Wicomico County Council, District 3
Wicomico County · 2026-11-03
Both District 3 candidates ran unopposed for their party's nomination, so neither has yet faced a contested election for this seat. No incumbent is defending it.
Turnout in the District 3 primaries was the lowest of any council district: 405 Democratic votes and 122 Republican.
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.
Tony Hilligoss
Republican
Hilligoss won the Republican nomination unopposed with 122 votes. He lives in Salisbury, works as an environmental technician, and holds a master's in career and technology education and a BA from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, with an associate's degree from Wor-Wic. He has not held office before.
His platform is built almost entirely around transparency and responsiveness. He would hold regular community meetings outside formal sessions, push for clearer public reporting on county spending and project timelines, and supports an online dashboard residents can use to track both. He proposes a trackable system for residents to report concerns and get a reply within a known time.
On spending he would restructure or pause programmes that cannot demonstrate measurable outcomes, and look at administrative overhead and duplication, while protecting public safety, infrastructure and community programmes he considers proven.
He says success should be measured by benchmarks residents can check themselves rather than by his own account of it.
Habacuc Petion
Democratic
Petion won the Democratic nomination unopposed with 405 votes.
He did not complete either questionnaire put to candidates this cycle — the Baltimore Sun and Capital Gazette's before the primary, and the Salisbury Daily Times' in September, which named him among those who did not take part. No statement of his priorities in his own words has been published this cycle.
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)