Wicomico County Council, District 2
Wicomico County · 2026-11-03
District 2 is a two-way race between Jim Adkins, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination, and James Winn, who won a contested Republican primary.
Winn is a sitting council member, but not of this district: he holds one of the at-large seats, which are being abolished under the new map. So he is an incumbent councilman seeking a different seat, rather than defending the one he has.
What this office does
The County Council is Wicomico County's legislative body. It passes local bills and resolutions, approves the county budget submitted by the County Executive, confirms appointments, and provides oversight of county departments. Members serve four-year terms.
Recent council business gives a sense of the work: emergency legislation creating oversight of the county nursing home, the annual budget and its tax rate, land-use and annexation questions, and the county's mobile home park tax.
Candidates
Listed alphabetically by surname. Each summary is written only from the official record and the candidate's own campaign material — never from what anyone else says about them. Other coverage is listed under each candidate and labelled by what kind of source it is.
Jim Adkins
Democratic
Adkins won the Democratic nomination unopposed with 773 votes. He is a retired Mardela Springs resident with no previous political experience.
His stated priority is fire and EMS staffing: he would move to adopt the staffing and response-time policies recommended by the county's Fire Chiefs association, and wants EMT and paramedic training made cheap enough, and scheduled late enough, for people already working to take it.
On spending he would look for reductions in the executive branch and change how projects are put out to bid, while protecting education, public safety and fire/EMS. He names the Barren Creek Road replacement as the issue he thinks is most overstated — a storm-destroyed shortcut whose repair estimate has risen from roughly $400,000–600,000 to near $2 million — and says the cost no longer justifies it. He argues the under-covered issue is school capacity: too many portable classrooms and too many students per class.
He says the county charter is not specific enough about which branch is responsible for what, and that residents call council members about problems that belong to the executive branch because they do not find the executive available to them.
James Winn Incumbent
Republican
Winn won the Republican primary with 1,077 votes to Patrick Adkins's 446 — 70.7 per cent.
He currently serves on the county council as an at-large member. Those seats disappear under the new map, so this is a different seat rather than the one he holds.
He is 34, lives in Hebron and owns a small business.
Answering the Salisbury Daily Times in September, he said on energy costs that the county cannot control every driver of prices but can improve efficiency in its own operations and work with utilities on ways to reduce what residents pay.
On data centres he rejected both automatic approval and an outright ban, saying each proposal should be judged on its effects on energy, water, infrastructure, taxpayers and nearby communities. He named the county's greatest need as responsible growth — widening the tax base while protecting rural character, and making sure roads, water and sewer can carry what gets built.
He did not complete the Baltimore Sun and Capital Gazette's pre-primary questionnaire.
Sources for this race
Official record
Official 2026 Gubernatorial Primary Election Results — Wicomico County
Wicomico County Board of Elections
News reporting
Wicomico County to drop at-large elections after ACLU lawsuit
Wicomico County Council candidates in their own words (Delmarva Now — subscription required)