Get to know DC mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George

I’m Janeese Lewis George, the D.C. Councilmember for Ward 4, and a former prosecutor. I’m the daughter of a union postal worker and a third-generation Washingtonian. I’m a proud graduate of DC Public Schools (Rudolph Elementary, Deal Middle School, and School Without Walls) as well as Howard University School of Law. Starting in 2014, I served as the D.C. Assistant Attorney General in the Juvenile Section of the Public Safety Division under D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine. I was elected to the D.C. Council in 2020.

I fight for working families because I know firsthand what working people in D.C. are up against. As Councilmember, I’ve worked to save tenant protections and make housing more affordable because when I was a kid, my family had to leave my childhood home due to rising rent. I’ve voted for raises for working class people and strengthened worker protections because a good union job with a fair wage is what put dinner on the table for my family.

My top priorities are making DC more affordable, standing up to Trump, and making government work better for all of us.

D.C. is too expensive, from housing to healthcare to utility bills. I have felt the squeeze myself and will implement a comprehensive strategy to make housing and healthcare more affordable, create universal affordable childcare citywide, and take on companies like Pepco that are charging Washingtonians too much for energy.

Defending D.C. against Trump and Republicans requires a multi-faceted strategy including legal fights, building relationships with Members of Congress, and mobilizing people power.

Any violence in our community is unacceptable. As mayor, I will use all available tools to drive down crime-, keeping us safe with prevention, intervention, and enforcement, just as I did as a prosecutor at D.C.’s Office of the Attorney General and as Ward 4 Councilmember addressing crime on Kennedy Street and in Petworth.

Enforcement: our police play a key safety role. I will report statistics honestly, allocate officers where needed, strengthen community relations. This will ensure we impart swift and certain consequences for wrongoing.

Intervention: A few individuals instigate the most violence. We will focus on those individuals with carrots (such as access to education or job training) and sticks (the promise of swift consequences if they violate the safety of our communities). Baltimore has succeeded in driving down crime through the deployment of effective intervention strategies, and so will we.

Prevention: I will create Community Hubs – safe, fun and enriching places for families and young people. These centralized locations will connect people with job programs and mental health services, partnering with community organizations. We need agencies to work together and residents to know how to access critical services.

We cannot and will not tolerate violence in our communities.

Everyone in our city deserves to be safe when at home and in the community. Too often, that isn’t the case. Our current system doesn’t do enough to prevent crime and protect people from its terrible impacts.

As a former juvenile prosecutor, I learned what works. To reduce youth violence, I will start by centralizing truancy prevention and intervention efforts, making sure kids are in school and succeeding.

Most crime is committed by a small number of people who have gotten on the wrong path and are well-known to public safety agencies. As Baltimore has done, we will hold people who commit crimes accountable and also provide opportunities for people heading in that direction to get back on a positive track.

A teen curfew is dangerous as long as Trump’s squads will enforce it. It’s reckless to have heavily armed, hostile, untrained soldiers confronting our youth. I’ll do something more effective–create a team to identify the leaders, monitor “takeover” planning on social media, and help gatherings stay safe. I’ll hold anyone accountable who crosses the line from “young people having fun” to crime.

Protecting local control, maintaining Home Rule, and advancing Statehood all require real relationships—mine are active and proven.

I’ll continue my work with Democrats in Congress to shore up support. I am the only candidate for DC mayor who has flipped votes in Congress from against D.C. to supporting us. I bring strong relationships with unions, environmental groups, and other important elements of the Democratic coalition. Allies facilitated a meeting with Congressman Vindman (VA-07), a Democrat who voted against D.C. autonomy on several occasions. We discussed the negative impact those votes had and he committed to supporting DC autonomy in the future. Since then he has consistently voted with D.C., a change we enormously appreciate. Without those national partners, it would have been more difficult to achieve such an important outcome and help sustain it over time.

I will continue to work closely with key partners who share the vision of D.C. Statehood and protecting our autonomy like my friend and colleague, Attorney General Brian Schwalb. AG Schwalb has used a wide variety of legal tools and strategies to defend DC’s autonomy, including repeated successful litigation. We will work closely together and I won’t undermine his work, like my predecessor did.

I am the only candidate in this race with strong relationships with groups like unions, the Sierra Club, and the Working Families parties. Those strong partners will help us elevate the importance of Statehood nationwide in a way my predecessors weren’t able to.

I will create an effective Office of Federal Affairs that will work with our D.C. Delegate to forge relationships in congressional offices and strengthen our current relationships, including the ones that I’ve formed during my visits to Capitol Hill. It is not enough to merely attend happy hours–-this office will organize on Capitol Hill but also across the country, engaging Washingtonians and national partners to support the rights of Washingtonians and march toward Statehood.

My administration will work with grassroots organizations like Free D.C. that are active in the fights for Home Rule and Statehood. We need a mayor who is an organizer-in-chief, inspiring popular engagement in D.C. and around the country, raising awareness of the injustice we are subject to, and inspiring thousands to join the fight.

I am the candidate best positioned to raise attention for Statehood, bring allies into the fight, and organize a popular movement. Join me and let’s finally win our rights.

Until we transform the situation, Trump and Republicans in Congress can continue to hurt us in many ways. We have made moral arguments for generations but the only way to prevail is building power through organizing, winning attention, and strengthening our alliances. As mayor, that’s exactly what I will do.

If Democrats take back the House, we’ll be in a much better situation but even then, we need a mayor who can work closely with our Delegate to make sure every Democrat is on our side. I am the only candidate in the race who has a track-record of moving Congressional Democrats to our side and as mayor I’ll continue that work with new resources and effectiveness.

The stadium deal promised both a return of the Commanders and a thriving new neighborhood with 8,000 new homes and high-quality jobs for D.C. residents. We need all of those to come to fruition. We also need investments in Metro and bus transit so that the area isn’t clogged with traffic, environmental protections for the Anacostia River and Kingman Island. Success with the stadium means all of these happen, not just one.

D.C. faces a housing crisis, and new housing–including affordable housing–in this new neighborhood is vitally important to meeting our goal of 72,000 new units. I will direct my administration to take steps such as reducing red tape and permitting delays to ensure the housing is built as soon as possible.

I hope the Commanders will make good on their promises on their own and in partnership with my administration, but if needed I will use the full force of our governmental and legal powers to enforce promises made in the deal.

We have accepted a level of dysfunction in our government that is simply unacceptable.

Our city is resource rich but coordination poor.

I will undertake a whole-of-government overhaul to replace the status quo with a people-first administration. I will overhaul agencies that are failing, fight corruption, and more.

DOB: increase inspector funding, simplify inspection requests, and raise penalties for landlords who violate tenant rights.

DCHA: Rebalance the Board of Commissioners by reinstating resident and advocate positions, overhauling the voucher lease-up process, and establishing a DCHA Ombudsman to cut through red tape.

911 & Emergency Services: Fix long wait times and dropped calls; hold leadership accountable if performance does not improve.

Procurment Reform: too often well-connected insiders divert resources needed for the public to their own ends–we must fix our systems to end these practices.

Transparent, Effective, Empowered Agency Directions: I will hire agency heads who care about outcomes and transform the culture from hiding the ball to delivering results. My agency heads and other leaders will be empowered to advance a vision for the future using a data-driven approach.

Learning From Workers: I will meet with frontline workers across agencies who have knowledge about what is really interfering with success and make the best ideas a reality.

Every Washingtonian deserves a home that they can afford. But the cost of buying or even renting a home is increasingly out of reach for too many D.C. residents.

As Mayor, I will:

Increase the District’s housing supply and build 72,000 homes in five years by reforming zoning laws, streamlining the permitting process, and breaking down other barriers to building more housing all across the city and particularly near the Metro, schools, and parks.

Launch Dignified Homes D.C., a bold commitment to build publicly owned, mixed-income housing with stable and affordable rents.

Modernize D.C.’s rent stabilization so tenants have predictable housing costs and housing providers have clear guidelines.

Expand homeownership by prioritizing downpayment assistance, foreclosure prevention aid, and support for senior homeowners.

Deliver accountability by increasing building inspections and enforcement against substandard housing, create an ombudsman to support people living in public housing, and will increase penalties for landlords who provide unsafe conditions or violate the law. At the same time, housing providers need to collect rent so they can continue operating buildings, and I will work with them to ensure rents are being paid to buildings which are in compliance.

Every child should have access to a wonderful public education. Our schools should teach young people to master writing, math, social studies, and more. But we have work to do to make that the reality for all students.

D.C. was just ranked first in the nation in academic growth in both math and reading by the Education Scorecard. We will build on what is already working and improve what isn’t, including helping those still falling behind.

D.C.’s high rates of truancy and chronic absenteeism are unacceptable. I will simplify the truancy system by unifying it and tasking one agency with the responsibility of navigating truancy referrals. I will expand after-school programming in all eight Wards because I know firsthand how critical safe, enriching programming is for young people.

I will also ensure that students have the support they need to stay in school, including special education services, school-based mental health, and sufficiently staffed schools. I know quality education starts with people, so it’s important to expand the workforce at schools to ensure there are enough professionals to meet the needs of all students.

We need a government which takes our problems seriously, that puts people first, and operates based on a public trust, not loyalty. I will nominate agency directors and other government leaders who are experts in their fields, skilled leaders, and relentless public servants eager to make lives better for all Washingtonians and empower them to do their best work, not for me but for you and every Washingtonian.

When I am mayor, we will no longer tolerate well-connected insiders diverting resources meant for the community and we won’t eagerly acquiesce to federal authority.

We will be ambitious on housing, building more than has ever been built before so that an unprecedented number of Washingtonians will be able to afford to live here.

We will end MPD cooperation with ICE and rebuild trust with our community so that safety will replace terror.

We will follow evidence as we improve every aspect of government, moving away from past failures and toward proven solutions.

All District residents deserve timely emergency services and our city must deliver on its basic promise of safety and responsiveness.

Our 911 (and 311) systems simply aren’t good enough. When there is an emergency, we need to be able to reach someone at 911 right away, they must correctly understand and code the issue, dispatch the appropriate service immediately, and to the right place. It seems simple, but too often the call goes unanswered, the operator disconnects, the wrong service is dispatched, and sometimes to the wrong place (often the wrong quadrant).

As in every area, as mayor, I will empower expert agency directors rather than relying on a leadership model based primarily on loyalty. I will also enable the agency to address personnel absenteeism, implement comprehensive training, and strengthen quality assurance processes with improved technology.

My deputy mayor for public safety will make this a top focus so we stop having dangerous lapses in coordination between OUC, FEMS, MPD, and other responding agencies.

My Grandma lived on V Street. After church or the flea market, she would take us all to Ben’s Chili Bowl. Walking through the door takes me back in time and those smells feel like home.

I love stand up comedy (Room 808!), the Hunger Games, and Game of Thrones. I make a terrific banana pudding and I’ve jumped out of a plane.