Montgomery County Council member Will Jawando, who leads in the Democratic primary for county executive with 40% of the vote, has declared himself the winner in that race.

Jawando’s closest challenger is council member Andrew Friedson, who, with 34% of the vote, issued a statement Wednesday acknowledging it would be difficult to close the vote gap between them.

WTOP reached out for comment from Friedson’s campaign Friday and had not received a response by midday.

Speaking to reporters at the Silver Spring Civic Center, Jawando said he takes nothing for granted, noting the winner of the Democratic primary will face a Republican, Esther Wells, in November.

However, Jawando also said, “157 days from today, I will get sworn in on Dec. 1, and we’re going to need to make sure that we hit the ground running.”

When asked to name his three priorities, Jawando said schools, “that’s why people come here, it’s a big return on investment.”

He also said he’d address housing.

“We need to make housing more affordable and that means building more near transit, but also not doing developer giveaways for luxury housing.”

And finally he said he’d prioritize “growing our economy from the bottom up, middle out.”

The election results are unofficial and more ballot counting resumes Saturday.