Aparna Raj has won the Ward 1 Democratic primary election in the ward’s first race without an incumbent in more than three decades.
A democratic socialist, Raj won with 52% of the vote in the fourth round of tabulation under ranked-choice voting, part of a sweep of progressive victories in the Democratic primary.
Raj, a communications manager for a progressive policy advocacy group — who originally hails from West Chester, Pa. — is a first-time candidate for office. She got her start in D.C. politics as a tenant organizer, and her campaign honed in on addressing the District’s affordability problem. Throughout the race, Raj highlighted her background as a renter, a union member, and a community organizer. At 32 years old, she’ll be the youngest lawmaker currently on the D.C. Council.
“I think people really wanted to see a positive vision and wanted to see elected leaders who had the fight,” Raj told The 51st about her campaign’s success. “I think people felt really left out and really locked out of local politics for a long time.”
Raj stood out as the most left-leaning candidate in the crowded, five-person field. She consolidated support from the Metro D.C. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, as well as more than two dozen progressive organizations and labor unions, lending more than 400 volunteers who knocked on 94,000 voters’ doors, says Raj’s communications manager Marisa Bellantonio.
“I think she ran one of the better ground games that we've seen in the District in a while,” said Josh Jacobson, an ANC commissioner in Ward 1 who endorsed one of her opponents, Miguel Trindade Deramo.
Trindade Deramo, an ANC commissioner, came in second with 27% of the vote, followed by ANC commissioner Rashida Brown (who was endorsed by outgoing Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau) with 21% of the vote. Former Bowser appointee Jackie Reyes Yanes (who was removed from the city’s public financing program for allegedy falsifying contributions days before the election, a charge she denies) received 11% of the vote in the third round before being eliminated, and nonprofit executive director Terry Lynch was eliminated after the second round with just 6% of the vote.
So far, data from the D.C. Board of Elections shows that 18,000 Ward 1 residents cast their ballots in this primary compared to about 17,300 in the 2022 primary election.
Raj, Brown, and Trinidade Deramo all pitched themselves as progressive candidates, with a particular focus on affordability and housing. But Raj’s rhetoric on critiquing the status quo and corporate interests stood out, as well as her use of social media to engage with voters on her views. She called for free childcare from ages three months to three years, expanding rent stabilization, and increasing the minimum wage to $25 an hour.
Raj doesn’t believe ambitious policy has to be at odds with practicality. “It's because of my organizing and because of my policy knowledge that I know that government can do so much more for people,” she said.
“I really wanted to show people, too, that these aren't just big swings that we're saying, but that a better Ward 1 and a better D.C. is possible, and this is exactly how we're going to do it.”
Compared to some of the other races, Ward 1 had relatively little drama between candidates — up until the week leading up to the election, when Brown’s campaign sent out mailers attacking Raj for critiquing former President Joe Biden during the 2024 primaries.
In the race’s only public poll, Raj had a commanding lead among decided voters, and she was the only candidate in the race to hit the maximum public funding amount. Together, these factors cemented her as a frontrunner, and set the stage for Brown and Trindade Deramo to cross-endorse each other.
Raj will go on to face candidates from other parties in the November general election — but in a ward where 78% of registered voters are Democrats, Raj is all but set to be sworn in as Ward 1’s next councilmember in January.
This story has been updated to reflect multiple candidates running in the November general election for the Ward 1 seat.
Sam is a reporter with The 51st. She was a multimedia freelance journalist for a year before joining the team. Prior to that, she worked at Vox and More Perfect Union. Sam has covered a wide range of issues, from invasive vines to vaccines.
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