Johnny Olszewski has tried to undo inequity in Baltimore County. Challenger Pat McDonough says it’s made things worse.

For most of his first term in office, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski has focused on correcting historic wrongs that have defined the county’s history: housing discrimination, disparate policing of Black communities and a dearth of resources that have left low-income families, especially non-English speakers, struggling to access social services. Those issues are front-and-center in Olszewski’s reelection bid, buoyed by a national movement to reform longstanding systems that treat people of color inequitably. With half of Baltimore County residents now Black, Asian, Hispanic or Latino, Indigenous or multiracial, according to 2020 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the need to become more representative is striking.