access to these things.”
Residents believe that boosting economic and business opportunities for youth and adults would not only help Prince George’s to maintain its status as a preferred destination for Black Americans during a critical period, but it could also address public safety worries.
“Many kids don’t have anything to do, and for some of them, that can get them into trouble — crime, carjacking. The whole time I’m just wondering whether there are enough resources in the community for kids,” Johnson said. “If we had more things — more attractions, more activities, more restaurants, because when I was in high school, I had a job at a restaurant — then I think that we’d have less crime.”
While Cadet generally feels safe in Prince George’s, she understands the concerns about public safety, specifically as they relate to investment in youth.
The amount of crime, she explained, correlates with the level of investment in schools, recreational activities, housing, employment, social services, and more — all the things that people need to live comfortably. According to police, there’s been an overall drop in crime in Prince George’s over the past several years: Carjackings, for instance, are down by 33%, and robberies have dropped by 13%. But assaults have increased by 8%.
“If we pour money and resources into our communities — commit to helping parents and guardians and educators and administrators and counselors and all those folks who have a big impact on young people — I think that we’ll naturally see a decrease in restlessness and certain kinds of behavior,” Cadet said.
What the candidates are saying
Both Braveboy and White have been zeroing in on these concerns on the campaign trail.
Braveboy, who was born in Washington, D.C., said that the federal cuts are “real” and “serious” and that they’ll have a deep impact on the county.
There are some 65,000 federal workers in Prince George’s, accounting for 17.4% of the county’s total workforce and making the federal government Maryland’s largest employer, according to a study by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Braveboy said that she’s determined to create and sustain wealth in the county.
“One of the ways I can do that is to ensure that our local businesses are actually able to do business with the Prince George’s County government,” she told Capital B. “What I hear too often from residents who do business with the federal government is that when they try to offer similar services to the county government, they can’t get a call back — they’re shut out. We have to focus on growing our own businesses.”
Braveboy has received the enthusiastic backing of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a fellow Democrat, who gained attention in recent months for signing legislation designed to connect fired federal employees with jobs across the state government.
Given her work as the state’s attorney since 2019, Braveboy also has highlighted how she wants to increase public safety.
“We’ve charged and prosecuted a number of gang leaders, people involved in organized crime, and people who commit violent crime and domestic abuse. We have very strong conviction rates in all those categories,” she said. “But the reality is that the circumstances under which people live sometimes, unfortunately, inform their behavior.”
In light of this reality, Braveboy noted that she’s incorporated restorative programs in her office that encourage people to make better choices. If she wins the June 3 race, she said she hopes to expand on these kinds of programs.
White is in alignment with his opponent on these issues. Born in Kentucky, he moved to Prince George’s in 1993, and as a U.S. Air Force Veteran, he takes the gutting of the federal workforce personally.
“To be honest, I’m scared,” he told Capital B. “If we suddenly lose those federal jobs, people’s house payments are still due. We have to figure out how to bring additional businesses here to offset that, especially if we’re losing the stadium and Six Flags.”
One reason White, who volunteers as a football coach, is running is because a couple of kids he used to train were robbed when they got off the bus one day; their shoes and coats were stolen. He also pointed out where there used to be an Ace Hardware that was held up so many times that the owner, a Black man, closed it.
This type of stuff shouldn’t be happening, White said, echoing some of Braveboy’s comments about how residents ought to feel safe in their own neighborhoods. Prince George’s has dozens of community centers, he added, but he doesn’t see enough emphasis from political leaders on using these centers to offer services and outreach to kids to keep them out of trouble.
Compared with others who run under the Republican Party banner, White shows little loyalty to the GOP. According to local news sources, he was listed as a Republican candidate for the same race in 2022, but that same year, he ran as a Democratic candidate for Prince George’s County Council, At-Large. He isn’t deterred by the fact that, by his own admission, he hasn’t got a “chance in hell” of winning in the deep-blue county.
“It’s about community — about putting people first,” White said. “I’m not here for the Republican Party. I’m not here for the Democratic Party. I’m here for Prince George’s County. I just want it better. We deserve better.”