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At-large D.C. Council member Robert White announced Thursday that he plans to run for the seat of D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, saying the District needs a new voice at a time that it is under attack.
White is the most prominent opponent of Norton to date to announce his candidacy.
“This year our city has been attacked relentlessly,” White said in a post on X. “We need to fight.”
White, who once worked for Norton, praised her for her decades of public service, calling her a “lion on the Hill.”
But he cited a growing number of threats to the autonomy of D.C. residents and the need for change.
“We need our best fighters right now,” White said. “I have never seen my city more vulnerable than we are right now.”
Norton is 88 and the oldest member of the U.S. House of Representatives, where she has served since 1991.
She has been under growing pressure to step aside for another candidate, but so far has indicated she plans to run for reelection in 2026.
Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, who once worked as Norton’s chief of staff, said in a Washington Post Op-Ed this week that her one-time political mentor should not run again.
Norton spoke a few times during a hearing of the House Oversight Committee on Thursday on D.C. crime during which Mayor Muriel Bowser testified.
But while she has also spoken out against GOP crime bills that passed in the House this week, she has generally only read from scripts, sometimes in halting sentences.
She is also always closely accompanied by staff, who help her slowly walk to various events.
Two other candidates have previously announced they are running for her seat: Kinney Zalesne is a former Democratic National Committee official who has stressed the need for a new D.C. voice in Congress.
Jacque Patterson, a member of the D.C. Board of Education, is also running for the seat.
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