Janeese Lewis George appears on the cusp of becoming D.C.’s next mayor, holding a majority of 52% of the first-rank vote in Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary with nearly two-thirds of ballots counted. Even if that number falls as the rest of the votes come in, she looks very likely to cross the 50% threshold once ranked-choice votes are tabulated.
The results represent a sweeping triumph for Lewis George, who led by smaller margins in pre-election polls.
As of early Wednesday morning, she led her main rival, Kenyan McDuffie, in seven of the District’s eight wards, trailing only in wealthy Ward 3. Though her strongest support came from younger, newer Washingtonians, Lewis George also led McDuffie in historically Black Wards 7 and 8, as well as in McDuffie’s own Ward 5. She has not declared victory, but the math is strongly in her favor.
A win would make the 38-year-old democratic socialist the Democratic nominee in a city that has never elected a non-Democratic mayor, and where the November general election is usually a coronation for whoever the party nominates.
It would also mark an emphatic end to the decades-long run of centrist mayors who presided as Washington became a richer, more dynamic, and much more unequal city.
Even as Lewis George ran up surprisingly strong numbers, fellow left-wing candidates took strong leads in several D.C. Council races: democratic socialist Oye Owolewa for an open at-large seat, democratic socialist Aparna Raj for a Ward 1 seat, and former Councilmember Elissa Silverman, the onetime anchor of the council’s progressive bloc, in a special election for McDuffie’s former at-large seat. (Owolewa and Raj were both below 50 percent, so ranked-choice voting will determine whether they win.)
"Tonight belongs to the postal worker on the early route, the nurse coming home from a double, the teacher who buys supplies out of her pocket, the childcare worker who loves on our babies all day but still can’t make ends meet,” Lewis George, clad in her signature lilac purple, said from the stage at her watch party at the Howard Theater. “This moment is for those who refuse to surrender their hope.”
In fact, Lewis George’s apparent victory is a final product of the very same business-friendly political era she may bring to a close — in some obvious ways, and some ironic ones.
As a candidate, the two-term D.C. councilmember channeled the frustrations of residents who felt priced out of an increasingly unaffordable Washington, frustrations she credited for her strong showing in a post-election conversation with reporters. She ran on an agenda that promised to use city government to do things like build housing and subsidize childcare. It’s a strikingly ambitious stance in a city where recent mayors have focused more closely on bond ratings than redistributing wealth.
”Let's show them what government can do,” Lewis George said in her speech.
But pre-election polls and election day returns suggest Lewis George benefitted from another trend of the past few decades: massive population growth that transformed “Chocolate City.”
Though she herself grew up in pre-gentrification D.C. and sang campaign-trail hosannas to organized labor, her strongest support came from the newcomers — disproportionately college-educated, white and privileged — who drove the demographic change that has roiled old Washington. Her strongest showing in the early returns came from Ward 1, an epicenter of D.C.’s transformation.
The contrast between the election-night parties of the two leading candidates reflected that. At McDuffie’s party at the swank Park on 14th restaurant, the crowd was older and predominantly Black, filled with veterans of city politics. At Lewis George’s much larger event, the crowd was much whiter and hipper, even as the candidate took to the stage surrounded by family members and labor-movement allies.
In addition to taking over a city reeling from federal job cuts that have spiked unemployment and sent the regional economy into the doldrums, Lewis George will also be dealing with a White House led by Donald Trump. The president has a history of singling out Black women — and has already threatened to take control of D.C. if the socialist candidate won.
Late on election night, as political supporters including Councilmembers Charles Allen and Zachary Parker began to trickle out of the party just before midnight, Lewis George sat down with a group of reporters. Asked about Trump’s comments, she said she thought they helped her on election day. “It motivated people to get to the polls,” she said. “Some people who weren’t paying attention to this race, when they heard Trump’s comments, they were like, ‘I need to pay attention.’”
In her remarks, Lewis George promised to stand up to Trump. And while the president doesn’t actually have the power to take over D.C. without an act of Congress, he has many other forms of leverage over whoever is mayor.
It may well be that Trump wants Lewis George as a foil. Already, national conservative media have begun to seize on Lewis George as a bogeyman, with the Murdoch-owned New York Post devoting recentstories to her million-dollar home and the radical online presence of a key supporter.
Councilmember Christina Henderson, who showed up at Lewis George’s party to congratulate her colleague, also credited the election results to Trump — but suggested his impact began well before his comments of last Thursday. “I think tonight's results sort of reflect the sentiment of a lot of D.C. residents who are very angered by everything that has been for the last few years,” she said. “I do think that the Trump effect definitely played out in these elections.”
Other candidates collectively held 11 percent of the vote, with no candidate having garnered more than 3%. In the event Lewis George doesn’t clear 50%, those ballots will now be reallocated under D.C.’s new ranked-choice voting system.
Of course, the very fact that Lewis George is so controversial, and not just among MAGA devotees, may make the next few months more interesting than the typical D.C. general election season.
When Marion Barry won the Democratic nomination in 1994 after serving a prison sentence, he was toxic to enough D.C. voters that the November election became a real fight, with more than 40% of votes going to Republican Carol Schwartz. And in 2014, independent David Catania looked like a real threat if scandal-damaged mayor Vince Gray had been renominated (Catania wound up getting 34% against Bowser).
So far, no D.C. notables have announced plans to make an independent run in November — and her surprisingly strong citywide showing makes it a daunting prospect. The deadline to register is August 5.
Henderson also predicted that some of the fears about Lewis George may prove overwrought.
“People campaign one way, and they have to govern in a different way,” she said. “You have the reality when you look under the rug and see where all the bodies are buried. The same administration has been running this government for 12 years. So there's a lot of things that even us on the council aren't necessarily privy to. When you step into that role… You may not be able to deliver on all the things that you campaign on. And so, I think that is going to be an interesting conversation. “
Lewis George, for her part, devoted a large chunk of her election-night speech to promising to be a mayor for all, including people who voted against her — and those who ran against her.
She said her campaign plans to wait for more of the votes to come in to declare victory, but said she wasn't sure exactly what percent of votes she’d like to see counted before declaring.
Although there won't be a traditional concession phone call between candidates tonight, she said she hoped to speak with McDuffie. She said voters approached her at the polls to tell her, “after this we want to be one D.C.”
“And that starts with me and Kenyan,” she said.
