From left to right, Oye Owolewa, Aparna Raj, Janeese Lewis George, Robert White, and Elissa Silverman won in their respective races. (Photos: Fabianna Rincon, candidates campaigns; Illustration: Maddie Poore)
D.C.’s most consequential primary in recent history is over, with a wave of progressive victories in every competitive race — but it’s not time to tune out local electoral politics just yet.
The November election is largely a foregone conclusion in deep blue D.C., where the Democratic nominees nearly always win the general. But these expected victories will have a number of ripple effects.
Can Kenyan McDuffie run again? Assuming Janeese Lewis George and Robert White become our next mayor and delegate to Congress, respectively, what happens to their seats on the Council? What’s the deal with the At-Large seat? How will the balance of power change on the D.C. Council? And what’s happening with the ducks?
Some have wondered if Kenyan McDuffie will run as an independent for the mayoral race, just as Andrew Cuomo did in New York City’s 2025 general election when he lost to democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary.
But that’s not an option for McDuffie, since D.C. has a “sore loser” law that prevents candidates who lost in a partisan primary election from running for that seat again in the general election.
McDuffie could technically still run for the At-Large seat he just vacated if he switches his party affiliation to independent, which would truly be a repeat of 2022, though he hasn’t given any indication that he plans to do so thus far.
What’s the deal with the At-Large race?
Speaking of that At-Large seat, while Elissa Silverman will be back on the council in July after winning the special election, she’ll need to win again in the general election in order to serve a full four-year term.
She’s picked up her nomination papers already — and so has Jacque Patterson, one of her opponents in the special election, though he told The 51st he’s still weighing his options. Doni Crawford, who was temporarily appointed to the role before losing the special election, told The 51st she hasn’t decided yet whether she’ll run again.
Other independent candidates who’ve picked up nomination papers include GoGo Venture’s Joseph Jackson, former CEO of the Center for Election Science Nina Taylor, and training and workforce development officer for the American Petroleum Institute Danielle Urey. All candidates have until August 5 to get enough signatures to make it on the ballot.
The At-Large general election will have two winners, and the ballot will also include the nominees from other parties, including Democratic nominee Oye Owolewa, Republican nominee Darrell Green, and D.C. Statehood Green nominee Darryl Moch.
What about ballot initiatives?
D.C. allows citizen-initiated ballot initiatives, where residents can vote directly on an issue; this is how we got decriminalized marijuana and ranked choice voting. But in order to get on the ballot, proposers need to collect signatures from at least 5% of voters citywide and across at least five wards. (Ever been to the farmers market and seen someone with a clipboard and pen? There’s a decent chance they’re trying to get an initiative on the ballot.)
The deadline to get enough signatures is July 6, and it looks like only one group is likely to meet it. Organizers with Pro-Animal D.C are leading a ballot initiative to ban the sale of foie gras in the District, and have said they have enough signatures to get on the ballot, according to NOTUS reporter Martin Austermuhle.
While it is a pretty niche initiative, at least one study has found that D.C. has some of the most restaurants in the country serving the dish, which animal rights organizers say involves an intensely cruel form of factory farming: force-feeding ducks and geese. A number of restaurant owners have pushed back, arguing the production of the French delicacy is misunderstood.
Other ballot initiatives are currently facing legal challenges, including one to implement a two-year rent freeze and another to establish a $25 minimum wage, which means they’ve yet to collect signatures and are therefore unlikely to make the November ballot.
What happens to vacant seats on the D.C. Council?
This actually depends on which seat we’re talking about. Assuming Lewis George and White win in the general election, there would eventually be special elections for both of their seats (the Board of Elections must hold them between 70 and 174 days after they are vacated). But what happens next to each is different.
In White’s case, an interim replacement will be appointed to his At-Large seat by the D.C. Democrats.
If you voted in the Democratic primary last week, you’ll probably remember seeing a long list of names of candidates, either running under the “Free D.C.” slate or the “Democrats United to Free D.C.” While these roles don’t typically have a ton of individual power, they shape the direction of the party overall — and if White wins, they’ll play a part in shaping the political leanings of the D.C. Council, at least temporarily.
Once the seat is vacant, the D.C. Democrats send out a notice to see who is interested in the interim role, according to Charles Wilson, chair of the local party. Candidates would get the chance to address the members of the party, and the over 80 elected members then vote on who receives the temporary appointment.
But this process only applies for vacant At-Large seats filled by a Democrat, not ones for ward seats (or the independent At-Large seats, which is why McDuffie’s role was appointed by the Council).
If Lewis George wins in the November election, the Ward 4 seat will remain vacant until a special election is held — meaning that Ward 4 won’t have a representative on the council for several months.
How will this election shift power on the D.C. Council?
There are 13 councilmembers, meaning that it takes seven votes to pass most bills — and get across the desk of the executive. Right now, there are at least five solidly progressive votes and a few swing councilmembers.
In 2027, progressives would likely have solid votes in Silverman, Owolewa, and Aparna Raj if they win again in the general election — along with current progressive-leaning councilmembers, like Charles Allen and Zachary Parker, who also won their primaries.
Add in potential replacements for Lewis George and White, and we could see a significantly strengthened progressive bloc on the Council. Given Ward 4’s political leanings, it seems a likely bet that Lewis George’s replacement will have similar politics. While progressives have traditionally had a harder time in city-wide races, this election defied those odds; the race to replace White will be one to watch. But those special elections won’t happen until later in 2027 (see above).
Does this all mean that the city has shifted to the left?
A wave of democratic socialist victories, both in D.C. and in other cities with a large base of Democratic voters, suggests that voters are gravitating toward leftist policies. Indeed, Lewis George broke the record for most votes in a primary mayoral election since Home Rule began.
There’s also another interpretation that progressive candidates have done a better job at providing a clear vision for change, at a time when many D.C. residents are concerned about cost of living and dissatisfied with how the Bowser administration addressed these issues.
“I think the actual deciding factor is how much are the people in power siding with vulnerable community members, versus people who have money,” said Alex Dodds, campaign director with Free DC, about what distinguished candidates on the left like Lewis George from others.
George Derek Musgrove, an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland - Baltimore County and co-author of the book “Chocolate City,” is wary of calling it a true progressive wave just yet, pointing to factors like the re-election of moderate Democrat Chairman Phil Mendelson, who ran unopposed in the primary.
“We just don't know if this is a rejection of status quo or an actual embrace of progressivism,” said Musgrove (who supported the progressive candidates in the primary).
He also believes moderate candidates like Kenyan McDuffie and Brooke Pinto ran “positively horrible campaigns” — citing the invasive opposition report that Pinto’s campaign published and and McDuffie’s lack of a clear vision for the city — and noted that D.C. still has a large block of voters across racial lines who lean more moderate.
One election is not quite enough to understand how and if the D.C. electorates’ politics are shifting — though Musgrove added that upcoming special elections could help answer that question.
“I am just absolutely not comfortable saying, 'Oh, this was a progressive sweep,” Musgrove said. “I think the next set of special elections could potentially show that if the trend continues, but only if the trend continues.”
Who else will be on the ballot in November?
In a city where over 75% of registered voters are Democrats, it can be easy to forget that other local political parties exist. On June 16, Republicans and D.C. Statehood Greens also voted for their parties’ candidates across various offices, and the winners in all of these races will advance to the November election.
Robert Gross is the Statehood Green Party’s nominee for mayor, and while the D.C. Republican Party doesn’t have a mayoral candidate, they did have a number of candidates run for other local offices, including congressional delegate and some ward-level councilmembers.
Independent and minor party candidates also have a shot at getting on the November ballot, though they’ll have to acquire enough signatures. So far, over a dozen have picked up nomination papers for the mayoral race, and a handful of independents have done the same for the At-Large seat (see above).
We’ll have a better sense of who actually made the November ballot after BOE deadlines pass in August and September.
What are our outgoing politicians’ plans?
At 89-years old, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is finally taking her retirement. "After a long and fruitful career serving D.C. in Congress, Norton plans to enjoy her retirement, spend lots of time with her kids and grandkids, and cheer on the next delegate to represent D.C.," her communications director said in a statement to The 51st.
At the time of this story’s publication, At-Large Councilmember Anita Bonds’ office responded they were unable to respond in time and Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau’s office did not respond to comment.
As for Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has long called the mayorship the best job in Washington, well, her office declined to comment.
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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