Washington, DC, voters cast ballots in crucial primaries as Trump reshapes the capital
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in the nation's capital went to the polls on Tuesday to select party candidates for mayor and the district's delegate to Congress, an election that took place as Washington undergoes major change under President Donald Trump's administration.
The primary marked the first time in a generation that D.C. residents voted for a new mayor and delegate in the same election. And in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, that party's winner is expected to come out on top in the general election in November.
The most prominent race is for mayor after Muriel Bowser, who was first elected in 2014, decided not to seek a fourth term. Democratic front-runners Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie are hoping to replace her.
The district's long-serving congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, is also stepping down, with top candidates council member Brooke Pinto and at-large council member Robert White Jr. vying for the role. Republican Denise Rosado, an immigration lawyer, is running unopposed.
The primary includes ranked choice voting for the first time, which D.C. election officials have warned could delay results for days. And while most polls closed at 8 p.m. EDT, voters who had lined up by then continued to cast ballots in several locations well beyond closing time.
Central to all the campaigns has been the city's fraught relationship with the Trump administration and the federal government. The city has limited autonomy and federal leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including approval of the budget and laws passed by the D.C. Council.
That autonomy has been further squeezed under Trump, who launched a federal law enforcement surge last summer and sent in the National Guard for an ongoing, open-ended deployment. Trump's efforts to downsize the federal government also roiled the capital region, costing thousands of people their jobs. He has also been reshaping the city by removing or renovating storied landmarks and putting his name or image on buildings.
Trump last week threatened a new federal takeover of Washington when asked about his response to a potential victory by Lewis George, a democratic socialist.
“Maybe we’d take back Washington, run it on the federal basis,” he said.
Lewis George, who has pledged to protect the city's autonomy, stood that ground at her post-election event where pop music blared and a crowd danced with the candidate on stage.
“If there was any doubt, right now we lay it to rest," she said to cheering supporters. "It is the people of D.C. who elect the mayor.”
McDuffie, closing out the day at an event with supporters, echoed that sentiment.
“It is under threat right now, but Donald Trump does not run Washington, D.C. We do. The people of D.C. run Washington, D.C.," McDuffie told the crowd. "And we will fight for D.C.’s autonomy every single day of the week.”
Neither candidate declared victory as preliminary results rolled in.
Bowser found herself walking a fine line between staying in Trump’s good graces and responding to the concerns of constituents, many of whom said she didn't push back hard enough on Trump's actions.
Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have used their oversight authority to challenge the local government’s limited autonomy.
Washington resident Fran Tatu, 69, said the National Guard deployment was a concern for her.
“What’s at stake — many young lives with the surge of federal officers by Trump and all of the troops that are here,” she said, adding that she was voting for Lewis George and White.
Lewis George, in response to questions sent by The Associated Press, said her top priority is addressing “the affordability crisis here in D.C., which the Trump administration has only made worse by unjustly firing federal employees en masse and militarizing our streets.”
McDuffie said his top priority is public safety. He would add 1,000 police officers over four years and take a public health approach to violence reduction that would include focusing on mental health.
Other candidates for mayor include former council member Vincent Orange and Hope Solomon, a former federal contractor who lost her job because of cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Five people are seeking to replace Norton, who is finishing her 18th term representing D.C. in Congress. Norton, 89, faced heavy pressure to stand down from critics, including her former chief of staff, who said she was diminished and not capable of mounting the defense the moment called for against Trump.
White told the AP that he had planned to run for mayor but felt the challenge to D.C.'s limited autonomy was best fought in Congress.
“The future of our city is at stake,” he said. “I got to go to the place where that fight is.”
Pinto, who traversed the city on election day, has carried a similar message. She has said she would work to build a broader national coalition around D.C. self-governance. “Home Rule is not just a D.C. issue: it’s a democratic principle,” she told the AP ahead of Tuesday's vote.
Other candidates seeking the Democratic spot on the ticket include Trent Holbrook, a former Norton staffer; Kinney Zalesne, the former Deputy National Finance Chair of the Democratic National Committee; and Gregory Jaczko, former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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This story corrects the spelling of Zalesne's first name. It is Kinney, not Kenney.
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