Democratic socialist DC Councilmember Janeese Lewis George triumphed in the District’s Democratic mayoral primary, easily defeating nine other competitors.
George, whose insurgent campaign and far-left platform led some to compare her to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is now on a glide path to becoming the deep-blue capital’s first-ever socialist leader after her chief rival, Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, conceded Thursday.
In a statement, McDuffie confirmed he had called George “to congratulate her on her victory and wish her success as she prepares for the general election.”
With an estimated 73% of the vote counted from Tuesday’s primary, George led McDuffie by 18.5 percentage points (52.9%-36.4%) and nearly 17,000 votes out of more than 102,000 ballots cast.
George’s signature proposal is a universal child care program which caps parental out-of-pocket spending at 7% of household income. She has offered a vague plan to fund the program by closing tax loopholes and cutting wasteful city spending without raising taxes on the middle class.
She has also vowed to boost housing assistance programs, make buses free for those on food stamps, and pressure utility companies against raising rates.
Most controversially, George has called to “reform zoning laws” in order to build as many as 72,000 new dwellings — many of which will be multi-family, or higher density, units — over the next five years.
That pledge sits uneasily alongside her April purchase of a $1.19 million home in DC’s tony Manor Park neighborhood, 15 days after ranting in an op-ed that single-family zoning “preserves segregation and exacerbates displacement.”
George is proposing a spending spree as DC grapples with an eye-watering $1.1 billion budget deficit driven in part by federal layoffs under the second Trump administration.
Outgoing Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed a 3.6% spending cut to close the gap.
The presumptive mayor has also called for a more aggressive posture against the Trump administration, including by instructing the Metropolitan Police Department to stop cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
During her final term in office, Bowser had taken a conciliatory stance toward the White House, aggravating local progressives.
Trump, who has been on a mission to make DC “Safe and Beautiful” during his second term by embarking on a crime crackdown across the city and directing National Park Service dollars to restoring iconic monuments, has expressed misgivings about George.
“I wouldn’t like it,” Trump told reporters last week when asked about the possibility of her winning the primary. “Maybe we’ll take back Washington and run it on a federal basis. We won’t put up with it. We’re not going to lose our businesses.”
Last week, George was hit with $16,000 in fines by the District’s Office of Campaign Finance after authorities determined her campaign improperly colluded with an outside group — Safe & Affordable DC — and labor unions that dished out $1 million to back her.
Outside groups are allowed to support candidates and cut ads on their behalf only if they operate independently from their campaigns.
“OCF’s order is riddled with factual errors and violates procedural requirements that govern its investigations and other enforcement actions,” the George campaign alleged over the weekend.
“The Campaign will appeal the decision to the DC Board of Elections so that this targeted attack is not allowed to stand.”
Since gaining home rule in 1973, DC voters have elected seven mayors, all Democrats. Trump received just 6.5% of the vote in the nation’s capital in the 2024 election.
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