The team plans to ask for an exemption to the city's climate law that would allow it to add a natural gas-burning plant, which is worrying environmentalists and lawmakers.
After a raucous Democratic primary, the impending general election may feel a bit anticlimactic in D.C., especially with the rest of the country set to decide control of Congress. But that’s no reason to ditch your ballot on Nov. 3.
While the Democratic nominees for high-profile positions like mayor and D.C. delegate are set to cruise to victory after drawing only nominal opposition in the deep-blue District, other races down the ballot are still up in the air. There’s a more convoluted At-Large race than usual, competitive races in several wards for the State Board of Education, a ballot initiative about foie gras for voters to weigh in on, and dozens of hyperlocal ANC seats up for grabs.
Here’s what to know about the general election, including how to cast your vote.
General elections don’t produce much drama in most D.C. Council races, with a notable exception: the At-Large contests.
Every two years, voters choose two councilmembers to represent the entire city. Generally, that means one Democrat and one independent win each time around, thanks to a law that reserves two seats on the Council for members who don’t hail from the majority party (aka, not Democrats).
In June, Democratic voters picked shadow representative Oye Owolewa as their nominee for one of the At-Large seats, so he’ll almost certainly win one of the seats. That leaves three other candidates duking it out for the other: Republican Darrell Green (no, not the football star), Statehood-Green candidate Darryl Moch, and independent Elissa Silverman, the incumbent. (If you remember seeing Silverman on the ballot back in June, that’s because she was running in a separate special election to fill the seat vacated by Kenyan McDuffie as he ran for mayor; she’s now running to serve the next full term in office.)
In past years, voters could pick two different candidates for these races. But things have changed with the recent implementation of ranked choice voting.
The new system allows voters to rank up to five candidates in order of preference. But their top two choices won’t necessarily translate into a vote for each candidate because of the way election officials have chosen to count votes for both these seats.
The first round of tallying includes only first-place votes for each candidate, and if anyone secures a majority, they win outright. If no one does, officials eliminate lower-performing candidates and redistribute subsequent rankings from their supporters until someone crosses the 50% threshold.
Owolewa, the Democrat, is highly likely to win a majority of votes in the first round. Since he is unlikely to be eliminated from contention, subsequent rankings from his supporters will therefore never be redistributed elsewhere. In other words, if you rank Owolewa first, your vote would only help Owolewa over the line and never impact your other choices.
If this seems complex and perhaps controversial, you’d be right: The Council considered, but ultimately abandoned, a legislative rewrite of the rules this summer. Critics of the system argue it effectively sidelines Democrats, giving anyone ranking other candidates first a disproportionately large say in deciding one of the Council races. Proponents say that’s pretty much the point — the advocates who designed the ballot initiative bringing ranked choice to D.C. say they picked this method to ensure the seat reserved for non-Democrats is actually decided by non-Democrats.
There hasn’t been much public communication from the city about the nuance of these particular races (election officials recently admitted some of their marketing efforts have been delayed), so it’s fallen to the candidates themselves to do so. Silverman, in particular, has made this a large part of her campaign. But without any well-known opposition, most political observers believe she’s in no danger of losing the second spot.
Given the contours of the non-Democrat race and a disinclination to modify the system in the midst of an election season, efforts to update the tallying method fizzled. But a more crowded race in the future could reignite conversations about reform. And with Robert White’s At-Large seat likely to come open next year, it may not be very long before there’s another huge field of contenders on the ballot.
The fate of foie gras
Contentious ballot measures have defined the last few general elections in D.C. While less heated than the fights over the tipped minimum wage, voters have a new restaurant industry question to consider: should the city ban foie gras sales?
The measure is backed by a mix of local and national advocates; Adam Eidinger, who has steered a number of successful ballot initiatives, is among the more prominent local voices, while the Oregon-based group Pro-Animal Future has provided the bulk of its funding. They argue that force-feeding ducks and geese to produce foie gras is inhumane, and several other cities and the state of California have enacted similar bans. (Technically, the measure only bars foie gras made via force-feeding, but that makes up the vast majority of what is produced in the country).
Like most ballot measures in the District, the initiative is likely to pass. A poll backed by the groups supporting it found 78% of voters favor banning foie gras, and boosters have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote it without facing any real organized opposition.
But it has nonetheless produced grumbling from restaurant industry insiders, who argue it amounts to another batch of regulations targeting an already struggling sector. Some restaurateurs have even claimed they’re avoiding speaking out about the ban to avoid protesters spooking customers. Foie gras manufacturers have also argued that their methods of feeding these animals are less gruesome than the initiative’s supporters describe.
Perhaps the largest lingering question is whether the city will enforce the ban once it’s in place. The initiative calls for fines and enforcement by city agencies, but the Council has been known to avoid funding controversial ballot measures, and few politicians have shown much zeal for supporting this one. (Owolewa is perhaps the most notable exception.) Several restaurant owners have even whispered privately that they’re likely to continue serving the dish even if the ban passes, reasoning they can get away with it if they do so without listing it on the menu.
Complaints about this measure (and the ranked choice voting push two years ago) encouraged the Council to pass limits on the use of ballot initiatives earlier this fall. That isn’t stopping organizers from continuing to try, however: backers of a hotly debated measure to freeze rents are working to get that on the ballot in 2028.
Education on the ballot
As the likely next mayor, Janeese Lewis George will have the lion’s share of say over how the D.C. school system runs (owing to reforms passed about 20 years ago), but the city does still have an elected school board worth watching.
The State Board of Education, as it’s known, weighs in on limited policy matters — such as graduation requirements and academic standards in public schools — and its members often act as important advocates for local issues. Over the years, it has also become a political battleground pitting charter school boosters against charter critics (who are usually aligned with the city’s teachers’ union) and a stepping stone for higher office. Marion Barry himself won a seat on the school board to start his political career; Lewis George began her foray into politics as a student representative to the board.
Representatives to the SBOE in Wards 1, 3, 5, and 6 are up for election this year, and while the Ward 1 incumbent is running unopposed, the other races are contested.
Perhaps the most notable race is in Ward 3, where the polarizing incumbent, Eric Goulet, is being challenged by Aaron Wesolowski.
Goulet very nearly won the bruising Ward 3 Council race in 2022, losing only after several candidates dropped out to coalesce behind the eventual winner, Matt Frumin, to protest the vast sums of money flowing to his campaign (much of which came from the charter sector). Goulet turned around and ran for the SBOE seat instead, and managed to win, relying on his experience as a longtime aide to former mayor and councilmember Vince Gray.
Between the 2022 race and subsequent (very online) debate about the city’s spike in crime in 2023, Goulet has established himself as one of the most vociferous tough-on-crime voices on local D.C. Twitter. (Most political observers believed he was positioning himself to challenge Frumin again; instead, he briefly flirted with an At-Large bid, which fizzled quickly.) He has since toned down the volume after a series of increasingly nasty online spats.
Wesolowski is probably best known for penning an op-ed in this very publication, criticizing the policy at his child’s school, Alice Deal Middle, that presents students with excerpts of novels rather than requiring them to read full books. (His piece prompted quite a bit of public debate on the subject.) A healthcare policy worker who’s been active in Deal’s local school advisory team, Wesolowski is running with the backing of the teachers’ union, which has vociferously opposed Goulet for his friendliness toward charter schools.
Unlike past SBOE contests, the race has not drawn vast sums of money from either union or charter forces. But Wesolowski has so far substantially outraised Goulet, largely by relying on matching funds from the city.
The incumbents in Wards 5 and 6 (Robert Henderson and Brandon Best, respectively) both chose to step down after serving single terms in office, opening up those contests.
In Ward 5, two staffers for national education-focused nonprofits are squaring off. Former high school teacher Jon Alfuth works on state policy for the group KnowledgeWorks, while former college professor Lynn Jennings focuses on chronic absenteeism for EdTrust. The pair share similar platforms and fundraising numbers (though Jennings has a slight lead), but perhaps the biggest difference between the two is in endorsements. Jennings has collected the backing of the teachers’ union, Henderson, and Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker (himself a former SBOE rep). Alfuth has the backing of several past student representatives to the SBOE and some community leaders.
The Ward 6 race is a three-way contest between David Parker, Joshua Wiley, and Amber Williams. Wiley, who lost to Best in 2022, is a former assistant principal and teacher at D.C. schools. He’s running with the backing of the teachers’ union and boasts a commanding lead in fundraising over the rest of the field. Williams, meanwhile, has worked as a teacher outside of the District and for the U.S. Department of Education, while Parker is a grandparent in the ward (he appears to be running a bare-bones campaign, without so much as a website).
About those ANCs
General elections are also the time when you get to decide on the city’s most hyperlocal representatives: advisory neighborhood commissioners.
There are about 400 brave souls running for these unpaid positions, which have little formal power but do get the chance to weigh in on highly specific neighborhood issues like liquor licenses and development and transportation projects. Many races go without candidates or feature just a single person running, but when the races are competitive, they can get a bit strange (I’ll have a story soon about some of the quirkier contests this time around).
This map can help locate your ANC (they are quite small, with each district only containing about 2,000 people), and the Board of Elections has a full list of everyone running. Greater Greater Washington has also surveyed the candidates (and made endorsements) if you’re looking for more details about their positions.
How to vote
D.C. has already sent out ballots to all registered voters. (If you haven’t received one, you can check its status here.) Voters can mail them back in (so long as it is sent by Nov. 3), bring them to a vote center, or deposit them in drop boxes.
If you prefer the in-person route, early voting starts at select locations on Oct. 26 and runs through Nov. 1. You can also wait until Election Day itself and cast your ballot at any vote center.
Just be sure to check your voting registration status first. If you need to update it (for instance, if you’ve moved since the last election), the deadline to do so online has passed, but you can get it changed by providing proof of your new residence when you cast your ballot at a voting center.
Alex (he/him) is a senior reporter for The 51st who has spent his career covering local government, politics, the criminal legal system and more in the D.C. area. He was raised in Northern Virginia, graduated from Virginia Tech, and lives in Shaw.
The team plans to ask for an exemption to the city's climate law that would allow it to add a natural gas-burning plant, which is worrying environmentalists and lawmakers.
The recent death of a city official in a scooter collision, alongside riders landing in the ER “every week” has trauma experts questioning whether rental e-scooters should be allowed.
With your help, we pursue stories that hold leaders to account, demystify opaque city and civic processes, and celebrate the idiosyncrasies that make us proud to call D.C. home. Put simply, our mission is to make it easier — and more fun — to live in the District. Our members help keep local news free and independent for all:
