Meet Arian Borghei, The 18-Year-Old Challenging For MoCo's 2nd District

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Ahead of the 2026 general election in November, Patch has invited candidates running to represent Montgomery County to complete a questionnaire touching on a variety of key issues.

Candidate responses will be published verbatim in the run-up to Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

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Questionnaire responses for Arian Borghei, who is running to represent District 2, can be found below:

Name: Arian Borghei

Age: 18

Hometown: Germantown

Political Affiliation: Republican

Do you have any previous political experience? If so, please state and explain how that experience will influence your time in office if elected.

Yes. My political and civic experience includes serving as an election judge, participating in the Maryland Student Legislature, working on political canvassing and voter outreach, and currently running as a write-in candidate for Montgomery County Council District 2. Through these experiences, I have had the opportunity to speak directly with voters, learn about the election process, work alongside people with different political perspectives, and better understand the issues affecting our communities.

Serving as an election judge was especially valuable because it required me to work as part of a bipartisan team while following election procedures carefully, accurately, and impartially. My canvassing and voter-outreach experience has also taught me the importance of listening to residents rather than assuming what matters most to them.

As a student of political science at Hood College and a member of the Maryland Student Legislature, I am continuing to strengthen my understanding of government, public policy, and the legislative process.

If elected, these experiences will influence how I serve by keeping me focused on accessibility, constituent service, collaboration, and accountability. I will approach the Council with a willingness to work across political differences, listen to residents throughout District 2, and make decisions based on what will best serve the community. I believe public office should be about service, not simply politics, and I would bring that principle with me every day on the County Council.

What do you believe is the single-most important issue facing voters in the district you're looking to represent? How do you intend to address those issues?

The single most important issue facing District 2 is that our upcounty communities — from Germantown and Clarksburg right up to our agricultural border — are treated like an afterthought when it comes to county planning and investment. Rapid residential growth has completely overwhelmed our infrastructure, and families are left dealing with severe commuter gridlock, soaring living costs, and a lack of local economic opportunities.

Infrastructure First: We need to halt the disconnect where massive housing projects are greenlit before our roads, transit capacity, and public facilities can handle them. Growth must be matched with real, proactive infrastructure investment.

Jobs Close to Home: Too many District 2 residents lose hours every day commuting down-county. We must aggressively support local small businesses and expand commercial opportunities right here in the upcounty to build a self-sustaining local economy.

Fiscal Accountability: Families and seniors are squeezed by rising costs and county tax pressures. We need strict fiscal discipline in county government — cutting waste, protecting taxpayers, and ensuring every dollar goes toward core services like public safety and education."

How do you differ from other candidates running against you?

My opponent has spent decades in the county's political and business establishment, and voters respect her long service. But respect for the past isn't solving the problems of today.

District 2 needs a fresh voice and an independent perspective — someone who isn't tied to the institutional status quo that allowed our infrastructure to fall behind our growth. While my opponent offers more of the same county leadership, I am offering a hard focus on infrastructure-first development, local economic independence, and true fiscal accountability.

How would your work experience benefit the goals/objectives you've outlined in your campaign and/or the office you're seeking?

When people ask about my background, they're often looking for a decades-long career inside the political establishment. But I believe what District 2 needs right now is something different: a background rooted in grassroots community engagement, hard work, and a genuine, uncompromised connection to the people who live here.

By building and driving a local campaign from the ground up, I've spent countless hours knocking on doors, listening to upcounty families, and digging into the real operational challenges facing Germantown, Clarksburg, and beyond. I haven't spent my life caught in county bureaucracy — which means I see our problems with clear eyes. Combined with a disciplined approach to analysis and problem-solving, I bring the energy, the independence, and the absolute focus needed to hold county government accountable and finally put upcounty infrastructure first.

What is your opinion of the work being done by the current officeholder, and how will you improve on it?

While I respect my opponent's long tenure in the county's business and political establishment, the reality is that her approach represents status-quo management at a time when District 2 needs urgent, foundational change. For decades, the incumbent has been deeply tied to the traditional chambers of commerce, planning committees, and county power structures. But under that exact style of leadership, our upcounty communities have continually been treated as an afterthought. Growth has been permitted to outpace our roads, transit networks, and local resources, leaving families to deal with severe gridlock and skyrocketing cost-of-living pressures.

How will I improve on it? By bringing a fresh, non-establishment perspective and an uncompromising, infrastructure-first mandate:

1. True Proactive Planning: Instead of greenlighting residential development and letting infrastructure play catch-up years down the line, I will fight for strict policies that require roads, transit capacity, and public facilities to be built alongside or ahead of new growth.

2. Economic Independence Close to Home: We need to move beyond standard business-as-usual frameworks and aggressively foster local economic hubs so upcounty residents aren't forced to endure grueling daily commutes down-county just to make a living.

3. Independent Fiscal Stewardship: I answer solely to the residents of District 2, not the political machine in Rockville. That independence allows me to exercise the rigorous fiscal discipline needed to cut administrative waste and protect taxpayers from being squeezed. District 2 doesn't need another term of the institutional status quo. We need fresh energy, clear-eyed focus, and a councilmember who puts the everyday quality of life of upcounty residents above all else.

How do you believe Montgomery County should address data centers? What type of legislation — moratorium or temporary pause — should be put in place? Explain.

When it comes to data centers, Montgomery County needed to hit the brakes, which is why a temporary, structured moratorium — like the 18-month pause the Council ultimately enacted — was essential. Industrial-scale tech and data facilities carry massive power and water demands, create significant noise pollution, and threaten to strain our local energy grid and upcounty environment if they are rushed in without strict rules.

A temporary pause isn't about stopping progress; it's about getting the rules right before developers break ground. We had a situation where massive proposals (like the one targeted for Dickerson) threatened to bypass proper local oversight. We needed that timeout to write ironclad zoning text amendments that explicitly dictate where these facilities can — and cannot — go, protect residential neighborhoods, and ensure utility costs aren't being shifted onto everyday county residents.

Moving forward, we must use this window to establish permanent, rigorous guardrails on environmental impact, energy consumption, and noise mitigation, ensuring that corporate tech interests never take precedence over the quality of life of District 2 residents.

What steps would you take to offset data center impacts to residents' standard of living, such as rising energy prices?

We cannot allow everyday residents and working families to subsidize the energy demands of massive corporate tech infrastructure. To offset these impacts and protect our standard of living, we need to enforce several concrete safeguards:

1. Strict Ratepayer Protections: We must advocate for regulatory rules ensuring that utility companies cannot pass the cost of grid upgrades, transmission lines, or surging electricity demands onto residential ratepayers. The financial burden of power grid expansion belongs squarely on the developers, not local homeowners.

2. 'Bring Your Own Generation' (BYOG) Standards: Rather than tapping directly into the public power grid and threatening local capacity, large-scale data centers should be required to provide dedicated, independent power sources or invest in green energy generation infrastructure that matches their footprint.

3. Rigorous Environmental and Noise Mitigation: Beyond energy, data centers bring severe noise pollution and high water-cooling demands. We need ironclad zoning restrictions—enforced during our moratorium window—that mandate strict noise barriers, water conservation standards, and buffer zones to protect nearby residential quality of life. Development should benefit our community, but never at the expense of our grid reliability or a family's monthly budget.

How would you distinguish between a good vs. bad data center? Or do you believe no data centers should be in the county/district?

The distinction comes down to location, resource impact, and whether a project respects our community or exploits it. I don't believe we should blindly shut the door on all technology or commercial progress, but a 'bad' data center — like the heavy-industrial proposals targeted for our upcounty areas near residential zones and the agricultural reserve — threatens our power grid, drives up residential utility bills, generates disruptive noise pollution, and places massive strains on water resources without real community benefit.

A responsible approach means recognizing that massive data hubs do not belong shoehorned into residential backyards or fragile upcounty ecosystems. If commercial tech infrastructure is ever to be considered anywhere in the county, it must meet strict conditions:

1. It cannot be built adjacent to residential or rural preservation areas.

2. It must bring its own independent power generation or green energy footprint rather than draining the public grid and raising utility rates for families.

3. It must be subjected to rigorous, transparent environmental and public health standards.

Right now, given the immense pressure these facilities place on our infrastructure, the county was entirely right to hit the brakes with the 18-month moratorium. Until ironclad protections are codified into law, protecting the quality of life, property values, and standard of living for District 2 residents must take absolute priority over corporate tech development.

Gov. Wes Moore signed bills banning agreements between local police and federal immigration officials in February.

What is your opinion of the legislation? What steps would you take to support or readjust that initiative?

When it comes to local law enforcement and federal immigration cooperation, our north star has to be singular: uncompromising public safety and community trust.

The legislation signed earlier this year sought to clarify the role of local police. But as a candidate for the County Council, my focus isn't on partisan debates — it's on ensuring our neighborhoods in Germantown, Clarksburg, and across District 2 are safe and secure. Here is where we must stand:

1. Zero Tolerance for Violent Crime: Local police departments must always retain the clear authority and the obligation to coordinate with federal authorities to ensure that violent offenders, gang members, and individuals convicted of serious crimes face accountability and removal. Public safety cannot have loopholes.

2. Focusing Police Resources on Local Safety: Everyday residents rely on local police to respond to emergency calls, patrol our neighborhoods, and solve local crimes. Turning local patrol officers into de facto federal immigration agents can strain police resources and erode the vital trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities that helps solve crimes.

3. Pragmatic Implementation: Moving forward, the county's priority must be practical, common-sense governance. We should support our police departments with the resources they need to target criminal activity, maintain clear lines of communication where public safety is threatened, and keep politics out of law enforcement.

What is your stance on the establishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in the county and/or your district? What actionable plans would you undertake to address illegal immigration?

When it comes to the establishment of federal immigration detention facilities in our county or district, my position is clear: Montgomery County's land use, infrastructure, and public resources must remain focused on the day-to-day needs of our residents.

Large-scale federal detention hubs do not belong shoehorned into our residential neighborhoods or upcounty communities. Siting facilities of that magnitude strains local infrastructure, creates unnecessary community friction, and diverts attention from the fundamental duties of local government.

To address illegal immigration and community safety responsibly, our approach must be rooted in practical, common-sense governance that appeals across party lines:

1. Prioritizing Core County Services: Local government should focus relentlessly on what it is meant to do — maintaining our roads, funding education, keeping property taxes manageable, and ensuring public safety.

2. Backing Law and Order: Voters across the political spectrum agree that we need a secure, lawful system. Our local law enforcement should be fully supported in keeping our neighborhoods safe and holding violent criminals accountable, without county resources being pulled into federal jurisdictional battles.

3. Smart, Local Decision-Making: Decisions about what gets built in our backyards should protect our community's quality of life and upcounty environment, keeping local interests front and center.

Education: What is the biggest issue facing Montgomery County Public Schools? How would you address it?

The single biggest issue facing Montgomery County Public Schools right now is a massive disconnect between ballooning administrative budgets and the actual, on-the-ground resource needs of our classrooms and upcounty facilities.

While our school system has faced intense budget friction, and parents are frustrated by shifting boundaries, school closure reviews, and capacity crunches in places like Clarksburg, the core problem is a failure of fiscal prioritization. Taxpayers are pouring record amounts of funding into MCPS, yet classrooms face staffing pressures, and families feel left out of the planning process.

Here is how we address it:

1. Prioritize the Classroom, Not Bureaucracy: We must demand strict fiscal accountability from school leadership. Administrative bloat must be trimmed so that every available dollar goes directly toward retaining quality teachers, supporting student achievement, and keeping local neighborhood schools strong.

2. Fair Facility Planning for the Upcounty: Upcounty communities like Germantown and Clarksburg face unique growth and capacity challenges. We need proactive, transparent planning that ensures school infrastructure matches residential growth, rather than forcing reactive boundary shifts or school consolidation discussions that disrupt families.

3. Restoring Public Trust: Parents deserve a transparent school board and county council that work together, respect taxpayer limits, and focus relentlessly on academic excellence and safe, stable learning environments.

What is your stance on the "Save Wootton" initiative by community members?

My stance on the 'Save Wootton' initiative is clear: I stand with the community, and I firmly oppose the rushed, unstudied permanent closure of a vital neighborhood anchor.

While supporting new facilities like Crown High School is important, it should never come at the expense of permanently dismantling an established, thriving comprehensive high school like Wootton. The Board of Education's push to move forward without meaningful public engagement, transparent data, or a real respect for local families highlights everything that is currently broken in county planning.

This issue matters far beyond one cluster because it speaks to a broader principle:

1. Schools Are Community Anchors: They aren't just buildings that can be shuffled around on a spreadsheet. They are the heart of our neighborhoods, and families deserve long-term stability, not disruptive boundary shifts caused by a lack of proper planning.

2. Demand for Real Oversight: The County Council controls the purse strings for MCPS, and elected leaders must provide rigorous financial and operational oversight instead of rubber-stamping top-down decisions that blindside residents. We need proactive, transparent school planning that matches residential growth across our county — from Rockville to the upcounty — ensuring that every community keeps the neighborhood schools and resources they were promised.

A student brings a gun/weapon to campus without setting off any red flags.

What security measures would you advocate for to prevent such an incident? Do you believe schools need stricter security measures? Metal detectors? Move away from CEOs and revert to SROs? Explain.

When an incident happens where a weapon bypasses our safety layers, it shakes a community to its core and forces us to look past political talking points to focus purely on the safety of our children.

Securing our schools requires a sensible, multi-layered approach rather than a false choice between total securitization and doing nothing:

1. Reevaluating the Security Model (SROs vs. CEOs): The current model of shifting away from dedicated School Resource Officers to cluster-based Community Engagement Officers (CEOs) has left gaps — such as officers being tied down at off-site elementary schools when an urgent situation arises. We need a reliable law enforcement presence back inside our high schools. We must restore dedicated, well-trained officers who build trust with students, know the campus, and can act as an immediate deterrent and line of defense against violent threats.

2. Targeted Physical Security & Screening: While we want our schools to feel like welcoming places for learning rather than prisons, we cannot ignore modern risks. We should evaluate advanced, non-intrusive weapons detection technology at main entrances where feasible, ensuring it is deployed intelligently without creating operational bottlenecks or undue delays for students.

3. Empowering Security Staff and Mental Health Integration: MCPS security personnel are often overworked and under-resourced. We need to invest directly in our internal security teams — providing better training, competitive pay, and clear communication channels with local law enforcement — while ensuring early intervention resources are active so warning signs are caught long before a weapon ever reaches a campus.

A 6% property tax increase was proposed for the fiscal 2027 budget to raise funds for schools. Homeowners are reluctant to pay more.

What is your position? What other options would you consider to raise money that does not include raising taxes?

Homeowners across Montgomery County — and particularly in District 2 — are already dealing with crushing inflation, rising everyday costs, and mounting financial pressure. Piling a blanket property tax hike on top of that is the wrong approach.

My position is clear: I oppose a broad property tax increase. Families and seniors on fixed incomes should not be forced to balance the county's budget shortfalls through higher property tax bills.

Instead of automatically reaching into taxpayers' pockets, the county needs to practice real fiscal discipline and explore alternative solutions:

1. Prioritizing and Trimming Administrative Waste: We must audit county and school system spending to redirect existing revenue directly into classrooms and essential services. When budgets grow faster than the rate of inflation, the solution isn't to raise taxes — it's to cut administrative bloat and streamline operations.

2. Expanding Our Commercial Tax Base: Right now, too much of the county's financial burden falls squarely on residential property owners. By fostering local economic opportunities and commercial growth right here in the upcounty, we can generate robust business tax revenue that relieves the pressure on homeowners.

3. Smart Capital Prioritizing: We have to evaluate capital projects and delay non-essential government expenditures until economic conditions stabilize, ensuring every public dollar is spent with absolute efficiency.

How will you address crime in Montgomery County/your district?

Public safety is the absolute bedrock of any thriving community. If residents don't feel safe in their neighborhoods, walking down the street, or sending their kids to school, nothing else the county government does matters.

To effectively address crime across Montgomery County and right here in District 2, our approach must focus on strong support for law enforcement, proactive prevention, and common-sense accountability:

1. Fully Support and Resource Our Police Department: We must ensure the Montgomery County Police Department has the staffing, competitive recruitment incentives, and modern tools it needs. Law enforcement officers have a tough job, and they need to know their local leaders have their backs so they can patrol effectively and respond rapidly to emergency calls.

2. Focus on Community-Level Deterrence & Property Crime: Upcounty neighborhoods — from Germantown to Clarksburg — have experienced frustrating spikes in property crimes, auto thefts, and retail retail theft. We need targeted local patrols, better neighborhood lighting, and strong cooperation between local businesses and police to crack down on these quality-of-life crimes before they escalate.

3. Addressing Root Causes with Accountability: True public safety means combining robust law enforcement with smart intervention. We must support youth outreach and mental health crisis response teams so police are freed up to focus on violent crime, while ensuring that individuals who commit repeat offenses face true accountability within the justice system rather than revolving-door policies.

What will you do to encourage affordable/public housing in the county?

Ensuring that working families, young adults starting out, and seniors on fixed incomes can afford to live in Montgomery County is a vital economic issue. But we have to tackle housing affordability through smart, market-realistic solutions rather than heavy-handed government mandates that drive up costs or disrupt our neighborhoods.

Here is how we should encourage affordable and workforce housing in our county:

1. Streamlining Approval Processes and Cutting Red Tape: One of the biggest drivers of high housing costs is the excessive regulatory delay and bureaucratic red tape developers face. By cutting through unnecessary delays and streamlining the approval process for residential projects that include workforce and attainable housing, we can lower the cost of building without lowering our standards.

2. Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships & Incentives: Instead of relying solely on top-down government housing projects, we should partner with private and non-profit developers to incentivize the creation of mixed-income housing along key transit corridors — like upcounty employment hubs in Germantown and Clarksburg — where infrastructure can support it.

3. Protecting Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH): We must focus on preserving existing, older apartment complexes and housing stock that naturally provide lower-cost options, ensuring that revitalization efforts don't price out long-term residents or destroy community stability. True housing affordability means ensuring our children and workforce can afford to live, work, and stay right here in Montgomery County without sacrificing the character of our upcounty communities.