Public Safety
Finish what the voters started.
The 2024 "penny tax" passed by roughly 400 votes. Every dollar must go where voters were told it would, to deputies, paramedics, 911 operators, and school resource officers.
Naranjo. Orange is the new blue.*
Ready to govern.
Not to grandstand.
Brian Naranjo for Talbot County Council. Thirty-two years of U.S. Foreign Service. Sixteen postings. Service in over fifty countries. Now back home in St. Michaels, and ready to bring competence, not chatter, to county government.
Primary June 23, 2026 · General November 3, 2026
* Naranjo means orange in Spanish — and on this ballot, orange is the new blue.
Support competence over chatter. Chip in today.
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Friends of Brian Naranjoc/o Robert Naranjo, Treasurer
6481 Belleview Dr
Columbia, MD 20904
Why I'm running
"I spent three decades solving hard problems for the United States in some genuinely difficult places. When I settled here full-time, I expected to find a county council focused on roads, public safety, schools, and water. Instead, I kept seeing energy spent on national culture-war battles that have nothing to do with what our neighbors actually need. That's what pushed me to run."
Four priorities
Roads, public safety, water, zoning, schools.
Focus on Talbot County. Full stop.
Infrastructure
Aging water and sewer can't wait.
Get this wrong and you damage the Bay, constrain responsible growth, and hand the bill to future generations. We have the knowledge to plan this well. The question is discipline.
Workforce Housing
The people who serve here should live here.
Teachers, paramedics, nurses at Memorial. More and more can't afford the community they serve. Workforce housing isn't a talking point. It's a necessity.
Schools & Fiscal Discipline
Near the bottom in per-pupil spending. Among the lowest tax rates in Maryland.
Those two facts belong in the same conversation. Fiscal constraints are real, but a county that doesn't invest in its children is borrowing against its own future.
Articles & Q&As.
Op-Ed
Annapolis Is Balancing Its Books on Talbot County
Maryland began this budget year with a $1.4 billion structural deficit, and counties are where the state comes to close it. It isn't politics. It's arithmetic.
Read Op-EdTalbot County Voters Bought an Ambulance Station. Here's the Receipt.
Station 95 in Cordova exists because of 400 people, the margin by which voters renewed the penny tax. The least we owe them is an accounting they can read.
Read Op-EdWhen Talbot Grows, Someone Pays. Callahan, Stepp Want You to Pay
On July 14, the County Council weighed who pays when new development drives up the cost of roads, schools, and libraries. Two members chose developers over the public.
ReadWho I am
A career built on getting things done.
Retired commissioned Senior U.S. Foreign Service Officer. As Deputy Chief of Mission in Caracas, Brian led a team of 450 across 12 agencies, the same size as the Talbot County workforce.
He served as Minister Counselor, a flag-rank equivalent, in Venezuela, Canada, and Mexico. Three-time Chief of Staff in Washington. Expelled by Maduro in 2018 for advocating release of an American political prisoner. "Maduro kicked me out — but the American walked out."
The full recordGet involved
Diplomacy is a contact sport.
So is grassroots politics.
Volunteer, host a meet-and-greet, or just say hello. The campaign is being built one conversation at a time.
Contact the Campaign