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While D.C.’s mayoral race has been sucking up most of the proverbial political oxygen in the room, there’s another high-stakes citywide contest where the long-term incumbent isn’t running again and whoever replaces her will face a complicated, uphill slog. We’re talking, of course, of D.C.’s non-voting delegate to Congress.
Eleanor Holmes Norton has held that seat since 1991, and she only ever faced nominal opposition for re-election. That changed last year, as it was becoming clear that Norton – at 88, one of the oldest members of an already gerontocratic Congress – just didn’t seem up to the task anymore.
Her public appearances dwindled as challenges to D.C.’s autonomy from the White House and Republican-led Congress were ramping up. Even while friends and former aides publicly urged her to retire, Norton gave conflicting answers on her political future before finally announcing in late January what everyone else seemed to see as inevitable – she would not run again.
Norton’s departure hasn’t just opened up her seat, but, as candidate Kinney Zalesne told us, sparked the first “serious conversation about what the delegate job is” in decades. That opportunity initially attracted more than a dozen candidates, though only five made the ballot for the Democratic primary: Trent Holbrook, Greg Jaczko, Brooke Pinto, Robert White, and Zalesne.
While the push for statehood has been most prominent in recent years (the House twice passed a statehood bill six years ago), that’s not all D.C.’s delegate focuses on. Indeed, Norton gained such prominence because of everything else she did: negotiating with Republicans to temper their interference in local affairs, securing federal funding for city projects and initiatives, and waging symbolic battles big and small to try to ensure the District is treated like a state.
Meet the Democratic candidates – two sitting members of the D.C. Council, one of Norton’s recent staffers, a former nuclear regulator, and a prominent Democratic fundraiser – looking to succeed her. Whomever wins will go on to face non-Democratic candidates in the November election (there’s currently one Republican and one Statehood Green in the race, and independent candidates can jump in.)
Norton hasn’t endorsed a successor, and it’s unclear if she will. But Trent Holbrook is approaching the race with the view that proximity to the legend is the next best thing.
The 40-year-old Dupont Circle resident worked for eight years as a legislative staffer in Norton’s Capitol Hill office (he left shortly after declaring his candidacy), a fact that he often reminds potential voters of.
“I worked with Congresswoman Norton on this issue” has been a common refrain in recent debates. Whether it’s the statehood bill that cleared the House or the multiyear push to give D.C.’s mayor control of the National Guard, Holbrook says he knows not just the issues but also the politics and people involved in moving them forward – all by virtue of having sat alongside Norton as she waged those battles.
“I learned from the great while I was there,” he tells The 51st.
He said Norton’s accomplishments – with him alongside her – are clear. Statehood became a cause célèbre among Democrats (after having failed to advance in the early 1990s), and over the years, many attempts to undo or change locally passed legislation were thwarted. “We’ve had a record number of attacks but very few actually stick,” he says.
On the flip side, Holbrook says Norton didn’t only play defense; she knew what fights to pick on D.C.’s behalf and how to move them forward through the complex legislative process.
“We had a great history in that office of knowing what moment we’re in, what’s moving, and what we could attach to it,” he says. “And that’s not something that comes to people, it takes years of experience.”
Of course, it’s hard to tout proximity to Norton without having to answer questions about the controversy that dogged Norton for most of last year before she decided to retire: Did she hold on for too long as her mental and physical energy seemed to lapse?
Holbrook answers that by saying he decided to jump into the race when “it was obvious” she wouldn’t run again, and while he didn’t directly address whether he and the rest of her staff was aware of her diminished state, he insists that she remained “one of the most effective lawmakers in American history.” (He adds, “I hope to be in her shape when I am 88.”)
Should he be elected to succeed his former boss, Holbrook says he would double down on pushing statehood. “One of the most important things the delegate has to do is continue to make it the national priority it should be,” he says. At the same time, he says he will keep up Norton’s history of fighting to defend and expand home rule and using the office to advocate for D.C. to be treated as an equivalent of a state for federal programs.
He argues that the others running – especially his two competitors who currently serve on the D.C. Council – don’t have the right kind of experience to get the job done.
“This position is not like any position in government. You’re having to defend home rule and make advances on statehood. It’s not like being on D.C. Council where you are just working with Democrats,” he says. “It’s critical to have someone step in on Day 1 and start delivering.”
Greg Jaczko
We’re all aware of D.C.’s complaint that our residents suffer from the injustice of taxation without representation, but Greg Jaczko thinks far too much of the city’s fight has been focused on the latter instead of the former.
“We should make it no taxation until we get representation,” he tells The 51st.
The 55-year-old Tenleytown resident’s pitch is somewhat unexpected, but so too was his path into electoral politics. He has a doctorate in physics and came to D.C. 30 years ago for a science fellowship, eventually rising to serve as the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under President Obama. He now has his own consulting firm on renewable energy.
Jaczko says he was motivated to jump into the race because of how the Trump administration maligned and fired so many federal employees. “I didn’t see anyone in Congress really pushing back the way they should,” he says. “I thought, ‘I can run for office and make a difference or sit on my couch and complain about it.’”
If elected, Jaczko would push to be appointed to the House Oversight Committee, where he says he’d be best placed to fight for federal workers. “This country cannot function without the amazing people who work in the federal government,” he says. “We have to get them back and give them protections.”
Like everyone else vying to succeed Norton, Jaczko is a passionate supporter of D.C. home rule and statehood. But given the challenges of getting a statehood bill through Congress at this time, he is instead proposing to push a bill through that would exempt D.C. from federal taxation. (In 2024, D.C. paid $45 billion in federal taxes, more per capita than any state.)
“For the 30 years I have been here, we have focused on the representation part and not the taxation part. There are other jurisdictions like D.C. that are not states, and there the residents don’t pay federal taxes,” he says, referencing Puerto Rico. “We should use the power of the purse to make people recognize this injustice.”
“The goal is to get statehood, but this is a different tactical approach,” he says. ”It brings awareness because you have the rest of the country crying about unfairness. You reverse the discussion and it can move you closer to statehood.”
And, he adds, there’s a fringe benefit for a D.C. economy that’s been ravaged by Trump’s decimation of the federal workforce. “You can imagine if D.C. doesn’t pay a federal tax,” he says, “every corporation would want an office in D.C.” Charge them some higher local taxes, he adds, and voila: more revenue for the city.
“There is a degree of autonomy that comes from having more resources,” he adds.
Brooke Pinto
When Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto recently unveiled her first campaign ad this month, some were confused about why it focused on housing, an issue that she could just as well tackle by remaining in the council seat she has occupied since 2020.
Pinto doesn’t necessarily disagree. But she tells The 51st that while she is running for D.C. delegate to push for statehood and protect the city’s autonomy, she also wants to use federal leverage to focus on more practical daily matters.
“I will be very focused on improving residents’ lives,” she says. “There are things to do locally [on housing]. But in Congress, this is an issue D.C. residents and Americans are facing that needs federal intervention.”
She wants to use that intervention to repeal the federal Height Act that limits how tall buildings can be; speed the transfer of old federal buildings and land to local control, so they can be used to build affordable housing; and declare more federal enterprise and opportunity zones, designated areas where investors are enticed with tax breaks.
Pinto, 33, has most recently been known for her work on public safety on the council, where she shepherded legislation that increased penalties for gun crimes, expanded the use of pre-trial detention, and introduced the use of teen curfew zones to prevent so-called teen takeovers (advocates for criminal justice reform have often disagreed with her approaches). The Logan Circle resident says she’ll carry that experience with her to Capitol Hill, where Republicans often get involved in the city’s local affairs when it comes to crime.
“I’ve seen firsthand where the gaps are: the databases in our courts that are 50 years old, the gun control laws that are inconsistent in our region so we have illegal guns flowing in from Maryland and Virginia, our GPS monitors that run out of batteries,” she says. “All of those are federal functions where having someone who is an expert on public safety will allow me to move the ball.”
Pinto’s campaign has had a rocky go of things recently, though. Seeing White as her biggest competition, her campaign published unredacted opposition research on White and his family last month. The move sparked outrage from her council colleague; she ultimately apologized but refused to drop out of the race as he demanded.
Pinto, a Connecticut native, has also had to fight off claims that she doesn’t know D.C. well enough to represent it in Congress. (Some of those out-of-town connections have helped her raise more than $1.2 million, more than any of her competitors.) But she rejects those arguments.
“It’s the city I love, and it’s my home. It’s my life’s work to protect it. I think most people across D.C. get that, and they see that in my record, in my commitment,” she says. “We are an inclusive city that should be welcoming to everybody who comes here.”
That, though, brings her back to her focus on housing – and how the lack of affordable options is impacting longtime Washingtonians. “One of the biggest concerns I hear from Black residents is about displacement in large part due to the rising costs of housing, which is why addressing the affordable housing crisis is my number one priority,” she says.
Robert White
Up until last summer, At-Large Councilmember Robert White says he thought he would run for mayor, reprising his failed 2022 bid for the city’s top job. But, he tells The 51st that in early August “it became uncomfortably clear how under threat D.C.’s home rule is and that Congresswoman Norton was likely to retire.” A month later, White made the call: He was running to succeed her.
“There’s a unique historic opportunity to move D.C. statehood forward right now,” he says. “D.C. residents are much more active on local issues than they have been historically. We had been beaten on decade after decade, so there was never much of a reaction when Congress did things. That’s very different now. People are scared, and they are showing up.”
White, 44, is a known quantity in D.C. politics, having held a citywide seat on the council for a decade. He says that his tenure on the council – and that he’s a native Washingtonian and the only Black contender in the race – makes him uniquely able to connect to and mobilize residents.
“There’s no one who understands the city better personally and professionally,” he says. “Residents in the city know me and they trust me. You can’t be negotiating and bargaining for a city you don’t understand.”
White also served as legislative counsel to Norton from 2008 to 2013. And like every other candidate, he says he would marshal local and national forces to push D.C. statehood through Congress. But White says he’d also aggressively pursue a seat on the House Appropriations Committee, where he could better direct federal funds to the city and head off the usual budget riders that Republicans use to tell D.C. what to do (or not do.)
He wants to focus on stabilizing D.C.’s economy and thinks he could play a role by pushing to transfer federal lands around L’Enfant Plaza to local control and team up with regional partners to advocate for federal payments to make up for the significant impact of Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce.
And, like Jaczko, White is interested in tax policy: He’d like to adopt a Puerto Rico-style system where businesses that move into the city don’t have to pay federal taxes on the money they make here. “That’s a model we can use to attract businesses to D.C.,” he says.
White touts endorsements from the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, local unions, at least two council colleagues (Janeese Lewis George and Charles Allen), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). Still, his fundraising has lagged behind both Pinto and Zalesne, and he drew criticism for a social media post joking about the shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner. (He later deleted it, calling it “inappropriate and insensitive.”)
He’s bullish on his chances in the race, and on Pinto and Zalesne, pointedly argues that “this is not the time for a person that believes they can buy a seat or wants to learn in the position.”
The Cleveland Park resident was among the first to jump into the race for Norton’s seat, seeing an early start as vital to being able to introduce herself to an electorate that had likely never heard of her. Since then, Zalesne, 59, has raised more than $660,000 for the race, taking advantage of connections she built in her career in the federal government, leading a non-profit focused on helping D.C. kids get to college, at Microsoft, and, more recently, as a prominent fundraiser for the Democratic Party.
While there are five candidates in the race, Zalesne is pretty clear that she sees the real contest as being between her, Pinto, and White. And she seems more than happy to see the two of them battle it out in public; it buttresses her argument that being a local lawmaker doesn’t naturally make them more suited to be D.C. delegate.
“It’s not a step up from the D.C. Council,” she tells The 51st about the role of D.C. delegate. “That has never been the path. Because there is no vote, the power of the role is not in the position, it’s the person. Eleanor made it what she did because she had national networks and national experience. She turned her strengths into the role and served D.C. fiercely. I am aiming to do the same.”
Zalesne says her own “unusual mix of experiences” will lend itself to what she says would be her priorities if she were elected D.C. delegate: autonomy and economy. “Autonomy is statehood and everything on the way, and economy is about reimagining and recreating our economy to be less dependent on the federal government,” she says.
On autonomy, Zalesne would immediately call a “statehood summit” after the June 16 primary to refine the messaging and strategy around getting a statehood bill passed in Congress. She says her recent experience of fundraising for the DNC gives her relationships on Capitol Hill she could leverage to bolster the push for statehood. Zalesne also says more public education is needed; she envisions a broad advertising campaign targeting visitors, with the possible tagline, “Welcome to D.C., we’re the last colony.”
“We can launch a lot of new energy and creativity and discipline and focus,” she says. “Sharper, edgier, based on research, metrics-driven. Everything you want to do when you actually want to win, not just be indignant.”
Zalesne says she’d also push to create a Capitol Caucus in the House made of representatives from surrounding states, which could be a vehicle for diversifying the region’s economy. “If we collaborate better as neighbors, it would make a big difference,” she says.
As she continues her campaign, Zalesne is leveraging her time at the DNC to good effect; she’s touting endorsements from three sitting members of the House, among other figures. That may only go so far for most D.C. residents, though, so in late April she launched what she says is a “major six-figure multi-platform” advertising campaign that will last seven weeks. And she seems to hope that Pinto and White will keep taking shots at each other.
“They are unseasoned. They are not ready for the national stage. They are embarrassing themselves,” she says. “With those kinds of blunders, will they actually get us statehood?”
Martin is a longtime reporter and editor in D.C. He formerly worked for WAMU 88.5 and DCist.com, and has contributed to the Washington City Paper and other publications. He's been in D.C. for 25 years, and tries to ride his bike everywhere he can.
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