Steuart L. Pittman Jr. (born September 11, 1961) is an American politician and farmer who has served as county executive of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, since 2018. A member of the Democratic Party, Pittman has served as the chair of the Maryland Democratic Party since June 2025.
Early life and education Pittman was born on his family's farm in Davidsonville, Maryland, on September 11, 1961. He was one of three children born to Steuart Pittman, a Marine veteran and former assistant secretary of defense under President John F. Kennedy, and Barbara Pittman. Pittman's ancestor, George Hume Steuart, emigrated to Maryland from Scotland in 1721, made a career as a tobacco planter and slave owner, and served as the mayor of Annapolis from 1759 to 1763.
Pittman grew up in Washington, D.C., where he attended St. Albans School. He also spent summers at his family's farm, Dodon, in Davidsonville. Pittman attended the University of Chicago and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and Latin American studies in 1985.
Career Early career Pittman first became involved with politics as a community organizer in Chicago and Des Moines, Iowa. Afterwards, he returned to Maryland to work as a field director for the National Low Income Housing Coalition from 1990 to 1992, and the director for national campaigns for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now from 1992 to 1994. He became involved in politics again following the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016, first exploring a run for the Anne Arundel County Council in District 7 before Sarah Elfreth, a candidate for the Maryland Senate, asked if he considered running for county executive instead.
Pittman started riding horses at a very young age, when his parents bought him a pony. He joined the St. Margaret's Pony Club in Annapolis, Maryland. His passion for horses eventually led him to became a trainer, instructor, and competitor at the Advanced level of three day eventing. Pittman left the organizing world to become a professional horse trainer and farmer at Dodon Farm in 1994. He was the president of the Maryland House Council from 2009 to 2013, and founded the Retired Racehorse Project in 2010. He also wrote a blog about how to train horses, titled "Listen To The Horse".
Anne Arundel County Executive
On November 16, 2017, Pittman announced that he would run for Anne Arundel County executive in 2018, challenging incumbent Republican county executive Steve Schuh. During his campaign, he ran on a platform of supporting local businesses, redevelopment and land preservation, and increasing developer impact fees to pay for infrastructure. He also criticized Schuh for supporting policies that Pittman claimed would lead to population growth and denser developments in the county. During the election, Pittman received endorsements from county police and firefighter unions and received more individual contributions than Schuh, but was heavily outspent by Schuh throughout the campaign. On November 6, 2018, Pittman defeated Schuh in an upset, receiving 52.3% of the vote to Schuh's 47.6%. He was sworn in on December 3, 2018, becoming Anne Arundel County's first Democratic county executive since Janet S. Owens, who served as county executive from 1998 to 2006.
In November 2020, Pittman launched Future Matters, a nonprofit education and advocacy organization to promote policies to address various economic, education, and development issues. The advocacy group held monthly virtual forums to promote finding "common ground" solutions to these issues.
Pittman ran for re-election in 2022. He faced Republican county councilmember Jessica Haire in the general election, whom he criticized for voting against his budget proposals and accepting contributions from Halle Companies, a development company that sought to build a rubble landfill in Odenton. On November 8, 2022, Pittman defeated Haire with 53.7% of the vote to Haire's 46.1%.
In October 2024, Pittman launched a weekly podcast titled "Pittman and Friends", which focuses on how government works.
In December 2025, the Anne Arundel County Ethics Commission found that Pittman violated the county's ethics rules after writing about the results of the 2025 United States elections in the county's official newsletter. Pittman acknowledged the commission's findings and accepted responsibility for the content of the letter.
COVID-19 pandemic
In March 2020, Pittman announced that Anne Arundel County had recorded its first case of COVID-19. Soon after, he signed a series of executive orders declaring a state of emergency in Anne Arundel County and requiring face masks while in public, and established programs to help low-income individuals keep up with rent payments.
In May 2020, after Governor Larry Hogan announced plans to reopen state beaches and parks, Pittman signed onto a letter asking for more input on discussions involving the reopening of Maryland's economy. He further complained that Hogan provided officials with no prior warning before announcing his reopening plans, requiring him to scramble to figure out whether the county's health officer supported Hogan's orders and how to implement them on short notice. As Hogan continued to announce gradual reopening steps, Pittman consulted with local health authorities before moving forward with any reopenings, expressing concerns that Hogan was moving to reopen before central Maryland counties were ready. He later announced that the county would begin taking limited steps toward reopening to prevent a second wave, though he continued to criticize Hogan for leaving the first phase of reopening up to local jurisdictions and for communicating poorly with county officials. Anne Arundel County's later reopening steps gradually started mirroring statewide reopening guidelines, though officials remained cautious of a potential second wave. Pittman also supported a county bill that would prohibit any landlord from raising rent by more than 3% during Maryland's state of emergency, which failed to pass.
In July 2020, following an increase in cases in the county, Pittman reimposed restrictions on restaurants and social gatherings to prevent further spread of the virus. In September 2020, Pittman said that Anne Arundel County would not immediately follow Hogan in moving into phase three of reopening, citing a slowly rising seven-day positivity rate in the county, but rejected advice from Anne Arundel County Health Officer Nilesh Kalyanaraman to impose further closures. The county would later expand its pop-up community testing sites to help contain the spread of the virus and announce additional homeowner and small business relief programs funded by CARES Act stimulus funding. In November 2020, as cases rapidly increased across the state, Pittman signed onto a letter with other county executives calling on Hogan to work with them to contain the spread of COVID-19, saying that it had been five months since the governor last reached out to them and hasn't given officials an advance notice when making reopening announcements. He also announced new restrictions on social gatherings and restaurant capacities.
The first COVID-19 vaccines in Anne Arundel County were given to medical staff in risky positions in late December 2024, with the county soon announcing a vaccinations schedule prioritizing health department employees and public safety workers before adopting the statewide vaccination schedule. In January 2021, he called on Hogan to provide better vaccine coordination with county officials so that local health departments could be aware of which private sector pharmacies were receiving doses and how many they were getting. In March 2021, Pittman announced that the Navy–Marine Corps Memorial Stadium would be used as a mass vaccination site, with vaccinations soft-launching as soon as April 15.
Pittman began lifting restrictions on social gatherings, mask mandates, and restaurant capacities as COVID-19 case rates continued to decline in April 2021, In June 2021, the Anne Arundel County Council voted unanimously to pass a bill ending the county's COVID-19 state of emergency while allowing restaurants to continue providing outdoor dining, which Pittman signed into law later that month.
In August 2021, Pittman reinstated the county's indoor mask mandate following an increase in COVID-19 cases from the Delta variant and imposed a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on county employees. In December 2021, he again reinstated the county's indoor mask mandate amid the rapid rise of the omicron variant. In January 2022, after the Anne Arundel County Council voted against allowing Pittman to extend the county's mask mandate through the end of the month, Pittman supported the Anne Arundel County Department of Health's issuance of a public safety order to extend the mask mandate until January 31.
Environment During his 2018 county executive campaign, Pittman supported increasing fees to deter the deforestation in Anne Arundel County and said that he hoped to work with the county council to pass a no net loss forest conservation bill. In October 2019, he introduced a bill that would double the county's reforestation ratio and increase fees and conservation thresholds for developments. After the bill was weakened by the Anne Arundel County Council, Pittman said that he would still sign the bill into law, after which the county council passed amendments increasing impact fees and unanimously passed the bill. Pittman signed the forest conservation bill into law in November 2019. In May 2021, after a bill that would've required anyone clearing 5,000 square feet or more of trees to have a grading permit was defeated by the Anne Arundel County Council, Pittman said that he would work with county councilmembers to address their concerns.
In February 2020, Pittman supported the Climate Solutions Act, which would increase Maryland's greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal from 40% to 60% by 2030, with a goal of net-zero emissions by 2045.
In August 2021, Pittman supported the Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act, a federal bill introduced by Senator Chris Van Hollen that would require the United States's largest polluters to pay $500 billion into a climate fund over 10 years, saying that it would, if passed, provide the county with additional revenue to spend toward infrastructure projects to respond to climate change.
In August 2022, Pittman proposed to the U.S. Navy that Greenbury Point, a 150-acre wetland forest, be turned over to Anne Arundel County on a long-term lease for use as a conservation area instead of being transformed into a 18-hole golf course.
Gun safety During his 2018 county executive campaign, Pittman supported an expansion of the state's red flag laws and said that the Capital Gazette shooting should open the eyes of Anne Arundel County residents to the glorification of guns. In April 2019, Pittman signed an executive order creating a task force to develop recommendations on how to reduce gun violence in the county. After the task force published its preliminary report in December 2019, Pittman introduced a resolution declaring gun violence a public health crisis. The task force published a report with 55 recommendations on how to lower gun deaths through targeted social and public health solutions in June 2020.
In January 2022, Pittman signed into law a bill requiring gun sellers to offer pamphlets to customers detailing suicide prevention resources, and another gun store owners to install video surveillance, exterior bollards, and concrete barriers. The suicide prevention bill was subject of a lawsuit by Maryland Shall Issue, which ended in the U.S. Supreme Court denying a hearing on an appeal of a ruling upholding the law as constitutional.
Housing and development