On Friday, Ward 8 residents will begin casting their ballots to select their next D.C. Council member. Among the candidates is Trayon White, the council member whose expulsion led to the special election.
White was expelled from office as he awaited trial on a federal bribery charge. He was arrested in August by the FBI, which claimed he accepted thousands of dollars in bribes in return for influencing the selection of city contracts. His trial is set to take place in January 2026.
White’s expulsion was a first for the council after 50 years of home rule. The council was poised to expel former Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans in 2019 over allegations of ethics violations, but he resigned before the vote could take place.
The expulsion triggered a special election in Ward 8, and on the ballot are four candidates campaigning for the job. WTOP spoke with those contenders, all of whom are Democrats: Salim Adofo, Mike Austin, Sheila Bunn and Trayon White.
Salim Adofo
Salim Adofo is an Army veteran, an Advisory Neighborhood Commission member, and a University of D.C. graduate. He said his work as a ANC commissioner has demonstrated his commitment to Ward 8.
“I’m somebody who tries to get things done. Right now, as we speak, (Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) is being repaved after years of me putting this service request and having meetings with DDOT, and I think that’s a testament to looking at a lot of the little things and seeing how they make the bigger picture,” Adofo said.
Adofo said he is both a supporter of Initiative 83, which will allow independents to vote in primaries and voters to choose more than one candidate in a race, and Initiative 82, which gets rid of tipped minimum wage.
Both measures were approved by voters in November but have not been funded by the council.
Among his top priorities, if elected, is addressing the violence in the ward, especially crimes involving young people.
“We’ve got to get our young people in the ward engaged and involved in something constructive and pushing our community forward,” Adofo said.
Some of his solutions are getting funds in the budget to extend the hours at recreational centers and looking at ways to keep schools open later.
Adofo said he wants to also seek opportunities to redevelop the shuttered United Medical Center site. He said this could potentially create jobs that support the construction of the new development, which he’d like to see include both retail and housing.
One big decision, if elected, will be a vote on the $3 billion plan to bring the Washington Commanders back to a redeveloped site at the old RFK Stadium site. Adofo said he was glad to see that the current proposal includes affordable housing, retail and mixed-use development, which he called a balanced approach.
He wants to see a plan that provides community-serving development and jobs for residents who live in the city.
“Public investments should deliver long-term value for D.C. residents, not just entertainment for visitors,” he said.
On the fact that White is running for the seat, Adofo called the situation surrounding the ward “unfortunate” but said he is focusing on his campaign.
“According to the law, he’s entitled to run and so I just have looked at it that way,” he said.
Mike Austin
Mike Austin is a fourth-generation Washingtonian, who has also been an ANC commissioner. He is an attorney, who previously worked as counsel for the United Medical Center. His political knowledge stems from his time working for former Ward 8 Council member LaRuby May and as the legislative director to the deputy mayor for Greater Economic Opportunity.
“We can talk about the community initiatives. All that is great, but we also need somebody who’s innovative, somebody who understands policies and actually how to write legislation,” Austin said.
Austin said workforce development and public safety go hand in hand in making the ward safer, and he believes one critical need is making sure the residents do not only receive job training but also have a job at the end of their studies.
“Too often, we’ll provide workforce training for our residents, but there’s no job at the end of that pipeline,’” Austin said. “So I want to make sure that we have opportunities for them, once they finish their training, that they are actually able to have a job to go to.”
He also called for metric-based violence interruption programs, which he said requires a neighborhood-specific approach instead of a citywide model.
Austin also said he wants to incentivize businesses to move into the ward, bringing with them more retail and restaurants east of the river.
“I can count on one hand how many restaurants we have that you can actually sit down, not have to talk through Plexiglas,” Austin said.
On the RFK site deal, Austin said it needs “bold investment in Wards 7 and 8.”
“I want to see a strong project labor agreement with our unions, guaranteed job opportunities for Ward 8 residents, and a firm commitment to using Ward 8 small businesses across all phases of the project: Construction, marketing, infrastructure and operations,” Austin said.
On the topic of former Council member White who is running in the race, Austin called the need for a special election an “embarrassment.”
“It’s an embarrassment to Ward 8, and we need to restore integrity to the Ward 8 council seat,” Austin said.
Sheila Bunn
Sheila Bunn is also a native Washingtonian who grew up in Congress Heights and lives now in Bellevue with her 15-year-old daughter.
Bunn, who’s the daughter of the late community activist James Bunn, has worked for D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and for Vincent Gray, both when he was mayor and Ward 7’s council member.
“None of the other candidates, including the former council member, have the trifecta of experience that I have,” Bunn said.
She said the biggest issues for her in the ward are access to food and public safety. On food access, she wants to encourage more farmers’ markets to come in and incentize small footprint grocery stores to set up shop.
With public safety, Bunn wants to see more police officers out in the community, interacting and getting to know residents.
“Making more connections with our community, building back some of that trust that has been lost,” she said.
She said she realizes the challenges of the Ward 8 seat include working with steep declines in funding due to budget difficulties.
“It’s really going to be looking at, are we cutting the right programs? Are we streamlining the right programs?” Bunn said.
On White, Bunn said she does not believe he should be in the race.
“I think that he has some serious charges facing him, and that’s where his focus needs to be. And him being in the race has been a distraction, because I don’t feel that we are talking about the issues in Ward 8,” Bunn said.
Trayon White
Trayon White was reelected in November to the Ward 8 seat after his arrest by the FBI, and he said that election showed residents still supported him.
“This should not have been a special election,” White said.
Prosecutors and the FBI claim video evidence shows him taking bribes, but White maintains his innocence and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
White was expelled after the council investigated the case against him. The council could potentially choose to expel him again if his run for reelection proves successful.
“I met with my team of lawyers. We’re prepared to fight them on that,” White said.
He also called Council Chairman Phil Mendelson’s recent introduction of a rule change, which was aimed at allowing the council to reuse its evidence against a council member during a second expulsion proceeding, “unethical” and “election interference.”
Mendelson said he withdrew the rule change because it was not necessary and also pushed back against claims it was meant to influence the election.
White said if the voters reelect him, the council should respect that decision. To the claims that his looming federal trial could impact his ability to represent the ward, White said that is not the case.
“I’ve always had a lot going on, not to this magnitude, but I’m laser focused to do my job, to create legislation that speaks to the issues of the ward, to be able to vote to address the citizens’ issues,” White said.
White said his record as a council member speaks for itself.
“We’ve currently got five recreation centers in the pipeline getting built. We’ve put over $5 million into small and local businesses. We built some of the strongest Black business corridors throughout the District. We’ve put more money in schools than we’ve ever had in the last 20 years,” he said.
White said, if reelected, he plans to get back to his work to create more options for young people to prevent them from getting involved in criminal activity.
“In this budget, we cry about summer jobs and not having money for housing. But we’ve done more when we had less. We have more money in D.C. right now than we ever had in D.C. history when we’re doing less,” White said.
He also called for a larger focus on restorative justice.
On the plan to redevelop the RFK site, White said he wants to see more benefits for Ward 8 in the deal.
“To make sure that east of the river benefiting from this situation in a way that’s more economically feasible, outside of these construction jobs; more long time, making sure business owners are able to participate in the project,” White said.
“I always say ‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.’ That’s why this election on Tuesday is very important,” he said.
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