While the District is already navigating new federal and local policy changes— from Nationals Guardsmen and ICE officers patrolling the streets at the behest of the Trump administration, to a mayoral-ordered youth curfew— a lot more is about to change.
In January 2027, the city’s leadership will look a lot different than it has in decades. However, who those politicians will be and how they will guide the nation’s capital into the future is up to District residents voting in the June 16, 2026, primary elections.
“You’ve got to vote, vote, vote, vote,” said former first lady Michelle Obama in her May 2015 commencement address at Tuskegee University. “That’s it; that’s the way we move forward.”
District of Columbia Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) is stepping down after 35 years. Often called “the Warrior on the Hill,” the longtime advocate for District residents in the House, leaves as Washingtonians still fight for statehood, offering more than a voice, but a vote.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), the first Black woman to be elected for three consecutive four-year terms in any major city, has also announced she will not seek reelection. This comes as Washingtonians also await the next chancellor of D.C. Public Schools– a role named by the mayor— all the while dealing with interference from the Trump administration, such as locally reinstating the death penalty and U.S. Attorney General Jeanine Pirro seeking to prosecute parents of juveniles who commit crimes.
Then, there are races for the attorney general and the D.C. Council, where in the latter, candidates are vying for chairman, plus at-large and Wards 1, 3, 5 and 6 seats.
If that’s not enough, this is also the first election where District residents will use the new ranked-choice voting method, which means how one fills out the ballot is incredibly important. With ranked-choice voting, ballots must be filled out correctly or else it is invalidated.
The historicity of the primaries goes in tandem with the major importance of this election. D.C. residents who were registered to vote by May 26 are being called on to make their voices heard and answer a lot of questions, including: Does ranked-choice voting really work for the District?
Moreover, there’s been a federal threat to voting rights. Consider the Supreme Court’s decision in “Louisiana v. Callais,” which weakened a portion of the Voting Rights Act, and heightened nationwide redistricting efforts that disenfranchise Black voters.
This election offers an opportunity for people— particularly Black folks— to unapologetically exercise their civic duty when filling out and turning in a ballot.
In 1964, when Malcolm X talked about “the ballot or the bullet” he was not necessarily calling for violence, but emphasizing the dire need for justice in the U.S. as Black Americans fought toward true liberation. He equated the ballot to “freedom.”
“Black people are fed up with the dilly-dallying, pussyfooting, compromising approach that we’ve been using toward getting our freedom,” he said. “We want freedom now, but we’re not going to get it saying ‘We Shall Overcome.’ We’ve got to fight until we overcome.”
Casting an informed ballot, the freedom fighter believed, is as important as how one uses a bullet.
With The Washington Informer Voter’s Guide, Washingtonians will have all the information they need to feel empowered going into the 2026 Primary Election.
Although the District is facing a lot of change amid challenges, remember, casting a vote is the first step in working toward a stronger future.
“It doesn’t matter how strong your opinions are,” equity advocate Coretta Scott King, the wife of civil rights icon the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., once said. “If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are indeed part of the problem.”
