As electoral college votes continued to roll in for both major-party presidential candidates, a beleaguered council member won reelection and District voters approved a polarizing ballot initiative.
That ballot measure, known as Initiative 83, allows independent voters in the District to participate in the primary election of their choice. It also implements ranked-choice voting, a system where voters, instead of voting for one candidate, rank candidates in order of preference until one candidate secures 50% of the vote.
For Ward 7 resident Makia Green, Initiative 83 will be a game changer for organizers who often clash with elected officials about housing and food security, and police accountability, and other issues.
“This is an opportunity for us to… really expand the electorate,” Green told The Informer, emphasizing the growing independent voting population. “We will make it possible for children of native Washingtonians to vote in primary elections that decide who has a say in D.C.’s more-than-$16 million budget… We will have the chance to vote out people who are actually unpopular.”
With the ballot initiative, which nearly 73% of voters approved, being subject to appropriations, Green said it’s imperative that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and the D.C. Council fund ranked-choice voting and open primaries in the next budget.
“We are in this moment with a great opportunity if our elected officials will support the will of the people,” Green told The Informer.
Whether those elected officials will do so has yet to be seen. Bowser and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson recently spoke in opposition of Initiative 83. Mendelson expressed concern for long voting processes, and Bowser criticized the notion that anything less than 50% of the vote isn’t a healthy majority.
While several longtime District residents have shared similar thoughts, they’ve gone further in calling the Initiative 83 a death knell to the Democratic Party and overall Black D.C. native political power.
“We know that D.C. is majority Democratic,” said Bernita Carmichael, a Democratic state committeewoman and Ward 5 resident. “And now y’all want to break down the house that Kamala Harris [was going to] have in her backyard.”
Carmichael, a lifelong D.C. resident, described proponents of ranked-choice voting and open primaries as transients who are exploiting low voter turnout data to misinform District residents and destroy long-existing voting systems.
She said that strategy further advances transients’ political domination of native Washingtonian communities that first started with their infiltration of advisory neighborhood commissions.
“These people are not being neighborly. We’ve seen them at ANC meetings isolate the elderly population,” said Carmichael, a Riggs Park resident. “It’s about engineering control, coming into a community to change people and using corporate structures to change a culture they don’t agree with. It’s straight out of the Trump playbook.”
Paul Johnson, a Ward 4 resident and Democratic state committeeman, said that he voted against Initiative 83, not only in alignment with the D.C. Democratic Party and D.C. Black Caucus, but out of concern for the influx of out-of-state funds raised for the ballot initiative.
Those funds, Johnson said, support the destabilization of political institutions that native Black Washingtonians created. He went on to suggest that those who are concerned about low voter turnout help create an inclusive environment at the ANC level that creates spaces for a wide spectrum of opinions and viewpoints.
“There are many opportunities for constituencies to work together to make the District better rather than destroying or undermining the system and circumventing the will of the people,” Johnson said. “We get better quality leadership with a broad base. Given the outside funding and confusion on the measure, people aren’t clear on what it entails.”
However, Tiffani Nichole Johnson, an advisory neighborhood commissioner who lives in Ward 4, said that the current city leadership doesn’t totally reflect the will of voters. She spoke in support of Initiative 83, what she called a tool that encourages electoral candidates to engage a wider net of voters.
“Certain individuals that have had things done a certain way to get reelected are worried about themselves and not the greater good of the city. That’s concerning,” Johnson said. “Everyone should have the same, equitable opportunity to vote at the same time for the candidate of their choice, and let the cards fall where they may. Ranked-choice voting allows for that versus our current system which lends itself to the same people getting reelected. It’s not based on the work they do and the caliber of their legislation.”
Trayon White Wins Reelection with Cloud Over His Head
On Nov. 5, as four of his council colleagues secured electoral victories, Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White (D) walked into The Players Lounge on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue with an entourage that included advisory neighborhood commission candidate Fria Moore.
More than an hour later, the top floor of The Players Lounge filled up as Moore ran up to the stage and announced that White won reelection with nearly 76% of the vote.
Moore, an ANC candidate in Single-Member District 8A04, also won her race, as did ANC 8A Chairwoman Jamila White and Commissioner Robin McKinney (8A06), both of whom were running for reelection on an all Black woman slate.
As a calm and focused White recounted to The Informer, his conversations with voters throughout the day confirmed what eventually came to fruition.
“People in Ward 8 support me 100%,” White said. “I have no worries.”
Next week, on Nov. 13, White is scheduled to appear, once again, before a federal court judge as he continues to fight a bribery charge. As Washington City Paper’s Tom Sherwood reported in October, he will do so without his private legal team.
In September, after his arrest and unveiling of his charges, White lost chairmanship of his council committee, which D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson absorbed into the council’s Committee of the Whole and split into subcommittees.
The D.C. Council also formed an ad-hoc committee that will determine White’s political future within a matter of weeks.
Amid the legal and political pressure, White continued to attend council meetings, where he weighed in on a bevy of issues, including compensation of early childhood educators. Last week, he stood in opposition of D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto’s residential tranquility emergency bill.
Outside of the John A. Wilson Building, the Ward 8 council member has stood in solidarity with Justin Robinson, a violence interrupter who Metropolitan Police Department officers shot and killed during an encounter. He also counted among those who organized against &Pizza when the corporation lampooned the late Marion Barry in a promotional item that’s since been removed from stores.
Depending on what happens later this year, White’s third council term might be short lived. In December, White’s council colleagues, all of whom are members of an ad-hoc committee, will submit the findings of their investigation into the bribery allegations and White’s residency.
They will also make a determination of whether to expel White from the council.
White didn’t speak about his political troubles, nor did he opt to answer questions about the specifics of his federal bribery charge. However, he said that his rapport with Ward 8 residents further legitimizes his presence in the John A. Wilson Building.
“I’ve done the work… so I let the chips fall where they may,” White said on the night of Nov. 5. “The power is in the people and I served the people for 23 years straight. They elected me to do a job to make sure we are fighting for equity and inclusion.”
Some people, like White’s write-in challenger Olivia Henderson, questioned whether the Ward 8 political establishment provided a platform for divergent voices, like hers and that of other Ward 8 D.C. Council write-in candidates — Michael Brown and Khadijah Long.
“The council member is selfish, and [some] people in Ward 8 think it’s okay,” Henderson said. “They make it seem like this guy is running unopposed. They acted as if I didn’t exist.”
During her more-than-two-month candidacy, Henderson canvassed across Ward 8 with more than a dozen volunteers. She recounted challenges engaging voters in the newly incorporated part of Ward 8. She also reflected on unsuccessful attempts to help voters see the seriousness of her campaign.
For Henderson, the blame lies with Anacostia Coordinating Council (ACC) and Ward 8 Democrats, two institutions she said blackballed her throughout her council run.
“Anacostia Coordinating Committee didn’t want to have a conversation. The Ward 8 Democrats didn’t even give the write-in candidates a chance to attend a forum,” Henderson said. “Before my write-in candidacy, they would reach out. They can’t even bring people together to talk about the importance of that council seat. It’s about us partying.”
Phil Pannell, executive director of ACC, pointed out that the group co-hosted forums at Rehoboth Baptist Church on Alabama Avenue SE and Congress Heights Senior Wellness Center that featured Henderson and other Ward 8 D.C. Council write-in candidates.
Troy Donte Prestwood, president of the Ward 8 Democrats, didn’t mince words, confirming the organization’s absolute support for Ward 8 Councilmember White.
“Any other move, including the embrace of write-in candidates, would’ve been against Ward 8’s interests,” Prestwood told The Informer. “There’s a Republican candidate [Nate Derenge] that most residents feel isn’t the right fit for Ward 8. Not having a viable Democratic nominee would’ve been political suicide.”
A Night for Black Women on the State Board of Education
State Board of Education (SBOE) Representatives Dr. Jacque Patterson (At large) and Allister Chang (Ward 2) won reelected in uncontested races, while State Board President and Ward 7 Representative Eboni-Rose Thompson successfully defended her seat against a candidate endorsed by Ward 7 D.C. Councilmember-elect Wendell Felder.
In Ward 4, SBOE Representative Frazier O’Leary) lost his reelection bid to challenger Dr. T. Michelle Colson, a Ward 4 native and D.C. Public Schools alumna who currently serves as a dean at a public school.
The Nov. 5 general election not only proved victorious for Colson, but for LaJoy Johnson-Law, a mother who won the Ward 8 state board seat without any opposition. Once sworn into office, Johnson-Law will be the first mother to sit on the state board since Linda Moody clinched what was then the Ward 8 D.C. Board of Education seat in 1990.
Johnson-Law expressed her excitement about her electoral victory.
“I’m just prayerful that this will open up more doors for Black mothers, and Black parents in general,” Johnson-Law told The Informer on the morning of Nov. 5. “I’m excited to get to know more parents, students, and schools, while being more inclusive of the early education centers. I don’t take anything for granted. Just working and wanting to earn people’s votes and support.”
Johnson-Law’s campaign followed more than a decade of grassroots organizing that she and other parents conducted to secure resources for children living and going to school east of the Anacostia River. That work, she said, started when she enrolled her daughter, Abria, who was born prematurely, in National Children’s Center on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue in Southeast.
Since launching her campaign, Johnson-Law has made the rounds at community events, where she’s spoken to parents, students and education leaders. She has even acknowledged, and at one point paid homage to, Moody.
As she follows in Moody’s footsteps, Johnson-Law said she’s prepared to work on behalf of Ward 8 families. “Representing souls is a big deal and very serious,” she told The Informer. “We have to make sure we have representation. I have butterflies but am excited to continue serving.”
Opponents Criticize Political Establishment as Delegate Norton Secures Another Term
With nearly 90% of the general election vote, Ankit Jain became D.C.’s first shadow senator of South Asian heritage.
Oye Owolewa also secured another term as a U.S. representative with a similar electoral outcome.
Meanwhile, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) overcame three challengers to, once again, secure reelection. She accumulated nearly 81% of the vote, compared to Kymone Freeman’s 6.64%, Myrtle Patricia Alexander’s 6.33%, and Michael A. Brown’s 6.2%.
Brown, an independent and former D.C. Council chairman, said he didn’t take for granted the gravity of his congressional ambitions. Earlier this year, he launched his election bid critical of what he described as Norton’s inability to quell Republican intrusion in local affairs.
A key hallmark of Brown’s campaign strategy centered on conversations with voters.
“Nobody outcampaigned us in the streets… but we’re up against an icon,” Brown said on Nov. 5. “The usual organizations didn’t give us a chance to have more formal in-person debates so we could all be on stage in front of voters. I did most of the traditional things — knocking on doors, meet and greets, talking to folks in their living rooms and those who wanted coffee.”
Freeman also launched his congressional campaign during the earlier part of the year, eventually opting to run in the general election as a D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate.
In his message to voters, Freeman often evoked President Joe Biden as an example of an elder who supported Vice President Kamala Harris as a political successor. Though he often recognized Norton for her decades of service, and even featured her in campaign material, Freeman remained critical of the veteran elected representative on what he called her inaction on the Palestinian genocide in Gaza.
While out and about on the campaign trail, Freeman also spoke about housing, healthcare and public safety, among other issues, all in criticism of the political system he said that veteran politicians maintain to the detriment of marginalized constituents.
“I’ve been dealing with bougie Black people who are determined to maintain the status quo, and respected elders who’ve now become gatekeepers,” Freeman said. “We still don’t have a pipeline for leadership and mentorship to succeed from the wisdom of our elders.”
All in all, Freeman relished his position as a candidate. Though he didn’t win, Freeman noted that he showed the serious nature of his political endeavors.
“It was a foregone conclusion but I’ve contributed to making the general election competitive,” Freeman told The Informer. “It was illuminating and a badge of honor to be perceived as a threat to the status quo.”