Kymone Freeman Announces Run for D.C. Delegate Norton’s Seat

Throughout her more than 30-year career as D.C.’s nonvoting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) secured at least 75% of the primary and general election votes in her successful reelection bids.  

As Delegate Norton prepares for another electoral battle, there’s at least one District resident who’s focused on throwing what he describes as Norton’s “early retirement party.” 

On Monday, We Act Radio co-founder Kymone Freeman officially announced his run for the D.C. delegate seat. As the 19th annual MLK Holiday DC Parade came to a close on Jan. 15,  a small group of people walked through the doors of Freeman’s independently owned, progressive media station, located on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Southeast, in support of his campaign. 

While Freeman acknowledged Norton as a key strategist for the 1963 March on Washington and founder of the Free South Africa Movement, he told supporters that she rejected values espoused by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and her mentor Dr. Dorothy Height when she didn’t call for a cease-fire in Gaza. 

For decades, Freeman, a playwright, community activist and self-described “angry Black man in therapy,” protested and organized for and spoke about a bevy of causes, the most recent of which involves a cease-fire in Gaza and Palestinian self-determination. 

Early on in the Israel-Palestine conflict, Freeman erected a Palestinian flag atop of We Act Radio.  He told campaign supporters that the act of solidarity recently cost We Act Radio its broadcasting capabilities. 

Freeman went on to say that Norton’s refusal, and that of other politicians, to call for a cease-fire reflects poorly on D.C., a nexus of local, national, and international power. On Monday, he told supporters that he wants to be a voice in the House unabashedly speaking out against injustices the U.S. government inflicts on its own and others. 

“We have starving children in war zones and children [in D.C.] being denied SNAP benefits until a lawsuit changed the mayor’s mind,” said Freeman, who’s running as a Democrat. 

Invoking the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King on the day honoring his life and legacy, Freeman emphasized calling out local leaders to strengthen the District. 

“We need to chime in about what they’re doing with our money so we can improve this city,” Freeman continued. “Dr. King would be turning over his grave if we didn’t rise to the occasion.” 

Delegate Norton Focuses on 2024 Race, Statehood 

In 2022, Norton won reelection for the 16th time when she defeated the Rev. Wendy Hamilton and Kelly Mikel Williams in the Democratic Primary and, later, Nelson Rimensnyder, Natale Stracuzzi, and Bruce Majors, of the Republican, Green, and Libertarian parties respectively, during the general election. 

This go-around, Norton’s other primary challenger is Williams. Joan Malone, a Republican, is also vying for the D.C. delegate seat. 

The D.C. delegate election comes amid heavy congressional interference in District affairs, via hearings on public safety and the strikedown of the Revised Criminal Code Act. The dynamics of those hearings, specifically the racial and political composition of the congressional representatives grilling D.C. government witnesses, called to mind, for many, D.C.’s colonial status.   

Budget season also provides another reminder of D.C.’s tenuous relationship with the federal government. 

During the latter part of December, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La-4th District) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York-8th District) in opposition to policy riders and budget cuts in an appropriations bill. 

If passed, those riders and budget cuts would prevent the District from using photo traffic enforcement and weaken the Metropolitan Police Department’s capacity for emergency planning and supporting the federal government during high-profile events. 

In the letter, Bowser, Mendelson, and Schwalb called the proposed cuts “anti-Democratic, inconsistent with the Home Rule Act, and disrespectful of the rights of District residents to self-governance.” 

During the Dr. King holiday, Delegate Norton demanded that Congress pass her District of Columbia statehood bill and voting rights legislation that, among other provisions, prevents states from imposing additional voting eligibility requirements. Days earlier, Norton co-introduced legislation requiring the Federal Bureau of Prisons to provide eligible prison residents information on voting and giving the District the authority to set the dates of its special elections. 

If it passes, Norton’s statehood bill, known as H.R. 51, would grant the District full local governance and voting representation in Congress. She introduced the bill early last year. It has since been referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committees on Rules, Armed Services, the Judiciary, and Energy and Commerce where there has been no movement.  

In 2021, H.R. 51 passed the House, only never to be passed in the Senate. 

In a statement, Norton designated D.C. statehood and voting rights as issues very much so relevant to Dr. King’s work and legacy. 

“Dr. King spent his life advocating for voting rights for the most disenfranchised members in our society. He supported home rule for D.C. well before the District focused on statehood,” Norton said. 

“His efforts led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, allowing people of color to exercise their franchise in states with chronic histories of enacting restrictive voting laws,” she continued. “Although the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, the court invited Congress to update the act. In the absence of responsible action by Congress, states have felt emboldened to pass new voter suppression laws.”

Local Voters Weigh In 

In regard to his Democratic registration, Freeman, a longtime D.C. Statehood Green Party member, told supporters on Monday that he wanted to reach the masses of Democratic voters in the District who are heading to the ballot box on June 4. 

Not long before revealing his strategy, Freeman decried the closed primary system as a tool to silence D.C.’s growing non-party affiliated population. Scattered on chairs around We Act Radio on Monday were fliers in support of Initiative 83, also known as Make All Votes Count Act, which implements ranked-choice voting and open primaries. 

Though she didn’t attend Freeman’s campaign event, Lisa D.T. Rice, proposer of Initiative 83, expressed excitement about Freeman’s decision to run for Congress. She told The Informer that his candidacy allows for various issues and ideas to be brought to the forefront. 

“That seat in Congress is ours. It doesn’t belong to any specific person,” said Rice, a Ward 7 resident and advisory neighborhood commissioner. “I’m always supportive of anyone who wants to broaden democracy. We want someone who will fight for us to have a vote in the House at the least and [ultimately] statehood,” added Rice, commissioner of Single-Member District 7B07. “ I think Kymone would be a great person to do that on our behalf.” 

Virginia Spatz, Freeman’s We Act Radio colleague of more than a decade, told The Informer that Freeman has always brought enthusiasm and energy to the causes he’s promoted throughout the District. 

Spatz also touted Freeman’s ability to navigate difficult, but essential, conversations. 

From 2018 up until the pandemic, Freeman and Spatz, a white Jewish woman from Ward 6, participated in Cross River Dialogue, meetings where Black, non-Jewish residents from east of the Anacostia River and white Jewish residents from west of Rock Creek Park engaged in thought-provoking discussions. 

Spatz said that bravery like what Freeman showed, and continues to show, could prove essential at a time when American institutions are discouraging criticism of Israel.

“We need a cease-fire now. We need leaders to step up and say that,” Spatz said. “Anyone who tries to say certain things about Israel or Jewish involvement in politics gets labeled as antisemitic. We’re becoming more and more fascist by the minute. Kymone could draw some attention to the way our country is settling into shutting people down.”