The Ward 7 D.C. Council race intensified just a bit more last weekend when Wendell Felder, a repeatedly elected millennial politico, conducted a tour throughout the ward to announce his candidacy.
Felder, president of the Ward 7 Democrats and chairperson of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 7D, launched his campaign in the parking lot of Lidl’s at Skyland Town Center in Southeast on Saturday morning.
Dozens of supporters, including actor-photographer-mayoral sibling Marvin Bowser, Tiffany Brown of the Ward 7 Democrats, and public health organizer Ambrose Lane, Jr., counted among those who waved bright yellow signs and wore similarly colored shirts while repeatedly chanting “Wendell Works!”
Other stops on Felder’s Dec. 2 campaign launch tour included the corner of Benning Road and Minnesota Avenue in Northeast and the Hill East community in Southeast. His goal, as articulated in his speech at Skyland Town Center, centers on unifying various constituencies of Ward 7 around public safety, economic development and housing.
“We all want the same thing, which is access to education, housing, neighborhood amenities, and well-paying jobs,” said Felder, 33, a fourth-generation Washingtonian “We’re in this together. You can expect [me to be] someone who understands government. I am able to hit the ground running [with] Ward 7’s interests at heart.”
Felder, in his second term as president of the Ward 7 Democrats and his fourth as an advisory neighborhood commissioner, now joins Veda Rasheed, Ebbon Allen, Eboni-Rose Thompson, Ebony Payne and Kelvin Brown on the ballot.
On June 4, Democrats in Ward 7 will make their vote for their council representative. As explained in a previous Informer story, D.C. Council member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) has yet to reveal whether he intends to run for reelection.
Felder’s more-than-a-decade experience in public service includes stints as the Ward 7 liaison in the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services, former Chief Administrator Rashad Young’s special assistant and deputy chief of staff in the D.C. Office of the City Administrator, and community development manager in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.
In these roles, Felder addressed constituent concerns, helped bridge access to resources, established relationships with public officials and agency directors, and took part in the planning, supervision, and execution of economic development projects across Wards 7 and 8. He touts his part in securing $42 million in local funds for the redevelopment of the Fletcher-Johnson site, bringing an urban community garden to Ward 7 in partnership with the D.C. Housing Authority and local universities, and increasing voter turnout during the 2022 D.C. Democratic primary election.
If elected, Felder would actualize what he’s dubbed his Ward 7 Recovery Plan.
Portions of that plan focus on the shaping of a ward-wide, community-driven development strategy created in collaboration with the Office of Planning and Office of the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development.
Felder also expressed a desire to: expand resources to new and existing community-based violence prevention programs; transform vacant, abandoned and foreclosed properties in Ward 7 into affordable housing, community spaces, and commercial developments; establish a Ward 7 Business Incubator Fund while strengthening connections between contractors and small businesses; advocate for the development of a new middle school; and introduce legislation that requires the D.C. Department of Transportation to gain community input for infrastructure development projects.
Some of Felder’s supporters, including Lane, mentioned Felder’s more than a decade of experience in public service as an asset differentiating him from other candidates.
Lane, chair of the Health Alliance Network, told The Informer that Felder has the institutional knowledge and community support essential to winning an election and properly representing Ward 7 on the D.C. Council. He said that he trusts Felder, as a council member, to assemble a team that can help him tackle public health, economic development, and education.
“If Wendell’s been elected six times in different places, it means that people see him in leadership,” Lane said. “He’s getting feedback and talking to people. He’s battle-tested. He’ll do what he has always done, which is look at the lay of the land, and put actions in place.”
With the field expanding a bit more, Ward 7 resident Jay Brown said that, for the sake of Ward 7 residents, all of the candidates, including Felder, should consider consolidating their support behind one or two people.
Brown, executive director of Community Shoulders, said weeks prior to Felder’s announcement, he wanted to ask Felder about his public safety position. As Brown recounted to The Informer, however, he reneged on that move when Felder told him he wasn’t running for the Ward 7 D.C. Council seat.
For Brown, each candidate possesses a talent that, if combined within the same Ward 7 council office, would do wonders for the ward he calls home. He even went as far as suggesting that some of the candidates run for an At-large council seat.
In the realm of public safety, Brown didn’t mince words, saying that the ideal response relies on a grassroot network of residents, more so than elected officials and government agencies. For him, it’s just a matter of which candidate would best facilitate that process.
“Let’s have a conversation and get behind one or two candidates instead of us breaking each other down with divisive rhetoric and posturing,” Brown said.
“We won’t be getting anything done collaboratively with nearly 10 candidates,” he added. “Your community empowerment piece [should] allow the community to be part of the solution rather than someone from the council telling us what they’re going to do.”
Laura Richards, a Ward 7 resident who spent nearly 40 years of her adulthood near Skyland Town Center, told The Informer that her dealings with Felder have shown her that he cares deeply about the community.
On Saturday, she asked Felder about his issues of priority. She later said that she’s eager to see how he would translate his love for community into public policy, and whether he could do so without outside influences.
“Council members become enthralled by lobbyists. It’s frightening,” Richards said. “We have been disappointed in Ward 7 and elsewhere by those who go to the Wilson Building and don’t look back.”
what is Mr. Wendell Felders takes on returning citizens in ward 7, which candidate has the returning citizens’ concerns in mind, and what is being done to engage the homeless and substance users what resources are available for those in need instead of building new structures how about building up the people.