GDELTWashington D.C.
Goldstein: 1.9Tone: -0.6
Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George won the Democratic primary for D.C. mayor in the first round of ranked choice voting, the Associated Press called Thursday.
Former At-Large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie conceded the mayoral Democratic primary Thursday to Lewis George, a self described democratic socialist who positioned herself to the left of incumbent D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is not running for a fourth term. At-Large Councilmember Robert White also routed Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto — who represents Foggy Bottom on the D.C. Council — in the race to become D.C.’s next non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives after the current representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton, announced she will not be seeking reelection this year.
The AP called both races — White on Wednesday and Lewis George on Thursday — however, the elections are not fully finalized by the D.C. Board of Elections due to delays in the ranked choice ballot counting. The races set up Lewis George and White for a likely victory in the November general election, as D.C. is overwhelmingly Democratic.
This year’s primary races in D.C. were the first time the District used a ranked choice voting system, where voters are able to rank up to five candidates in an order based on preference. If no candidate receives 50 percent or more of the first choice votes, then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and the ballots of voters who ranked the eliminated candidate first will then have their second choice counted as their vote.
D.C. voters overwhelmingly chose to adopt the system in 2024 after approving a ballot measure intended to implement the system in all D.C. elections.
Both Lewis George and White secured a majority of the vote — Lewis George with 52.9 percent and White with 62.9 percent — in the first round of ranked choice voting.
Janeese Lewis George likely to become D.C.’s next mayor after winning primary
McDuffie conceded the mayoral primary to Lewis George Thursday morning, with the AP calling the race for Lewis George a few hours later.
Lewis George, McDuffie and other candidates in the Democratic mayoral primary competed to replace Bowser, who has governed D.C. for over a decade and opted not to run for reelection last year. Bowser did not give a reason for her decision to not run for reelection, but some of her advisers said President Donald Trump’s meddling in D.C., like last year’s federal takeover, contributed to Bowser’s decision to not seek reelection.
Bowser declined to make an endorsement in the race to pick her successor, but hinted at her support for McDuffie’s candidacy in an interview with Axios last week, where she said she had “always supported” McDuffie.
Lewis George and McDuffie emerged as clear front runners early in the race, with both candidates leading in the polls — especially in the weeks leading up to the primary date. Lewis George centered her message around improving social services like childcare for D.C. residents, while McDuffie said his focus, if elected, would be on boosting economic growth in the District.
Lewis George outraised McDuffie by a slight amount according to their respective financial disclosure forms. Lewis George’s campaign also faced scrutiny after the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance found last week her campaign had improperly coordinated with labor unions and ordered them to pay $16,000 in fines.
D.C. has never elected a Republican mayor and the Democratic nominee for mayor typically wins by double-digit margins.
D.C. native Robert White wins Democratic nomination for D.C. delegate
Five Democratic primary candidates were vying to replace Norton for D.C.’s nonvoting congressional seat, aiming to serve as the District’s third Congressional representative. Norton, an 88-year-old Democrat first elected in 1990, is the longest-serving D.C. delegate after the seat was established in 1970.
Norton announced she was ending her campaign for reelection in January 2026 after questions about her ability to serve due to her age.
The race’s frontrunners, Pinto and White, both currently sit on the D.C. Council, serving Ward 2 and the District at-large, respectively.
The AP called the race for White shortly after midnight Wednesday morning, setting him up to become D.C.’s next Congressional representative in the Democratic stronghold. He will be running against Republican Denise Rosado — who won her unopposed primary — and Green Party member Kymone Freeman.
Throughout his campaign, White emphasized his focus on establishing D.C. statehood and fighting for the city’s autonomy from federal interference, including Trump’s threats to federalize the city and the influx of National Guard troops stationed across the wards.
“My election means we’re going to keep our independence and we’re going to get statehood. People know I’m not going to lay down. I’m going to fight,” White told The Associated Press after the agency declared his win.
Pinto — who has represented Ward 2, which includes Foggy Bottom, since 2020 when she became the youngest council member sworn into office at 28 — chairs the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee and has championed harsher penalties for certain crimes and the reestablishment of drug-free zones in the District. Pinto will maintain her seat on the council after winning reelection unopposed in 2024.
Pinto’s campaign came under fire in April after it released a now-archived 67-page dossier containing opposition research, which included personal information on White and his family. White called on Pinto to withdraw from the campaign on April 13 and said the release of the dossier was a violation of “basic decency.” Pinto subsequently apologized and said the information about White was publicly available but that it should have been redacted.
Open article →GDELTWashington D.C.
Goldstein: -1.1Tone: -2.8
Janeese Lewis George secured victory in Tuesday’s Washington, D.C., Democratic mayoral primary. Her success positions Washington to install its first socialist mayor. The Ward 4 councilwoman trumped challenger Kenyan McDuffie by a significant margin. In a city where the Democratic primary effectively decides the office holder, Lewis George is nearly certain to become the next mayor of the nation’s capital.
Eight months after voters elevated Zohran Mamdani in New York City, Lewis George ran a parallel campaign built on housing, rent, and the cost of living. It would be imprudent to draw national conclusions about these two results, however. At least not yet. After all, these socialist surges have succeeded where the electorate was already committed to Democrats. Whether the same message travels to swing districts or a national ticket remains untested.
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This victory also carries risks for Democrats. Each victory of its left wing risks branding the party as too far to the left in the eyes of the country. The primary wins certainly suggest the socialist left may be coming out on top, pulling the party toward a definitively and durably more radical stance. President Donald Trump seems to sense a political opportunity here.
Days before the vote, Trump threatened to invoke the Home Rule Act and “take back Washington” should the city elect a socialist. The administration already has National Guard forces and Immigration and Customs Enforcement deployed across the city. Lewis George says she will stand up to Trump and will not cooperate with the federal government, but considering the federal government underwrites roughly a quarter of the district’s budget, obstinacy will amount to a big challenge.
The economic ground also offers an unsteady foundation upon which she will enter office. The Trump administration’s cuts pulled tens of thousands of federal jobs from the district, where government supplies roughly a quarter of all work. Projections suggest the district will continue into a recession through 2026, with revenue running short for years to come. Against this backdrop, Lewis George proposes to expand social welfare in the district including universal childcare, tens of thousands of new housing units, free Metro rides, a counselor in every school. All of this will be financed by, according to her, closing business tax loopholes.
But spending is already soaring.
Over the past 10 years, the district’s budget has nearly doubled, from around $13 billion to about $22 billion. More than half of every local dollar goes to schools and social programs. Poor school results and welfare dependency do not support the claims that these programs have been successful. Yet Lewis George’s answer to growing welfare demands against the loss of revenue and jobs is to tax the top.
Indeed, her record in politics has thus far been defined by moves to relocate money from policing into social services and expand rent control. She also co-wrote the 2021 measure that raised income taxes on residents earning more than $250,000, which the Council passed over the current Mayor Muriel Bowser’s objection. A later attempt to tax wealth and investment income fell short. Unlike Bowser, who spent years fighting the council, Lewis George will most likely govern with a new progressive majority on her side.
Washington, D.C., already has one of the highest tax rates in the country. The irony is that the district already runs on the model Lewis George champions. The capital already supports one of the most heavily subsidized populations in America. Roughly $4.5 billion, more than a fifth of the district’s $22 billion budget, flows through human services. More than a third of the city’s population draws Medicaid. Some 138,000 collect food stamps, close to 1 in 5 residents. Tens of thousands more lean on cash assistance, rental subsidies, and the locally funded Healthcare Alliance. In 2023, the roughly 3% of high-earning tax filers covered more than a third of all individual income tax.
B-52 DESCENDED AT NEARLY A MILE A MINUTE BEFORE CRASH THAT KILLED EIGHT
Rising electricity bills, restaurant and business closures, and downtown towers sitting empty now form the backdrop against which the next mayor promises to spend more. Lewis George says the same approach will somehow yield a different outcome, yet it may ultimately result in more payers crossing the bridge into Virginia.
Many have already done so.
Open article →GDELTVirginia
Goldstein: -7.5Tone: -2.8
Janeese Lewis George secured victory in Tuesday’s Washington, D.C., Democratic mayoral primary. Her success positions Washington to install its first socialist mayor. The Ward 4 councilwoman trumped challenger Kenyan McDuffie by a significant margin. In a city where the Democratic primary effectively decides the office holder, Lewis George is nearly certain to become the next mayor of the nation’s capital.
Eight months after voters elevated Zohran Mamdani in New York City, Lewis George ran a parallel campaign built on housing, rent, and the cost of living. It would be imprudent to draw national conclusions about these two results, however. At least not yet. After all, these socialist surges have succeeded where the electorate was already committed to Democrats. Whether the same message travels to swing districts or a national ticket remains untested.
Recommended Stories
This victory also carries risks for Democrats. Each victory of its left wing risks branding the party as too far to the left in the eyes of the country. The primary wins certainly suggest the socialist left may be coming out on top, pulling the party toward a definitively and durably more radical stance. President Donald Trump seems to sense a political opportunity here.
Days before the vote, Trump threatened to invoke the Home Rule Act and “take back Washington” should the city elect a socialist. The administration already has National Guard forces and Immigration and Customs Enforcement deployed across the city. Lewis George says she will stand up to Trump and will not cooperate with the federal government, but considering the federal government underwrites roughly a quarter of the district’s budget, obstinacy will amount to a big challenge.
The economic ground also offers an unsteady foundation upon which she will enter office. The Trump administration’s cuts pulled tens of thousands of federal jobs from the district, where government supplies roughly a quarter of all work. Projections suggest the district will continue into a recession through 2026, with revenue running short for years to come. Against this backdrop, Lewis George proposes to expand social welfare in the district including universal childcare, tens of thousands of new housing units, free Metro rides, a counselor in every school. All of this will be financed by, according to her, closing business tax loopholes.
But spending is already soaring.
Over the past 10 years, the district’s budget has nearly doubled, from around $13 billion to about $22 billion. More than half of every local dollar goes to schools and social programs. Poor school results and welfare dependency do not support the claims that these programs have been successful. Yet Lewis George’s answer to growing welfare demands against the loss of revenue and jobs is to tax the top.
Indeed, her record in politics has thus far been defined by moves to relocate money from policing into social services and expand rent control. She also co-wrote the 2021 measure that raised income taxes on residents earning more than $250,000, which the Council passed over the current Mayor Muriel Bowser’s objection. A later attempt to tax wealth and investment income fell short. Unlike Bowser, who spent years fighting the council, Lewis George will most likely govern with a new progressive majority on her side.
Washington, D.C., already has one of the highest tax rates in the country. The irony is that the district already runs on the model Lewis George champions. The capital already supports one of the most heavily subsidized populations in America. Roughly $4.5 billion, more than a fifth of the district’s $22 billion budget, flows through human services. More than a third of the city’s population draws Medicaid. Some 138,000 collect food stamps, close to 1 in 5 residents. Tens of thousands more lean on cash assistance, rental subsidies, and the locally funded Healthcare Alliance. In 2023, the roughly 3% of high-earning tax filers covered more than a third of all individual income tax.
B-52 DESCENDED AT NEARLY A MILE A MINUTE BEFORE CRASH THAT KILLED EIGHT
Rising electricity bills, restaurant and business closures, and downtown towers sitting empty now form the backdrop against which the next mayor promises to spend more. Lewis George says the same approach will somehow yield a different outcome, yet it may ultimately result in more payers crossing the bridge into Virginia.
Many have already done so.
Open article →NBCWashington
Goldstein: —Tone: —
City Council member Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist, leads the pack in the Democratic primary for mayor of Washington, D.C., as the city continues to tally later-arriving ballots.
With about two-thirds of the expected vote counted, Lewis George has 53% of the first-place votes, with former City Council member Kenyan McDuffie — who previously held a citywide at-large council seat — in second place at 37%. The rest of the vote is scattered among five other Democratic hopefuls.
With more votes to count, it’s not clear whether the race will go to a ranked-choice tabulation, which is necessary if no candidate gets a majority of first-place votes. In that scenario, support from lower-performing candidates is reallocated to those voters’ next choices until one candidate gets a majority of the vote.
In either case, Lewis George has built up a commanding position against her main rival, McDuffie, as she seeks to become the latest democratic socialist to take up a big-city mayorship in the U.S. — with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani the most prominent example.
In Washington, the candidates have sparred for months as they pitched the city on how they plan to lower crime and make life in the nation’s capital more affordable.
They also spent significant time discussing how they would handle the capital’s relationship with the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress.
Retiring Mayor Muriel Bowser has had an at-times friendly and at-times tense relationship with President Donald Trump. During the first year of his second term, Trump deployed National Guard troops to Washington and other cities across the U.S. run by Democratic mayors in a bid to lower crime rates, a move Bowser opposed but accepted.
Bowser told Axios earlier this month that the new mayor will have to promote a “better business climate” in the nation’s capital and added, “I support Kenyan McDuffie.”
Last week, Trump shook up the race when he told reporters at the White House that “we won’t put up with it” if Lewis George wins. He added that he would consider a federal takeover of Washington if she won.
In statements following his remarks, both Lewis George and McDuffie rebuked Trump.
“Threatening Home Rule because you do not like how residents vote is an attack on democracy itself. The people of D.C. elect the mayor of D.C. And they want someone who will stand up to Donald Trump,” Lewis George said.
McDuffie said, “The stakes of this election couldn’t be higher, but D.C. decides who will be the next mayor, not Donald Trump.”
McDuffie and Lewis George are also on opposite sides of a debate about whether to expand youth curfews around the city, with McDuffie supporting the curfews as a “common sense” policy and Lewis George opposing expanding them.
The candidate who wins the primary will be a heavy favorite in the general election in the deep-blue city.
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