With former D.C. council member Kenyan McDuffie now in the mayoral race, the battle to succeed D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has become a showdown between him and another child of the District, D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4).
As McDuffie and Lewis George continue to highlight their deep neighborhood ties and District coming-of-age stories, some voters, including Amanda Beale, are saying they look forward to seeing each candidate debate about more pressing topics in the coming days and weeks.
“I would use that as my platform, but I wouldn’t lean on that, because that’s not necessary to run the city,” Beale, a Ward 8 resident and one-time civic leader, said about D.C. nativism. “Adrian Fenty and Muriel Bowser are people who were raised in D.C., and their interests weren’t aligned with everybody in D.C. It was more about money and business.”
Beale, a fourth-generation Washingtonian, told The Informer that she’s seeking a mayoral candidate who demonstrates consistency and emotional maturity while engaging the Trump administration. She said that in acknowledgment of what she called Bowser’s prudent dealings with the White House.
“I think Muriel Bowser did a decent job with that,” Beale said. “This is the first time this has happened, at least in my lifetime, so it is a learning experience for everybody. But I do think someone who’s very reasonable and doesn’t act off emotion would be very important now.”
Beale, a former advisory neighborhood commissioner (ANC), has often brought attention to traffic safety issues affecting her children and other young people in Ward 8. As a resident, she still attends ANC meetings, all while mulling a future council run.
For the time being however, Beale counts among those demanding that the next mayor zeros in on Ward 8 a bit more. Days after Bowser’s visit to Fairlawn, Beale said she fell short in doing so.
“Obviously, you want to treat all the council members the same, but you can’t,” Beale told The Informer. “There’s a level of equity that doesn’t exist on this side of town, you should be paying a little more attention to your vulnerable populations. I would like to see that from a mayor, not [to] just talk, but actually show up.”
A Question of Who Will Best Serve a City Under Siege
McDuffie, who announced his resignation from the D.C. Council in December, changed his party affiliation from independent to Democrat and officially announced his candidacy on Jan. 14. His campaign launch video, filmed on the porch of his family home in the Stronghold community of Northeast, dropped hours before the start of Lewis George’s official campaign launch party at the Howard Theater in Northwest.
“Stronghold is where I learned to fight for what’s right,” McDuffie said in his video. “What it means to deliver for D.C. That’s what I’ve done as a prosecutor, a civil rights attorney, a council member, and it’s what I’ll do as your next mayor.”
McDuffie now joins a field that includes Lewis George, a Democratic Socialist, along with Democrats Robert L. Gross and Cody Birchfield, Republican contender Myrtle Alexander and independent candidate Rhonda Hamilton. His platform centers on creating a “safer, fairer, more affordable and inclusive D.C.” for residents across the District’s eight wards.
Within a day, 1,000 donors contributed more than $180,000 to McDuffie’s campaign, which qualifies McDuffie for fair election campaign financing. This milestone comes as Lewis George’s camp has nearly $1 million in campaign funds, which they attained through similar means.
McDuffie’s official leap into the race followed tweets over the last several days detailing his ascent from mail carrier to lawyer and civic leader, and finally the council. In what politicos saw as hints of greater aspirations, McDuffie took to social media as he made mention of his work on the council, as it relates to racial equity, violence interruption, and economic development.
In an interview with NBC4’s Mark Seagraves, McDuffie said he would bring the same fervor, using the “bully pulpit of the mayor” to stop federal intrusion.
“What we wouldn’t do is to allow the continuation of federal encroachment of ICE and HSI, who are descending onto communities,” McDuffie told Seagraves, “in safe spaces around schools and places of worship and snatching people off our streets. So, I would fight that tooth and nail.”
The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to secure an interview with McDuffie.
Longtime Ward 5 civic leader Robert Vinson Brannum calls McDuffie the ideal choice for D.C. mayor.
“I see Kenyan as one who is a bridge builder toward the future of the District of Columbia,” Vinson Brannum told The Informer. “Someone who has the skills, someone who is of Washington and knows the District of Columbia and has been able to walk the streets of the District of Columbia with the people.”
Vinson Brannum, chairman emeritus of the Ward 5 Democrats, boasts his deep rapport with McDuffie, telling The Informer that he encouraged the former council member to run for the Ward 5 seat in the early 2010s.
He said McDuffie has long demonstrated an ability to take the District to the next level, especially as residents reel from the effects of federal government layoffs, tariffs, restaurant closures, and the like.
“I focus on that because that was his focus as chair of the [D.C. Council] Committee on Economic Development,” Vinson Brannum said. “There are a great deal of issues concerning the District of Columbia that go along with economic development, economic security, housing, public schools, public safety, health.”
Vinson Brannum also said that McDuffie has the temperament necessary to combat fascist forces that are infringing on D.C. Home Rule.
“He has the experience, intellectual capacity and courage to withstand the barrage of discordant communications that may come as he focuses on the issues,” Vinson Brannum told The Informer, “and to stay focused on the overarching issue of protecting the interests of the people of the District of Columbia.”
Some people however, like union leader Jaime Contreras, believe that Lewis George is better equipped to deal with the Trump administration.
“She’s one of the few council members who, when there’s sightings of ICE harassing our neighbors, she goes out there and documents what’s happening,” Contreras told The Informer. “She supports raising the minimum wage for workers. And she’s just solid when it comes to labor issues and the things that matter for workers.”
On the evening of Jan. 14, Contreras, executive vice president of SEIU Local 32BJ, counted among what would ultimately grow to more than 1,200 revelers at Lewis George’s official campaign launch party. Also making an appearance were a bevy of current and former political leaders, including: former Ward 7 D.C. Councilmember Yvette Alexander; Advisory Neighborhood Commission 7F Chair Tyrell M. Holcomb; and former At-large D.C. Councilmember Michael Brown.
Contreras’ appearance at the Howard Theater came just weeks after SEIU Local 32BJ, Unite Here 23, Unite Here 25, UFCW Local 400, and ATU Local 689 endorsed Lewis George. He described her as an ardent supporter of unions, as demonstrated in her advocacy, during and well after, the shaping of the RFK development legislation.
“We had Janeese and [Kenyan] McDuffie come out and do an interview with our members,” Contreras said. “Our members got to ask questions to both of them and… we ended up endorsing Janeese because…of where she stands for working people. She’s anti-Waymo, which is something that we oppose coming to the city because it’s going to displace working class people who do Uber or Lyft or DoorDash…for extra income.”
Hours later, Contreras shared the stage with the Rev. Anika Wilson Brown, Aaron Jenkins, and D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1). Diane Martin and Kyle George, Lewis George’s mother and husband, also spoke to a reputation that the Ward 4 council member has cemented since her days as a youngster on Kennedy Street in Northwest.
The marquee list of speakers set the stage for a campaign speech by Lewis George that centered on: a government-wide approach to public safety; a functional emergency call system; family-sized affordable housing across the District; accountability for negligent landlords; strengthening the employment pipeline via unions, local universities and expansion of vocational training; supporting small businesses and educators; and funding universal childcare.
“This campaign begins with one simple value: our government must put people first,” Lewis George said on Jan. 14. “It means a government that invests in the people of D.C. Not up top in the hopes that it trickles down. We’ve tried that. And it ain’t trickling. And it ain’t ever going to trickle.”
As she would later do throughout her nearly 25-minute speech, Lewis George gave a call to action.
“Let’s invest in people,” she said. “In our first responders. In our educators. In our workers. In our small businesses. In our tenants. In our first-time homebuyers. And in our seniors. And in our young people. And watch how our city grows.”
Lewis George also posited herself as the person prepared to go toe-to-toe with the Trump administration, with the help of District representatives on the Hill and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb.
“I will work with anyone to improve the lives of Washingtonians, but I will also stand up to Trump or anyone else who brings harm to our residents,” Lewis George said. “So I’m asking you to stand with me, shoulder to shoulder, with all our neighbors, to fight for a free D.C. We must end federal overreach, and we must win D.C. statehood.”
Community Members Continue to Reflect on the Two Candidates
The next D.C. mayor will walk a tightrope in their relationship with the Trump administration. They will also have on their plate: economic instability from federal job loss; housing affordability and homelessness; a local police department with turnover in leadership; and racial and structural inequities that continue to persist.
Ron Moten, a social entrepreneur and community leader, stands in support of McDuffie’s candidacy, telling The Informer that McDuffie has gone above and beyond for Black youth, businesses, returning citizens and other vulnerable populations.
“He did the NEAR Act. He did the IRAA Act that brought people home who did 20 to 30 years for non-violent crimes,” Moten said about McDuffie. “He sponsored bills, wrote bills that led to some form of justice for Black businesses to get part of this $24 billion that goes out every year in D.C. in some kind of way.”
Moten went on to question whether Lewis George’s progressive stance is rooted in reality or will be of direct benefit to Black Washingtonians, especially with the Trump administration increasing its stranglehold on the District.
“The far-left and the far-right have destroyed this country. And she’s the far-left,” Moten told The Informer. “We don’t need that right now in D.C. because the far-right will tear our a** up. We don’t have the structure and autonomy like Chicago or Philly to fight back like them. So if you come with that craziness, they’re going to smack the shit out of D.C. and it’ll never be the same again.”
For Moten, McDuffie brings the balance necessary to guide D.C. through treacherous waters in the last two years of Trump’s second term.
“When we talk about somebody who’s homegrown, understands the process, not wet behind the ears and knows how to make this stuff work for the people, it’s Kenyan McDuffie,” Moten told The Informer. “We don’t need no trial and error. We are not in a situation where we can experiment on D.C. anymore. This is life and death, especially for Black Washingtonians.”
When it comes to Black people, Aja Taylor said Lewis George is just what’s needed.
“She can really continue to make big strides,” Taylor told The Informer, “to keep D.C. families in D.C., to make sure that our folks who are coming home have access to stable housing that they can afford, making sure that our young people are not over-policed, that incarceration is not the answer, going toe-to-toe with council members like Phil Mendelson and Brooke Pinto to defend native Washingtonians and to defend a D.C. that values and cares about and loves Black people.”
Taylor, a former D.C. resident who’s experienced displacement, expressed her commitment to helping Lewis George win the mayor’s race. She told The Informer that she’s taken the steps necessary to join the crusade, even bringing her parents along for the ride.
“We have the ‘Janeese Lewis George for Mayor’ sign in our yard,” Taylor said. “I’m committed to talking to folks who I organize with. My community is in D.C., a place I consider home. I’m already a donor to the campaign, and I plan on talking to folks, especially other Black folks, about the kind of mayor that Black people in particular in D.C. deserve.”