Marriottsville resident Megan Foelber has filed to run as a Democrat in 2026 for a seat representing southern Carroll County on the Board of County Commissioners. She is the first Democrat to vie for the District 5 seat since 2010.
Carroll County’s District 5 encompasses Eldersburg, Sykesville, Finksburg and the surrounding areas of south Carroll.
Susan Krebs currently represents District 5 as its county commissioner; she was appointed by the governor earlier this year to replace former Commissioner Ed Rothstein, who left to become secretary of the Department of Veterans and Military Families for the state. Krebs and Rothstein are both Republicans.
Foelber, a parent of two who has lived in Marriottsville for 11 years, worked for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for 17 years until she was laid off in April during a round of mass layoffs enacted by the Department of Government Efficiency. Now, Foelber said she wants to shift her focus to making an impact on local government, using her federal experience to help support all levels of county government.
Currently, Carroll County’s Board of Commissioners consists of five Republicans. Krebs, who is filling the remainder of Rothstein’s term, which ends in December 2026, said she intends to run for reelection.
Joining a board that’s historically been dominated by Republicans, Foelber said she hopes to make an impact as a Democrat. She’ll do that by focusing on affordability, and emphasizing economic issues and funding for county schools as her top priorities.
The statewide primary election is set for June 23; the general election will be Nov. 3, 2026.
On Monday, Foelber discussed her background in federal government and her ambitions to make Carroll County more affordable with The Carroll County Times.
After leaving your position at the FDA, what made you want to run for local office?
We’ve been in Carroll County for 11 years now, in our current house. And during that time, there has not been another Democrat who has run for this position, and I really strongly feel that you need to have an actual contested election to do this. So, I’ve got a background in education. I’ve done some nonprofit work serving low income families, and it really seems like this might be a good fit for me to pursue this, this year.
What are the biggest priorities you’re hoping to focus on in your campaign?
Education, affordability and just general economic opportunity are probably three of the big things that I’m looking at. Between having kids in the schools, I also have a background in education, so that’s important to me. And I know budgeting and funding of schools, particularly in Carroll County, has been contentious for the last several years. And so I really, I think that is really one of my highest priorities, is ensuring that that students and teachers have what they need.
When we get into affordability and economic opportunity, I worked for a couple of years within Carroll County at one of the diaper banks that served the county. And so I think ensuring that families have what they need, that we can can have sustainable planning, affordable housing, all of these things that are really the economic backbones of our communities are critical.
How will your experience in the federal government inform your approach to local issues?
The one thing that I can really bring to this job is a respect for the places where government is working. We have a fantastic county government, aside from the elected officials, the people who are are running our divisions, who are running the bureaus, they know their stuff. They do a good job of it. And I think across the board, there’s respect for that. And so I think coming into this, I know where to trust the experts who are already doing so much of that work.
The Board of Commissioners is historically very Republican-led. How do you think that having a Democrat on the board could impact the board’s policies?
People put a lot of emphasis on the parties, but really, when we are here [in local government], we really just want what is best for our communities. You know, we might see a little bit of difference in in how we go about it. We might see a little bit of a difference in priorities, but this was something I gave a lot of thought to as I was considering this over the summer, because there really isn’t a standard set for how a Democrat would run in this type of position.
There has not been a Democrat that has filled one of these five positions in so long. And so I have looked at it really as an opportunity to talk about some things that we might not always want to talk about, and to really take this as, I can kind of set the tone for what I would like to see.
What specific issues do you think you can bring attention to at the county level as a Democrat?
I think right now, I mean, the biggest thing is affordability, and we’re seeing this from the federal to the state to the local level. You know, Carroll County is an interesting county, just with where it’s located, and that most of it is rural. And so I think there is an opportunity to talk about some of these different things.
We’re over a year away from the election to hear from people, and really to get a better idea of what they need … and so I think starting this out, I really want to be more in a position of just listening to what people have to say.
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