By JOE MURCHISON
Courtesy of Jeffrey Mills
A third candidate has announced his intention to run next year for the District 1 Prince George’s County Council seat. The district includes Laurel, Beltsville and part of College Park.
Jeffrey Mills, a member of the Laurel City Council since 2023 and current president pro tem, said serving on the county council would be “a much bigger, broader avenue … to be able to take ideas and concerns of the constituents and really implement it.”
Mills joins two other announced Democratic candidates: Michelle Garcia, chief of staff to County Councilmember Tom Dernoga (District 1), and Martin Mitchell, a political and public affairs consultant and former city councilmember. Dernoga is prohibited by term limits from running for reelection.
Mills is owner of the CDL Book Club, a Laurel company that offers online and in-person training for people seeking commercial driver’s licenses and those wanting to start their own transport companies. He grew up in Seat Pleasant, where his father served on the city council. He recalled working with his father to combat an epidemic of crack cocaine use in that community in the 1970s and ‘80s.
Mills said he was concerned about the Trump Administration’s push to fire federal workers and deport immigrants. “We have parents who are stressing, we have children who are stressing,” he said. He suggested that Prince George’s County join with other counties to provide job fairs for laid-off federal workers and to offer entrepreneurial training for those interested in starting their own businesses.
Mills also expressed concern about school safety and attendance. “Time after time I ride past the high schools in the area and 50 or more children are walking away from school when they are supposed to be walking into the schools,” he wrote in a list of campaign issues. He suggested talking to students about what would “enhance their desire to be in school,” and to help them find jobs to develop their sense of responsibility. He also wrote that the county should fight juvenile crime by fining the parents of youthful offenders.
Mills said he is advocating for a number of proposed laws before the Maryland General Assembly that would maintain diversity programs, uphold immigrants’ protections, lessen some criminal sentences and safeguard the safety of youth with disabilities.
The Prince George’s County Council election primary is in June 2026, with the general election in November 2026.