NOTE: This story was updated at 1:40 p.m. on June 5, 2024.
June 4 marked the end of a primary election season that Washingtonians will be talking about for years to come.
That’s because, after much mudslinging and backbiting, three incumbent D.C. Council members staved off opposition while a Ward 7 politico inched closer to securing a highly coveted council seat by a narrow margin.
Wendell Felder, a millennial and political maven, rose to the top of the Ward 7 council race, accumulating 22.9% of the vote. Ebony Payne, a political novice and one of four favored to win, came in a close second with 20.07% while Eboni-Rose Thompson is third with 19.36%.
As of Wednesday, the Ward 7 race has not been officially called.
On Tuesday night, Felder celebrated his electoral victory on East Capitol Street at D.C. Capitol Square Bar & Grill, just two doors down from where Payne hosted her election night event. His packed-out function attracted a bevy of council members, D.C. government personnel and political insiders, all of whom listened intently to a victory speech laced with acknowledgments, reflections and promises.
“This is our ward and we are truly in this together,” Felder said at the podium right outside of D.C. Capitol Square Bar & Grill. “We knocked on every part of Ward 7 in a seven-month span. We were in the community talking to residents and we heard their concerns.”
Per D.C. Board of Elections, Felder secured nearly 300 more votes than Payne. Them and Thompson made significant gains over Veda Rasheed, Kelvin Brown, Ebbon Allen, Denise Reed, Villareal Johnson, Nate Fleming, and Roscoe Grant, Jr.
If officially declared the winner, Felder will join D.C. Council members Robert White (D-At-large), Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), and Trayon White (D-Ward 8) on the dais next January. Pinto won re-election unopposed. Like Felder, Lewis George and At-large and Ward 8 Councilmembers White overcame dogged political opposition to secure four more years in the John A. Wilson Building.
As he acknowledged the legacy of his predecessor, D.C. Councilmember Vincent C. Gray (D), Felder told campaign supporters that there was a lot of work ahead.
“We made a lot of promises and I look forward to delivering on them — like safer streets, economic development, strengthening schools and [helping] senior citizens, and making D.C. government work for you,” he told celebrants.
Candidates Clamor for Ward 7’s Future
In what’s Ward 7’s most consequential Democratic primary in two decades, voter turnout left much to be desired.
During the early voting period that took place between May 26 and June 2, only 883 voters in Ward 7 cast ballots at either Deanwood Recreation Center, Rosedale Library and Recreation Center, Benning Stoddert Recreation Center and Hillcrest Recreation Center.
Meanwhile, fewer than 200 submitted ballots via dropboxes scattered throughout the ward.
Some candidates, like Rasheed, continued to maintain an upbeat attitude about her neighbors. She told The Informer that she expected voters to come out in droves on Election Day. Throughout the campaign season, Rasheed’s campaign team canvassed through Kingman Park, Mayfair, Marshall Heights, Hillcrest, and other communities.
Rasheed, who spoke to The Informer straight from the campaign trail on Monday evening, said she sensed excitement among voters who she encountered. Many of them, she said, expressed an eagerness about her second run for the Ward 7 council seat.
“The endorsement I need is from the people of Ward 7,” Rasheed said. “Most people are familiar with me and know why I’m the most qualified person to do this job. I have faith that my community will choose the right person to bring them to the future.”
Rasheed went on to tell The Informer that she maintains contact with the other candidates mindful of the future work ahead.
“Unity shouldn’t be an issue,” she told The Informer. “We all want the best for our families.”
Felder expressed similar thoughts, telling The Informer that he wants to work with whichever of the other candidates are interested in taking Ward 7 to new heights. On Tuesday morning, he counted among the first voters to cast their Election Day ballot at Thomas Elementary School on Anacostia Avenue in Northeast.
In recent weeks, Felder received a bevy of endorsements from Gray, Pinto, Ward 8 Councilmember White and D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5).
Former Ward 7 D.C. Councilmember Yvette Alexander, former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and Opportunity D.C. also threw their support behind Felder, who took a leave of absence from the presidency of the Ward 7 Democrats earlier this year to run for the Ward 7 D.C. Council seat.
“There’s a lot at stake for development, helping longtime residents stay here, and improving the quality of life,” Felder said. “My team and I took nothing for granted. It’s vitally important to have relationships on the council to make sure Ward 7 has its fair share.”
The Ward 7 D.C. Council race ramped up earlier this year, shortly after Gray announced that he wouldn’t run for re-election.
For several weeks, candidates and their supporters continued to participate in candidate forums and engage voters and potential voters throughout the ward. In the days leading up to the June 4 primary, Kingman Park and Rosedale counted among hotly contested locations as Payne and Thompson put their feet to the pavement around the newly incorporated part of Ward 7.
On May 30, Payne, an advisory neighborhood commissioner and secretary of Friends of Kingman Park, posted up in front of Rosedale Library and Recreation Center in Northeast with campaign cards in hand. She spent much of that afternoon encouraging voters to choose her as the next Ward 7 council member. She later walked along Rosedale Street, where the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) reported two dozen homicides in 2023.
As D.C. Public Library and D.C. Department of General Services gear up for upgrades to Rosedale Library, Payne counts among those demanding that the library not be moved from its current location.
She told The Informer that she would like it to expand in size so it can better accommodate students from nearby Miner Elementary School, Kingman Academy Public Charter School, Monument Academy Public Charter School, and Friendship Blow Pierce Elementary and Middle School.
“We need to make sure we’re thinking of our library system proactively,” she explained, telling The Informer that similar attention needs to be given to Dorothy Height/Benning Neighborhood Library on Benning Road in Northeast.
“I think about the literacy crisis for young learners and adults,” Payne emphasized
Payne, who’s long made food access the cornerstone of her campaign, doubled down on her desire to ensure that Ward 7 residents receive more food options. She said that much of what she heard over the last couple of weeks reaffirmed that goal.
“Safeway [on Alabama Avenue] has expired food and produce,” Payne told The Informer. “It’s really important that we think about economic growth and healthier food options. We need something substantive [through the] expansion of farmers markets.”
Many residents leave the ward to get the items they need, Payne said.
“When I ask people where they do their grocery shopping, everyone goes out to Maryland, Virginia or the Potomac Avenue Safeway. The prices have increased. People are feeling the inflation and lack of options,” she explained.
Hours later, Thompson returned to Kingman Park to meet residents at their doorsteps. She said it was the third time in a month walking through the community with her younger sister, Jaleelah Thompson, and representatives of Jews United for Justice and D.C. Firefighters Local 36, two organizations that endorsed Thompson earlier this year.
That regimen, Jaleelah Thompson said, took them throughout Ward 7 during the late morning-early afternoon hours or during rush hour on any given day. Residents’ concerns, she said, often varied from crime, to speed cameras, and the lack of knowledge about development projects, such as RFK campus and the new men’s shelter at 3701 Benning Road in Northeast.
Days after walking through Kingman Park, Thompson, president and Ward 7 representative on the State Board of Education, received an endorsement from D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large). In a widely circulated video, Henderson, who’s seen standing alongside Thompson, extolled their professional relationship and what she called Thompson’s passion for Ward 7.
Thompson later received endorsements from her SBOE colleagues, Representatives Jacque Patterson (At-large) and Fraizer O’Leary (Ward 4).
For Thompson, the last-minute endorsements further affirmed her significance as a candidate.
“The last few decades, we haven’t seen change but we will see change in the next few years. How that change happens and who benefits from it is at stake,” she told The Informer.
On the evening of May 30, Thompson, a fifth-generation Washingtonian, canvassed along 20th Street, D Street, and Oklahoma Avenue in Northeast where she encountered residents who shared memories of her elderly family members and ancestors.
As she walked from house to house, Thompson said she kept one ancestor at the forefront of her mind.
“I was very close to my grandmother and when I got elected to the State Board of Education, she was proud of me,” Thompson said about the late Constance Mary Thompson, an eight-term advisory neighborhood commissioner and community organizer.
Constance Mary Thompson died in 2021, just months after Thompson entered her role as the Ward 7 state board representative. Thompson told The Informer that she emulates what she learned from watching her grandmother participate in advisory neighborhood commission and parent-teacher association meetings.
“She gave me a sense of what it means to be a part of a community,” Thompson told The Informer. “It’s hard to think about this now because she’s not here. She led me down the right path. When people talk about being the fulfillment of your ancestors’ wildest dreams, our family had dreams for us and the community.”
Trayon White Celebrates a Decisive Victory
Ward 8 Councilmember White accumulated more than half of the votes in the Ward 8 D.C. Council race. On Tuesday night, he entered the indoor bar area of Sycamore & Oak as a DJ played CCB’s “Hands to the Sky.” Supporters surrounded him and showered him with love before he too delved into a victory speech full of reflection, gratitude and a call to action.
“This is one of the hardest races I fought, but I couldn’t have done it without y’all,” White said. “Those [opponents] on the ballot kept me on my toes. We knocked on 20,000 doors in Ward 8. It’s been very emotional for me. I went back and forth to see if I had the strength. When I said no, Ward 8 said ‘yes’ and some people said ‘hell yes.’”
As has been the case in previous years, Ward 8 didn’t experience significant voter turnout during the 2024 D.C. primary election.
Out of the 15,677 ballots submitted via dropboxes across the city, only 82 came from Ward 8, as of June 2. Ward 8 also accounted for 453 early voters out of the 6,051 who went to the ballot box throughout much of last week.
In his re-election bid, White faced Salim Adofo and Rahman Branch, both of whom questioned White’s ability to effectively legislate and take Ward 8 to the next level. Both men say that Ward 8’s current state of affairs, especially as it relates to public safety and economic mobility, exacerbated feelings of discontent from voters.
Despite a late start to his campaign, White had a show of support across the ward. During a candidate forum and straw poll conducted by the Ward 8 Democrats, White amassed the most votes.
Campaign staffers for competing camps also told The Informer, on background, that voters who they tried to convince otherwise were still committed to the incumbent, yelling “It’s Tray Day all day!” at the top of their lungs.
However, as The Informer saw firsthand on Saturday, June 1, some other Ward 8 voters are making it clear that they feel uneasy about engaging in the electoral process, especially in a majority-Democratic city where seemingly ineffective incumbents tend to stay in office for several years.
Branch, who came across an elderly voter expressing such sentiments, told The Informer that the situation, among several others on the campaign trail, often provides an opportunity for a deeper conversation.
“We have to make sure that we are honoring that residents are holding on to their vote,” Branch said. “We have to guarantee that we listen to them and serve them; allow them the space to see what’s frustrating them. More often than not, there’s information tied to what the incumbent has or hasn’t done.”
Branch told The Informer that, since launching his campaign for the Ward 8 council seat, he and campaign staffers visited 26,000 residences in Ward 8.
On Saturday, after leading a caravan through the main corridors of the ward, Branch, along with his brother Jameel Branch, walked along Valley Avenue in Southeast, less than a mile from Ballou Senior High School, where Branch served as a faculty member and principal between 2005 and 2015.
On that corridor, Branch engaged residents as they were cooking burgers and hot dogs on the grill, tending to their lawn, or just enjoying their weekend inside the comfort of their home. When the moment called for it, he reminded them about his tenure at Ballou.
Throughout his campaign, Branch touted Ballou’s marked progress under his leadership — including a 20% increase in test scores, 60% reduction in school violence, and 30% reduction in suspensions — as evidence of his ability to engage city leadership and develop policy to the benefit of Ward 8, the jurisdiction with the highest concentration of young people.
For Branch, the decision to run for Ward 8 council stemmed from frustration about his efforts to prepare young people for a developed society that he promised them, but has yet to take shape in Ward 8.
“Ward 8 residents are not happy with our government. I want to give them an option,” Branch said. “Opportunity has stopped short of the [Frederick Douglass] bridge at the cost of their existence. The incumbent has had a chance to add to that for eight years.”
Throughout the early voting period, Adofo, along with campaign supporters donning blue shirts, made the rounds between Fort Stanton Recreation Center, Ferebee-Hope Recreation Center, Arthur Capper Community Center and Bald Eagle Recreation Center to engage voters and convince those who have yet to vote to fulfill their civic duty.
It was near Fort Stanton Recreation Center, a community with several single-family homes, that The Informer heard residents express their disdain for the status quo. Adofo said that the feedback isn’t uncommon throughout Ward 8.
“No matter where I have been, whether it’s Wingate Garden Apartments or Navy Yard, public safety is an issue. People want something different to happen to make the community safer,” Adofo said.
While people want to see a change, Adofo said it’s hard to get them to take part in being part of the change– starting with voting.
“The biggest thing is getting people to the polls and a part of the change they want to see,” he continued. “I’m getting mixed reviews about civic engagement. Residents believe that nothing will change. Some are excited that someone is running.”
Adofo announced his bid for the Ward 8 D.C. Council seat in 2022, shortly after the conclusion of the general election that solidified D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s status as a three-time mayor.
For more than a year, Adofo, chairman of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8C, emerged as a favorite due to his reputation as an elected official who addresses constituent concerns and engages D.C. Department of Transportation, among other agencies, about community problems. He and members of his campaign team began their ground-game offensive throughout the ward, including in Navy Yard, a neighborhood newly incorporated into Ward 8 via redistricting.
As a campaign staffer told The Informer, Adofo targeted super voters (those who participated in two previous primary and general elections) via phone banking, home visits, and engagement of influential apartment tenants. Their strategy, the campaign staffer said, took the Adofo campaign team through all single-member districts throughout the ward at least four times during the election season.
In the weeks before Adofo’s team shifted to the Get-Out-The-Vote phase of the campaign, controversy struck.
In April, the Office of the D.C. Auditor launched an investigation into Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8C’s finances after constituents alleged that Adofo purchased campaign materials with ANC funds. He continued to dismiss those allegations as false, even going as far to tell The Informer that it wouldn’t impede his efforts to get into the John A. Wilson Building.
“Some constituents have contacted me to let me know that people are giving them bad information but they support me,” Adofo said. “What’s next for Ward 8 is seeing this community prosper. We have things that we can increase so I don’t want to dwell on the negative. We have college students engaged in this campaign. We’re able to bring the youth [so] we will see changes with infrastructure and education.”
Janeese Lewis George Clinches Another Four Years
Lewis George accumulated 66.19% of the votes in Tuesday’s primary race, compared to Lisa Gore’s 28.09% and Paul Johnson’s 5.35%. Her re-election efforts took place during a budget season where the D.C. Council and Bowser mulled over a budget that no longer includes COVID recovery funds.
The Fiscal Year 2025 budget will more than likely include allocations toward library resource space on Kennedy Street in Northwest, modular swing space for Whittier Elementary School, playground replacement at Lamond Recreation Center, renovation of locker rooms at Takoma Aquatic Center, along with upcoming modernizations at Upshur Recreation Center and Emery Heights Community Center.
Other budget items that Lewis George secured for Ward 4 include the continuation of modernization projects at Truesdell Elementary School, Whittier Elementary School, LaSalle-Backus Elementary School, along with a new cafeteria at Coolidge High School and a new addition to Barnard Elementary School.
In the days leading up to the council’s May 30 legislative meeting, where council members conducted the first vote on the budget, Lewis George continued to hit the pavement and appear alongside campaign supporters and family members. She did so, as she described to The Informer, satisfied with what she’s been able to do since entering office.
“I’m in a standing posture and at peace with all that we put in,” Lewis George said, going as far as to deride The Washington Post’s endorsement of Gore. “I stood with our community — seniors, children, and tenants. The mailers and [Washington Post] endorsement can’t overcome four years of work and delivering for Ward 4. The Post editorial board are people in Virginia weighing in. This is our city, our ward. I’ve delivered and been consistent with value and effort.”
In 2020, Lewis George won the Ward 4 council seat when she defeated then-D.C. Councilmember Brandon Todd, an elected official who, despite his part in weakening the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act and overturning the voter-approved tipped minimum wage ballot initiative, had a base of support among the senior citizens of Ward 4.
In her re-election bid, some of those seniors made it known that Lewis George hadn’t fulfilled her duties as an elected official to some of the ward’s oldest residents. At least, that’s what Gore said she understood to be the case.
“Seniors in Ward 4 wanted their priorities in the budget,” Gore told The Informer Memorial Day Weekend as she and her son, Brandon Gore, sat just feet from Takoma Recreation Center on the first day of early voting.
During this election, Gore, a former law enforcement official, positioned herself as a candidate eager to engage seniors and take on a tougher approach to violent crime. She made that known during appearances at meetings conducted by the Ward 4 Mini-Commission on Aging at MPD Fourth District headquarters.
Gore said seniors in those environments, responding to her questions about ward-level issues, speak about pedestrian safety and what she described as lack of engagement from Lewis George’s office, especially during budget season.
Such dialogue, Gore said, inspired goals that she had hoped to meet as a council member.
“The next council member has to have strategic meetings [with the seniors] to talk about their issues Cand make sure someone is working to solve them,” Gore said. “We need senior representation in the council office. I would look to hire someone from the community who knows seniors and their needs.”
All the while, Johnson embarked on a mission to engage Black men, those he described as the most ignored by Lewis George’s office. On the afternoon of May 26, Johnson’s campaign team in front of Takoma Recreation Center consisted of Black men of various generations.
“We brought our message of meaningful advocacy and participation to sectors of our ward that aren’t part of decision making,” Johnson said. “People are concerned about public safety and jobs that [give them] the ability to earn incomes that keep them in the District and retain and preserve D.C. values and D.C. cultures… They want the type of opportunities to gain skills and education that allow for maintaining a family; that allow for returning from college and being able to stay in the District.”
On Path to Victory, Robert White Aligns Campaign and Council Responsibilities
By 9:15 pm on Tuesday, At-large Councilmember White accumulated nearly 82% of the votes compared to Rodney “Red” Grant’s 17.38%. Like his Ward 4 and Ward 8 colleagues, he too engaged voters while in the middle of a budget battle. He did so while endeavoring to allay concerns about his citywide constituent outreach.
Even as he visited voting precincts across the city and spoke with voters about issues of significance, White carved out time to meet with D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) about some cost-saving measures he hopes to put in place for years to come.
Those measures include a sunset committee that would examine and facilitate the dissolution of agencies and offices that no longer serve a purpose. A new council office, he said, would also sift through the budget and predict future costs and benefits for expenditures.
“How we deal with public safety and manage to get the finances back in order will affect the city for decades,” White told The Informer on Tuesday morning in front of Nalle Elementary School in Northeast. “We can look across the government for spending and operations to identify $100 million for spending and put in place for better decisions.”
White later told The Informer that he will release his new constituent engagement strategy during the latter part of the year that builds upon office hours he has conducted at public libraries, restaurants and bars across the District.
“You got to meet people where they are,” White said. “I do community outreach differently to force myself to reach people who can’t be in the Wilson Building. People have busy lives and they don’t believe in government so we got to come to the people.”
Throughout the election season, Grant took several opportunities to draw contrasts between himself and White, at one point telling The Informer that he would serve as a better choice. In the days leading up to Election Day, Grant canvassed across the District, spending several minutes with voters in front of their homes.
Accompanying him was 2017 Ms. Senior D.C. runner-up Elynore Hooker-Herron.
He said that he heard feedback from community members who are yearning to be seen and not taken for granted.
“People don’t want to campaign. They want it easy,” Grant said. “I never had nothing easy in my life. People found their puppets and they’re great puppet masters…. There’s a bunch of gatekeepers who are trying to get into D.C. and they found people who are actors. Our city is smarter than that.”
