Trump also trotted out a bill of particulars. Lewis George “wants to empty the prisons, make D.C. a Sanctuary City, oppose ICE, welcome Criminal Illegal Aliens back into our beloved Capital, resist Anti-Crime Crackdowns, Defund the Police, continue and expand Cashless Bail, and so many other Capital destroying ‘things’”, Trump charged.
Lewis George’s campaign has denied the accuracy of some of those claims. The candidate herself focused on “the president threatening home rule because he doesn’t like the way residents may vote”.
Overwhelmingly Democratic DC
One thing Trump was right about is that Lewis George is all but certain to be DC’s next mayor. America’s capital is an overwhelmingly Democratic city. Since the federal government gave the government seat what is called “home rule” in 1974, which allowed an elected city government, all the mayors have been Democrats.
In fact, a general election has never been particularly close. The best showing a Republican mayoral candidate ever put up was in 1994, when Republican City Councilwoman Carol Schwartz received 41.8% of votes cast against Democrat Marion Barry’s 56% showing.
The only reason it was that close was that it was Barry’s comeback campaign for a fourth, nonconsecutive term in office. He had not been able to run in 1990 because he had been fighting charges and then serving time in jail for cocaine possession after he had been filmed smoking crack at a hotel with a former girlfriend who had become an FBI informant. When he was arrested, he had loudly repeated “bitch set me up” multiple times.
The incumbent mayor is Muriel Bowser. She declined to run for reelection this year after serving three terms in office. For her third campaign in 2022, Bowser received 74.6% of votes against independent candidate Rodney “Red” Grant’s 14.9% showing. Republican candidate Stacia Hall came in third with 5.8% of the vote.
Thus, the real contest for DC mayor comes in the primary, which Lewis George won comfortably with 54.1% of the vote. Her closest competition, the somewhat more moderate City Councilman Kenyan McDuffie, received 35% of primary votes cast.
The DSA Weighs In
One reason Lewis George is controversial is her close association with the Democratic Socialists of America. The local chapter endorsed and canvassed for her in a successful 2024 city council reelection bid and again this year.
The DSA is currently controversial because of its successful primary challenges to many incumbent Democrats for being insufficiently socialist or insufficiently pro-Palestinian in their policies.
Political neophyte Melat Kiros knocked off 15-term incumbent Diana DeGette for the Democratic nomination to Colorado’s 1st US House District in late June, for instance, and “free Palestine” was a popular chant at the victory party.
When the DSA threw in with Lewis George in 2024 for her DC Ward 4 seat reelection, it did so “after an extensive endorsement process” and overwhelmingly, with 96% of members voting yea.
“In her first term”, the group wrote, Lewis George had “championed a tax on the wealthiest residents of DC, which funded direct payments to underpaid childcare workers”.
The councilwoman had also “advocated to expand rent control in the city, led on a Green New Deal for Social Housing, and has introduced legislation to hold slumlords accountable for terrible living conditions”.
There was “no question”, the DSA wrote, “which Ward 4 candidate will govern for the people instead of for corporations, developers, and lobbyists”.
Lewis George on Public Safety
The DSA endorsement of Lewis George troubles some DC residents because of the group’s stance on defunding the police. The organization said in a questionnaire to candidates that it wants to cut DC’s “Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) budget by 50% over a three-year period”. That is a position that the candidate reportedly stepped around in her answers.
Lewis George grew up in DC in a particularly violent neighborhood. She has said “the safety of every DC resident is a non-negotiable”, and her campaign website reminds voters that she served at one point as a “prosecutor at the DC Office of the Attorney General”.
Critics charge that Lewis George’s desired remedies for crime lean toward community development and against enforcement and punishment. Her campaign website does not do much to allay those fears.
The “Safe Communities for All” section of the website says that a “key component” of her public safety strategy is the creation of Community Hubs which are “places to bring people and resources together”. These hubs, which will be built out in all eight of the city’s wards, are necessary because “thriving, well-resourced communities are the safest”.
A policy one-pager puts more meat on the bones for what a Lewis George administration would look like on the crime-control front. It would concern itself with “launching training on constitutional stops to build stronger court cases and rebuild community trust with MPD”, for instance.
Her administration would see serious efforts aimed at “ensuring special education, multilingual, and school-based mental health services are resourced to address the needs of students and families”. Also important to her approach would be “ending all cooperation with ICE to restore trust between communities and District government and ensure law enforcement can focus on deterring crime”.
High Crime, Weak Government
Though it has come down some, crime in DC is quite high relative to the rest of the country. It jockeys back and forth with several cities for the highest murder rate. Also, armed carjackings skyrocketed in the last several years.
Last year saw what has been billed as a brief takeover of law enforcement in August by the federal government. Control of the MPD was temporarily taken away from Mayor Bowser – though, since that left her hand-picked chief of police running things, she mostly let that one go.
As part of the takeover, hundreds of additional National Guard troops were brought in to patrol the streets. That surge did lead to a temporary drop in crime, but it was unpopular with many DC residents.
The Trump administration was able to operate with few restraints because DC is not a normal American city, whose charters and legitimacy flow from the states that created them.
When the federal government clashes with the municipal governments of Dallas or Minneapolis or New York City, it is ultimately clashing with the states of Texas, Minnesota and New York, which have special standing in the US Constitution.
That is not the case with the nation’s capital, whose government was made possible by the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973. The official charter allows for some measure of self-government but gives Congress the power to review laws and has some specific carve-outs for law enforcement purposes.
What to Expect: Lewis George vs. Trump
What that means in practice for the likely next mayor of DC is a complex, multi-layered reality. She will wield quite a bit of power within DC government, but she may have what is ultimately a weak hand in dealing with the federal government.
Former DC mayor Sharon Pratt said that Lewis George is “smart enough to know she just has a butter knife” for the classic bureaucratic DC knife fighting ahead.
“My plan with Trump is to be clear about where my lines are – that being protecting and standing up for DC residents – but also that I’m willing to work with him”, Lewis George told the Washingtonian magazine in an interview.
At the same time, the likely mayor will come to the negotiating table “being clear of what leverage I have and do not have”, she said.
More leverage could come her way care of the midterm congressional elections, if the Republicans are shown the door in Congress and Lewis George’s Democrats take control.
