Horseman and Retired Racehorse Project founder Steuart Pittman was elected as the Anne Arundel County Executive on Nov. 6, unseating incumbent Steve Schuh with 52 percent of the vote.

“A lot of people thought we couldn’t do it, and we did,” said Pittman.

Land conservation is an area of focus that hits close to home for Pittman, who lives on his family’s eighth-generation Dodon Farm in Davidsonville, Maryland. He hopes to aid growth of the communities and improve the current infrastructure. Pittman, who is a Democrat, also wants to make resources more available to those in the community who need it.

“We’re the [22^nd] richest county in the country, but one-third of our population can’t afford the basic necessities of life. So it’s not a great place to be poor; the housing that is being built is mostly luxury homes,” said Pittman. “Our social services are lacking, and our schools don’t treat everybody the same. So we have a lot of work to do to help the most vulnerable people in the county as well.”

One of the improvements within the community would be to improve the Laurel Racetrack.

“Laurel Racetrack is in [Anne Arundel] County, and it’s one of the few tracks in the country that is actually growing. It’s in an area of the county where people support some commercial development. So we’d like to grow that as an entertainment destination,” Pittman said. “One of the themes of the campaign is outdoor recreation. We want to market the county, which is an urbanizing area with the Baltimore/Washington corridor. Rather than having it turn into all one big city, we want to market ourselves as a place where you can have a good time outside with the water and the open space.”

Pittman will still remain involved with the Retired Racehorse Project and currently is the board chair, but he has passed most of his duties on to executive director Jen Roytz and director of operations Kirsten Green.

“There’s a lot of work being done to make next year’s makeover bigger and better. They’re working on lining up sponsors already, and there’s a demand for this to grow, and just figuring out how to manage the growth,” said Pittman. “I’ve got plenty to do for the next four years. I’m just trying to wrap my arms around it right now.”

Pittman will be inaugurated into the position on Dec. 3. As county executive he will manage Anne Arundel County’s finances, as well as managing and supervising the county’s departments and agencies and all county services, programs and projects.