Two weeks from Tuesday, voters in Harford County Council District E will choose between a 32-year-old special education teacher from Aberdeen and a Churchville attorney who knocked off the district’s incumbent Republican in the June primary. Hunter Baker, a Democrat, and Douglas J. Phillips, a Republican, are competing for the seat in the November 3 general election.
Neither candidate has previously held elected office. The seat is currently held by Republican Jessica Boyle-Tsottles, who lost to Phillips in the primary and is not on the November ballot.
The Harford County Sun asked both candidates to identify the three biggest challenges facing the county and their top three priorities if elected. Here is what they said.
Hunter Baker
Baker grew up in Aberdeen, where his family has lived for generations. He graduated from Aberdeen High School in 2012 and went on to earn an associate degree from Harford Community College, a bachelor’s degree in history from Towson University, and a master’s degree in public policy from American Public University, where his thesis focused on affordable housing. He has worked in Harford County Public Schools and has taught special education at Arrow Center for Education in Belcamp since 2023. He is an associate member of the Harford County Democratic Central Committee. This is his first run for elected office.
The Challenges
Baker sees underfunded schools as the county’s most pressing problem. He points to staffing cuts and the loss of student programs as direct consequences of inadequate school funding — a situation he says is being made worse by what he describes as threats of flat funding from County Executive Bob Cassilly.
Housing is his second major concern. Baker, who experienced housing instability growing up, says high costs are pushing residents out and that the county has not adequately prepared for growth. He also points to a significant unhoused population as evidence the problem has already reached a critical point.
Rounding out his list is infrastructure. Baker says the county has been playing catch-up with development rather than getting ahead of it, a pattern he wants to reverse.
The Priorities
On schools, Baker is direct about his goal of “supporting our public school system by allocating them more funding in the face of Bob Cassilly’s threats of flat funding.”
On housing, he says the solution has to start with what gets built by “making housing more affordable by ensuring new homes are ones people can afford and stabilizing rent increases.”
His third priority addresses a gap he sees in how the county’s communities are connected. He said he wants to improve public transit around the county to connect isolated suburbs to work places and shopping centers.
Douglas J. Phillips
Phillips grew up in a military family and was born at Walter Reed Army Hospital. He has lived in Churchville, in the heart for about a decade. He is a practicing attorney with a focus on business law, estates and trusts, and criminal defense, and he also owns a business. He is married with two children. Phillips is a member of the Route 40 Business Association and the Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce, volunteers at the Welcome One/Harford House homeless shelter, and coaches high school and youth lacrosse and wrestling. He is a member of Churchville Presbyterian Church and the Churchville Lions Club. This is his first run for elected office.
The Challenges
Phillips puts land use and zoning at the top of his list of challenges the county faces. He says the next council will be directly involved in shaping a new county plan, revisiting zoning definitions, and making decisions about data centers, battery storage facilities, and solar farms on agricultural land — issues he considers among the most consequential the county will face in the coming years.
His said the second biggest challenge is aligning how the county spends money with what residents actually need. Phillips says that conversation has to include schools, infrastructure, and what he sees as a coming need for professional firefighters.
Third, Phillips says the county must resist any tax increases. “Many families are strained at this time and we should not impose higher costs on them,” he said.
The Priorities
Phillips frames his top priorities around the fundamentals of representation. “My top priorities will be to increase two-way communication with residents, promote transparency in the consideration of legislation and county policies, and to vote in line with the residents of District E — place their needs above special interests or partisan politics,” he said.
He says those priorities are not as obvious as they might sound. “The reason those are priorities are that they are fundamental to effective representation and they have not been happening in District E, or several other districts, in recent years,” Phillips said.
His campaign positions also include restricting industrial development on agricultural land, opposing large data centers and solar farms on farmland, lowering property taxes, preserving open space, and supporting law enforcement. He opposes expanded bus connections to Baltimore City or Baltimore County.
The Harford County Council District E general election is November 3, 2026.