Jamila Winder, Neil Makhija win Democratic primary in contentious Montgomery County commissioner race

Jamila Winder, an executive with an education company, and lawyer Neil Makhija won the contentious Democratic primary Tuesday for two Montgomery County commissioner seats.

On the GOP side, Republican incumbent Joe Gale was defeated by two rivals who had been endorsed by the GOP: Tom DiBello, a businessman, and Liz Ferry, an executive with the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia.

The winners will face off in the November general election to determine control of the three-member Board of Commissioners in Pennsylvania’s third largest county. Democrats will be strong favorites to retain the majority, given the party’s significant voter registration edge.

The Democratic primary race marked a new phase for the party, which has controlled county government in Norristown since 2012. After a decade of electoral success — and the rise of former county commissioner Josh Shapiro to the governor’s office — the party this year experienced the most crowded primary campaign in modern history, with five candidates on the ballot.

Tuesday’s vote showed mixed results for the local party establishment. Winder, 44, was appointed to the board earlier this year to fill a vacancy and was the only candidate endorsed by the party. She led the field with about 55,000 votes out of 92,000 cast, according to Tuesday’s unofficial results.

But Winder’s running mate, teacher and Whitpain Township Supervisor Kimberly Koch, was trailing Makhija by about 7,000 votes as of Tuesday evening. Elections officials had yet to count about 1,000 mail ballots. Makhija declared victory in an email to supporters early Wednesday, saying his campaign “inspired a new and diverse coalition of voters to turn out to vote in every corner of the county.”

Winder and Koch campaigned on the prospect of becoming the first female majority on the board. Winder is the first Black woman to serve as Montgomery County commissioner.

In an interview Wednesday, Winder acknowledged that she and Makhija are also poised to make history.

“Neil and I represent a historic ticket. This means so much for people of color throughout Montgomery county. And it speaks volumes that two people of color could be the Democratic majority on the board of commissioners. I’m in awe, in terms of how far we’ve come, as a community.”

She added, of Koch: “I want to honor Kim for the work she did this campaign season and the work she’s done as a party leader.”

Makhija, a 36-year-old Lower Merion lawyer who raised the most money, touted endorsements from well-known Pennsylvania Democrats such as U.S. Sen. John Fetterman and former Gov. Ed Rendell. If elected in November, he would be the first Asian American county commissioner in Pennsylvania.

The county’s new leadership will be charged with managing a budget greater than $500 million. The commissioners will also oversee administration of the 2024 presidential election, which is expected to put local election officials in the spotlight in battleground Pennsylvania.

Winder has said she’d prioritize hiring and retaining a talented workforce amid staffing shortages and expanding affordable housing. Makhija, who teaches election law at the University of Pennsylvania, said during the campaign that his expertise would help the county administer elections.

The opening for newcomers came after former commissioner Val Arkoosh resigned earlier this year to join Shapiro’s administration. Fellow Democrat Ken Lawrence Jr. decided not to seek reelection.

Winder, an executive with a digital medical education company and an elected supervisor in East Norriton Township, was appointed to serve the remainder of Arkoosh’s tenure. In February, the hundreds of volunteers who make up the Montgomery County Democratic Committee voted to endorse Winder’s bid for a full four-year term. That ensured Winder’s name would appear on the party’s sample ballots and other materials distributed to voters — a key advantage in local elections that don’t get much news coverage.

But many rank-and-file committee members said they were frustrated with the candidate selection process for commissioner and other local offices, saying it was opaque. The committee declined to endorse party leadership’s preferred candidates for the second commissioner seat and register of wills, leading to an unprecedented “open primary” in which no candidate had official party support for those positions.

Shortly thereafter, Winder tapped Koch as her running mate — a decision that some committee members criticized as undermining the endorsement vote. Winder said she thought Koch would be her best governing partner, and the duo campaigned on the prospect of becoming the first female majority on the board.

Also on the ballot were Tanya Bamford, a marketing executive and Montgomery Township supervisor, and Noah Marlier, the county prothonotary and a municipal lawyer from Springfield.

Though relatively new to Montgomery County, Makhija, leader of a South Asian civic and political group, raised far more cash than his rivals.

Marlier and Bamford campaigned on their experience in local government.

Marlier and Makhija got a late boost from The Inquirer editorial board’s endorsement, which came after the news organization reported on Koch and Winder’s ties to influential law firms and campaign donors. The newsroom operates independently of the editorial board.

Supporters of Winder and Koch said in response that the editorial “showed a double standard” by giving male candidates “a pass on their political contributions and party gamesmanship.”

In the GOP primary, the county Republican Party ousted Gale, the incumbent commissioner who has held the office since he successfully ran against the party in 2015. Gale, 34, long a controversial figure in the party, drew protests in June 2020 after he called Black Lives Matter a “hate group.” He campaigned as an “unwavering conservative voice” who’d stand up to both parties.

Rivals Ferry, 58, and DiBello, 60, said Gale had accomplished nothing and that the county needs effective GOP commissioners who can reduce taxes and rein in spending. DiBello got the most votes, and Ferry led Gale by about 7,000 votes, according to unofficial results.

“On to November, we finally can work together as a team to change Montgomery County for the better,” DiBello wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday.