By Michael Ruby
Published June 3, 2025, 9:00 a.m.
Baltimore County Republicans are hoping to top off their party’s local ticket for the 2026 elections with what could be its strongest County Executive candidate in the past 35 years.
The relatively unknown — but financially viable — recently announced front runner for the county’s top elected office is expected to provide some much-needed but seldom experienced coattails effect that could help propel other down-ticket GOP candidates into office, adding power and influence to the long-suffering minority party in Baltimore County.
A Republican has not been elected County Executive since Roger Hayden occupied the mezzanine level of the County Courthouse in 1990. Hayden, a businessman and former president of the Baltimore County Board of Education, served for only one four-year term until 1994.
But that could change soon thanks to the entry into the race by Lutherville resident and businessman Patrick V. Dyer who recently declared his intention to become the Republican nominee for Baltimore County Executive in the upcoming 2026 elections.
Solutions, not slogans
The Chronicle 2025-06 June 2025 Patrick V Dyer The founder and head of Timonium-based investment firm Capital Portfolio Management Inc. said he is entering the political fray because “Baltimore County needs a new approach,” citing “significant challenges in the years ahead” that require solutions, not political slogans.
Citing the usual campaign topics of crime, education and fiscal responsibility, Dyer added its time to make Baltimore County “a place where our children want to grow up and live.” That can be accomplished, he said, by creating a business environment offering good paying jobs, safe communities and economic stability.
Dyer is married to Julie A. Dyer, a lawyer practicing as an assistant county attorney in the Baltimore County Office of Law. He is a graduate of Loyola Blakefield, a private Catholic, college preparatory school in Towson, an alum of Loyola College and he earned his MBA at the University of Baltimore. Dyer is the father of three sons, all attending Loyola Blakefield, and one daughter, who goes to St. James Academy in Monkton.
Political neophyte
A self-described “middle child,” Dyer said he has an inherent mind-set of “bringing people together,” whether to tackle issues, find solutions or reach goals — all skills reflected in his business-like skills set as the leader of the independent full-service brokerage firm he started 33 years ago after leaving a position with T. Rowe Price to become his own boss.
Admittedly a political neophyte, Dyer dismissed his lack of experience in the rough-and-tumble world of talking points and photo ops that is politics and instead points to other businessmen who have successfully run for political office and then deftly managed a jurisdiction’s financial balance sheet.
Not surprisingly, Dyer cited former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan as the most obvious example of another Republican businessmen and political newcomer succeeding in an elected position of power.
Hogan is rumored to be mulling another run in 2026 for the Governor’s mansion in Annapolis, a possibility that brightens Dyer’s prospects as a recipient of another’s political coattails.
Form a ticket
In the spirit of bringing people together for a positive synergistic effect, Dyer said he hopes to form a ticket with other Baltimore County Republican candidates to bolster the party’s chances of retaining and winning over state and local seats.
Dyer said he is supporting Del. Nino Mangione’s run to fill the Third Council District seat that is being vacated by Councilman A. Wade Kach, a former school teacher who is retiring after 50 years of political service including the last 12 years serving northern Baltimore County constituents on the legislative body.
Also, Dyer said he will be promoting the candidacy of Kevin Ford, a White Hall farmer and lieutenant in the Baltimore County fire department, to replace retiring state Senator Chris West (R-42), an attorney who committed to leave politics after two terms in the state’s upper chamber. Ford is expected to face a primary challenge from Hampstead Mayor Christopher M. Nevin, a senior vice president for First National Bank and 30-year veteran in Carroll County politics.
Enviable position
What makes Dyer a formidable force for the local Republican party, outnumbered two-to-one in voter registration, is his considerable fundraising ability from close associates and other well-heeled businessmen. Plus, unlike most local candidates, Dyer is in the enviable position to self-fund most of his campaign, which he estimated will total about $1.6 million.
That’s a big deal because in politics, money talks. In the 2020 election for Baltimore County Executive, GOP candidate Al Redmer Jr. banked on his prior business experience and his endorsement by Hogan to top challenger John A. Olszeski, Jr. Redmer lost by 15 percentage points after getting no coattails from incumbent Hogan.
In 2024, Olzewski won with 64 percent of the vote over Republican Pat McDonough, a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates (including four years as a Democrat) and radio talk show host, who declined to solicit or accept campaign contributions from anyone other than individuals.
Politics hates a vacuum
It’s also a big deal because former state Senator Katherine Klausmeier (D), who was appointed in January 2025 to fill the remaining two years after then-County Executive John A. Olszewski Jr. was elected to Congress, has agreed she will not run in the 2026 elections.
Politics hates a vacuum and Democrats love an open seat. So at least four Democrats are expected to vie for their party’s County Executive nomination during a political scrum of a primary in June 2026. Front runners Councilman Izzy Patoka (D-2) and Councilman Julian E. Jones, Jr. (D-4) have amassed more than one million dollars each in anticipation of the in-party melee, according to the latest tally available from the Maryland Campaign Reporting System. Councilman Pat Young (D-1) has collected about a-quarter-of-a-million dollars in his coffers for the primary race while community organizer Nick Stewart has yet to file any campaign disclosures though he announced his candidacy.
But much of their money will be spent in the free-for-all known as the June 23, 2026, Democratic primary, with the winner emerging bloodied, staggering and much poorer with little time — or resources — to change gears and engage a credible GOP challenger in time for the November 3, 2026, general election.
Dyer, on the other hand, is expected to face minimal — if any — primary opposition and can campaign continuously from day one as the party’s nominee straight through to the general election.
And with Marylanders disgruntled by the state’s dismal fiscal condition — facing an estimated $6 billion deficit by 2030, the Democratic-controlled General Assembly performing budgetary legerdemain instead of facing the problem head-on, and a distracted Gov. Wes Moore setting his sights on a run for national office — Dyer may appeal to independent and Democratic voters ready for a change to a surprise victory.
When the smoke clears
Without a primary contest, Dyer also has the time, money and ability to team up with and campaign for other Republican candidates looking to knock off unsuspecting Democratic office holders or wannabes.
Especially with the normally staid Councilmanic elections thrown into a tizzy over the expansion from seven to nine seats and the concomitant redrawn districts that disrupt even the few returning incumbents.
And when we say few, we mean maybe a couple.
Of the seven current members on the County Council, only two may be running for re-election. Patoka, Jones and Young are seeking higher office. Kach is retiring. Councilman Todd Crandell (R-7), representing Dundalk-Essex, may not be healthy enough to withstand the rigors of a campaign.
Councilman David Marks (R-5), representing Perry Hall and Middle River, was ready to leave politics and enjoy his abundantly revived life with a steady full-time job as a teacher in Harford County, a new wife and a bouncing baby boy. But Marks has not ruled out a fourth term, thanks to the urging of his new wife.
That leaves Councilman Mike Ertel (D-6), who represents Towson, Parkville and Overlea, as possibly the returning elder statesman when the smoke clears from the 2026 general election.
Heir apparent
But, wait, there’s two new councilmanic districts being carved out, thanks to the voters approving in November 2024 a referendum amendment calling for an expanded legislative body.
Dyer could help state Senator Johnny Ray Salling (R-6) make the leap to the County Council, representing the newly created and open (meaning no incumbent) district incorporating the Middle River and Essex areas. Salling’s seat in the Maryland upper chamber would be reliably filled by fellow Republican and Salling compatriot Del. Ric Metzgar (R-6) and another undetermined GOP candidate would secure Metzgar’s vacated seat for the GOP.
The other newly created (and open) councilmanic district is expected to be on the west side, in heavily Democratic-controlled Randallstown/Woodlawn area thanks to a majority minority population. But even with Councilman Jones leaving (the only Black member on the body), no names of possible replacements — especially among minority candidates — are rising to the top as heir apparent due to reported in-fighting among various groups.
Meanwhile, Del. Cheryl Pasteur (D-11A), who ran unopposed during the 2022 election in her specially-created one-member district, will be facing a Republican challenger named Yahu Blackwell, who is expected to formally announce his candidacy in September.
A Republican challenger for House of Delegates in Randallstown? That’s almost as unbelievable as a Republican businessman from Lutherville winning the Baltimore County Executive seat. Says who?