Kristin Mink Announces Run For County Council

Kristin Mink Announces Run For County Council

Kristin Mink,  a lifelong Montgomery County resident and former MCPS teacher, announced this morning that she will be running as a Democrat for an at-large seat on the Montgomery County Council.

Mink made some headlines back in 2018 when she confronted Scott Pruitt, then head of the Trump Administration’s EPA,  at a D.C. restaurant.

Press release below: 

Silver Spring, MD (May 10, 2021) –– Kristin Mink, a first-generation Chinese American, lifelong Montgomery County resident, and former Montgomery County Public Schools teacher, announced today that she is running for an at-large seat on the Montgomery County Council. The Council currently has only one woman member and will have no women incumbents when this term ends.

Mink inspired people across the country in 2018 when she saw Trump’s corrupt Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, out at lunch and confronted him. The video of her, with her toddler on her hip, telling Pruitt to “resign before your scandals push you out” made national news, and he resigned three days later.

Now, she’s aiming to bring the same strength and integrity to the County Council. “I never planned to run for office,” said Mink, “but this is a crucial moment, and we need leaders who aren’t afraid to meet it with bold, progressive, systemic solutions. So many decisions that impact our day-to-day experiences are made at the county level, and it’s time to truly address the inequities and long-standing challenges this pandemic and the last four years have highlighted. We cannot let this moment pass us by.”

Mink grew up in Silver Spring and graduated from Montgomery Blair High School and the University of Maryland, College Park. After years teaching middle and high school while engaging in activism and community organizing on the side, Mink took on the role of Special Projects Manager for the Center for Popular Democracy, a nationwide nonprofit fighting for justice at the local, state, and federal levels.

Last March, she co-founded Masks For America, a volunteer-run nonprofit that delivered almost 2 million pieces of crowd-funded PPE to frontliners and marginalized communities across the United States and Puerto Rico, working closely with unions, community leaders, and mutual aid groups to ensure PPE went directly into the hands of those who needed it.

As can be seen in her launch video, Mink has also been a vocal advocate for workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights, trans rights, healthcare access, and reimagining public safety.

“The pandemic has deepened inequities, ravaged small businesses, financially and emotionally devastated households. Police brutality continues to draw protesters, including myself, into the streets and leave members of our community afraid for their lives and their children’s lives,” said Mink. “But Montgomery County is a place with progressive values and a lot of heart. We have an opportunity to respond to this intersection of crises with bold, systemic solutions. We can do better than recover — we can come out stronger, and make our community a place where everyone can thrive.”