With $6,000 from the Kushner family, a redistricting betrayal, and a vote timed for when the only Black council member was out of town, voters need to know who Izzy Patoka really works for.

(RANDALLSTOWN – June 22, 2026) – Larry Gibson doesn’t endorse lightly.

The dean of Maryland politics — the man who helped elect Judge Joe Howard, who has worked on every major Black candidate’s race in Baltimore and Maryland for the better part of half a century — has seen enough politicians come and go to know the difference between someone who talks about serving people and someone who actually does it.

Larry Gibson is endorsing Julian Jones for Baltimore County Executive.

What Gibson recognizes in Julian Jones is a man of consistency — 14 years on the Baltimore County Council doing the work, not watching it. A 35-year firefighter who ran into burning buildings so others could walk out alive. A legislator who pushed for free school meals so no child sits in a classroom hungry, who championed free community college for county residents, who fought for police reform that makes communities safer and more just. And when Governor Wes Moore needed a partner in Baltimore County, he called Julian Jones.

But this race is also about what Julian Jones is running against. And Baltimore County voters deserve to know that story before Tuesday.

The Money

Campaign finance records show that the Kushner family — yes, that Kushner family, as in Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law — contributed a maximum $6,000 to Izzy Patoka’s campaign for Baltimore County Executive. In 2026, with everything that is at stake for Black and working-class families in this county, that is not a footnote. That is a headline.

When the Trump family is writing checks to a Democratic candidate for county executive in Maryland, it is worth asking: What do they expect in return?

The Map

The money is one thing. The redistricting story is another — and it requires you to follow a trail that begins years before the September 2025 vote.

When Baltimore County voters approved expanding the council from seven to nine seats in 2024, a restructuring work group was created to study how to draw the new lines. Izzy Patoka, then council chair, ordered its creation. Three professional demographers — one from Morgan State University — were brought in, along with appointees from each council member. The county executive appointed Keith Dorsey, a man with 16 years of experience as Baltimore County’s budget finance director.

After seven months of work, the group’s recommendation was clear: expand by four districts, not two. All three demographers agreed. A pathway to four — even if only two were added immediately — was also recommended. The math supported it. Population data supported it. Best practices from counties like Montgomery and Prince George’s supported it.

Patoka had the law office strip both recommendations before the question went to voters.

Linda Dorsey Walker — who is now running in the 3rd Councilmanic District (Randallstown, Owings Mills, Green Spring Valley, Worthington) — watched all of it happen. Her brother Keith was on that work group. She has been in these meetings, at these hearings, doing this work.

“He has selectively forgotten that his own work group — that he ordered to be created — said to expand by four. He has selectively forgotten that they recommended a pathway to four, even if we didn’t start there. And he has selectively forgotten that he told the law office to drop that portion of the recommendation from what went forward as the ballot question,” Dorsey Walker told BMORENews.

If four districts had been approved, Dorsey Walker’s area would have been its own standalone Black district. So would the district where fellow candidate Crystal Francis Cody is now running on the county’s east side. Two Black candidates who could have run in their own majority districts are instead navigating a diluted landscape — one Patoka engineered.

Why did Patoka kill the four-district expansion? According to Dorsey Walker, his own assistant, Justin, told a community elder directly, “Because he hates Linda Dorsey Walker to death. He doesn’t want her to get her way.”

A policy decision affecting hundreds of thousands of Baltimore County residents — driven by a personal vendetta against a Black woman.

The Betrayal

When the redistricting commission produced its final recommended map — one that included four minority districts and was praised by the ACLU of Maryland as the best option for Black and BIPOC residents — Patoka and Councilman Mike Ertel instead introduced their own map. Hours before the public hearing. A map the public had five hours to review.

For weeks, Patoka had told Linda Dorsey Walker, her brother Keith, and others that he supported the Woodlawn approach — a map that would have guaranteed at least two Black districts. Four hours before the final vote, without warning, he flipped.

“He never told us he was going to stab us in the back,” Dorsey Walker said. “But he did.”

Patoka bused Black residents from Lochearn to the meeting to support his map, telling them it would create a BIPOC district that served their interests. The ACLU of Maryland disagreed sharply, stating publicly that the Patoka-Ertel map was a clear violation of the Voting Rights Act and that the redistricting commission’s version was the only map that genuinely advocated for minority communities.

The map passed 5-2. Julian Jones voted against it. Pat Young voted against it. The Randallstown NAACP opposed it. Residents on the east side testified that it left them without meaningful representation. Delegate Scott Phillips publicly warned that the map locked in a five-Democrat, four-Republican council — something the county had not seen in years.

And Ertel himself, co-author of the map, admitted on the record: “We all thought we were doing a good thing, and it’s been kind of a nightmare.”

The Night of the Vote

There is one more detail that deserves to be said plainly.

Julian Jones is the only Black member of the Baltimore County Council. On the night of the redistricting vote, he was out of town. He had been alerted that a vote might happen. The council could have postponed. They chose not to.

“They knew that Julian wasn’t there,” Dorsey Walker said. “They knew very well he wasn’t there, and they decided to have the vote anyway.”

That is not a scheduling conflict. That is a choice.

Who Is Standing With Julian

While Patoka counts Kushner’s money, Julian Jones has built a coalition that reflects the best of what Baltimore County can be.

Congressman Kweisi Mfume — who stood at the Pleasant Yacht Club in Sparrows Point and said simply, “Please vote for Julian Jones” — called him “a dedicated, experienced and consistent fighter for the people of Baltimore County.” Five words from Kweisi Mfume carry 40 years of credibility.

U.S. Senator Angela Alsobrooks put it plainly: “After decades on the front lines as a firefighter and then division chief, he understands how to solve our toughest problems.” Governor Wes Moore called him his partner in the work. Former Councilwoman Kathy Bevins, who served eight of her twelve council years alongside Julian, said he was always there for her constituents the same way he was there for his own.

Both Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan J. Bates and Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger —  — jointly endorsed Julian. AFGE, representing federal workers. SMART-TD, representing transportation workers. Ground Control, representing the young people of Baltimore County.

“Julian Jones is the first step to making that happen,” said Binky Jones of Ground Control. “He believes in everything we believe here — how to change a community, how to help families come together.”

And behind all of it stands Larry Gibson — the architect, the dean, the man who has been building Black political power in Maryland since before most of us were paying attention — watching Julian Jones and seeing something he recognizes. Consistency. Reliability. The kind of politician who doesn’t show up four hours before the vote and change sides.

Before Tuesday

This is the choice Baltimore County faces on June 23rd.

A candidate who took $6,000 from the Kushner family, buried a demographer’s recommendation for four districts, authored a map the ACLU says violates the Voting Rights Act, bused Black residents to support that map, and called the final vote the night the only Black council member was out of town — and now asks those same communities to hand him the keys to the county executive’s office.

Or a man who has spent 35 years running into burning buildings and 14 years fighting for the people of Baltimore County — for their energy bills, their school meals, their housing, their rights — and who has earned the trust of Larry Gibson, Kweisi Mfume, Wes Moore, Angela Alsobrooks, and the people who have been in the trenches with this county’s young people every single day.

Izzy Patoka knows the Kushner family.

Julian Jones knows Baltimore County.

Vote Julian Jones for Baltimore County Executive. Primary: June 23, 2026.

Doni Glover is the founder and publisher of BMORENews.com, now in its 24th year of covering Black Baltimore, and the founder of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards, now in its 15th year. He is also the host of the Emmy-nominated Doni Glover podcast and The Doni Glover Show on WMAR-TV 2.