Baltimore County has changed a lot over the years. Its population has grown and grown, and it’s continually becoming more and more diverse.

But its state’s attorney’s office has largely remained the same — there have been two elected state’s attorneys since 1975.

Sarah David, 39, wants to change that. Currently the deputy Maryland state prosecutor, David will announce her candidacy for state’s attorney Wednesday. She has raised more than $100,000 to gear up for the 2026 Democratic primary, campaign finance disclosures show.

She said in an interview she is running because she thinks the office needs modernization, reform and fresh perspective.

“The state’s attorney’s office has the opportunity to be a place that has comprehensive public safety leadership,” David said during a run through Meadowood Regional Park on a recent Saturday morning.

“I would bring that to the office, and I really want to bring that to the county. I think it’s something that we need. Modernization and collaboration are more important now than ever.”

If elected next year, David said, she would expand community outreach, develop more robust victim and witness services, and publish data on juvenile crime, which the state’s attorney’s office does not currently do. Juvenile crime has been a hot-button issue in the region, and David said publishing the data would help inform public perceptions and provide context, while also pointing out where to put resources.

Scott Shellenberger, 65, has been Baltimore County’s state’s attorney since 2007. Before him, Sandra Ann O’Connor, a Republican, had been in the role since 1975 and Shellenberger worked for O’Connor for 11 years, from 1982-93. He said he believes his office does a good job, which is why he’s running for another term, and that his operation is “as modern as modern can be.”

“As far as modernization goes, we instituted body-worn cameras under my watch,” Shellenberger said. “Every person in this office has their own laptop they can take to court and use, and they all do. We typically present our cases with the most modern of technologies.”

Pushing back further on David, Shellenberger said he has 10 full-time employees who do victim and witness services and that there have been no complaints about their performance. He also said, if the General Assembly wants to fund positions solely for data entry, he would welcome it, but otherwise new jobs would be reserved for attorneys and paralegals.

“Every time I get more bodies I do what I think is important, which is putting them in the courtroom and making sure we convict the people we need to convict,” he said.

David said the way prosecutors handle sexual assault cases also would change. She said she would track the outcome of every sexual assault case and that she would treat victims with “dignity and respect.”

“How we treat victims in every part of the process and how we treat the evidence in those cases is something that the state’s attorney should be a leader on,” David said.

Shellenberger has faced intense criticism for how his office has handled those cases in the past, specifically for victim treatment.

“We assist people in ways that no other jurisdiction can when it comes to sexual assault,” Shellenberger said in response to David.

Folks in Maryland legal and political circles — of which David is in many — describe her as highly competent, intelligent and open-minded.

Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess, who is not endorsing either candidate, said the modern state’s attorney cannot be as hard-charging as in times past. Consideration for a defendant’s circumstances, how prosecution may impact someone and a sense of empathy are more important than they were before.

“I think that she’s a whole-picture kind of person,“ Leitess said of David. “She sees all facets of what’s going on.”

David has held several public-service jobs — she worked for the New York City Police Department before law school, was a prosecutor in Baltimore City, spent a year as former Sen. Bobby Zirkin’s chief of staff in the legislature — but running the state’s attorney’s office would be the biggest, and most public-facing, role of her career.

Zirkin spent 13 years in the legislature representing Baltimore County and said David would be good for any office she ran for because of her commitment to learning and basing her conclusions on the facts.

“You look around at politics today, and this is not casting aspersions on anyone in particular, there’s a lot of flair and fluff and lack of substance and people litigating complex bills on Twitter or X or whatever you call it, and she’s the opposite of that,” Zirkin said.

Although there’s no way to fully prepare for the rigors of campaign or public office, David said she isn’t fazed by what she faces. Her life and career to this point have prepared her for what could come, she said.

“I’ve been engaged in important decisions as it relates to not only what to do on my high-profile and complicated cases but also how to build partnerships and how to think differently,” she said.

There have been some high-profile moments. In 2016, David resigned from the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office; she was the second prosecutor to quit in protest of former State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s handling of the cases against the officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray.

“One of the hardest things about being a prosecutor is that doing your job is sometimes different than keeping your job,” David said. “And these decisions on cases have to be about what is just and right.”

In addition to her current work investigating and prosecuting government officials accused of misconduct, David sits on various nonprofit boards where she makes decisions. She is president of the board for the Women’s Law Center of Maryland.

And when she’s not working or volunteering, the Baltimore County native is likely spending time with her family, reading for her book club or getting in a workout during the wee hours of the morning.

She is married to Glenn Gordon, an attorney at Miles & Stockbridge, and together they have two school-aged children (she gave her son the prestigious title of campaign captain). They are observant Jews and regularly host pizza Shabbat on Friday nights with extended family and friends.

On the cusp of launching her campaign, David said her family has been supportive of her, and that her children understand she may be less available than she has been.

“I’ve told them that Mommy’s going out to make the world a better place for you,” she said. “I think they appreciate that.”