The leading five Democratic candidates for D.C. mayor and congressional delegate faced off in back-to-back debates at George Washington University’s Jack Morton Auditorium Saturday.
If you closed your eyes and just listened, the two debates may have sounded like a rerun. Over 75 minutes, candidates at both forums repeatedly returned to the same core themes: public safety, home rule, affordability and President Donald Trump.
At the delegate debate, D.C. Councilmembers Robert White and Brooke Pinto were joined by former Democratic National Committee finance chair Kinney Zalesne, former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Greg Jaczko, and Trent Holbrook, who until recently worked for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.
At the mayoral debate, candidates included D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, former council members Vincent Orange and Kenyan McDuffie, federal contractor Reni Sampath, and real estate developer Gary Goodweather.
Affordability
White, the at-large councilmember running for D.C. delegate, said he was the only candidate who understood “real life experiences.”
“People who can’t afford to miss one paycheck, what happens when someone gets laid off? What happens when food programs get cut?” White said. “We need somebody in that seat who knows this, not just theoretically, but truly and in their soul.”
Zalesne, also running for D.C. delegate, called for the expanding the federal Section 8 housing voucher program beyond its current scope.
“So there’s more money in it, and so that it’s more flexible,” Zalesne said. “People can use it for first time mortgages and give people more access to our housing stock.”
Pinto, during the delegate debate, encouraged voters to review her federal housing plan, which includes repealing the federal Height of Buildings Act.
“Build higher and denser, building more housing above transit, making sure that we’re making rent tax deductible,” Pinto said.
At the mayoral forum, Lewis George said affordability benefits the entire city.
“When people can afford childcare, and people can afford housing, and people can afford groceries and utilities … that means those people are going to patronize our businesses,” Lewis George said
“We have to build more housing across incomes, including deeply affordable housing, and we have to do it faster,” McDuffie said.
“It is also important that we build a city where that is affordable, that D.C. residents can work in, can live and send their kids to school in,” Goodweather said.
“The way we’re going to fix our city is by putting a real administrator and operator in office in D.C.,” Sampath said. “It takes on average 13 months to fill one affordable housing unit.”
Home rule
The issue that Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is best known for came up repeatedly among candidates hoping to replace her.
“My plan, this time last year, was to run for mayor, but it became clear to me … we may not have a mayor or council much longer if we don’t have someone in Congress protecting our city and the little bit of home rule that we have,” White said.
“I’ve also been the leader in Congress defending and advancing D.C. Home Rule,” Holbrook said, adding: “D.C. is under greater attack now than at least since the 1990s and probably under greater attack than at any time since the Home Rule Act of 1973.”
Holbrook said he believes the attacks are fueled by D.C.’s push for statehood.
On that issue, Zalesne said the District needs a national marketing campaign.
“We need signs on our airport walls, on the walls of Union Station, on the sides of our buses that say, ‘Welcome to D.C. We’re the last colony,’” Zalesne said.
During the mayoral debate, Lewis George referenced home rule in her opening statement.
“Who do you trust to stand up to Trump in this administration and protect our home rule?” Lewis George said.
McDuffie raised the issue during his opening statement and again in his closing remarks.
“I’m running to be your mayor, to keep you safe. To invest in education and quality schools, and to make sure we transform the future of the District of Columbia in a way that protects our home rule,” McDuffie said.
The Trump administration
“The DOGE cuts that have led to the reduction of a loss of 100,000 jobs for D.C. residents that we’ve been impacted by is an absolute travesty,” Pinto said.
Zalesne said one of D.C.’s “great triumphs” was “the creation of the Black middle class” through federal employment.
“Trump knows it. The DOGE program was not about efficiency,” Zalesne said. ”It was about destroying the Black middle class.”
“One of the programs that’s been severely decimated by the Trump administration, is an opportunity for alternative credit programs to allow people who may not have significant credit history to afford a home and to buy a home,” Jaczko said.
“The last person who should control the National Guard when the next certification of the next president happens at the end of Donald Trump’s term is Donald Trump,” White said.
First-time candidate, Goodweather said responsibility also lies with District leadership.
“My colleagues on council opened the door to allow Trump to take over our city,” Goodweather said. “The best thing I’m going to do is create a city that lifts every D.C. resident up and ensures that our budget is strong.”
“We will not fear to negotiate with President Trump and Congress, ” Orange said. “Non-negotiable is D.C. autonomy, and non-negotiable is the pursuit of statehood.”
Both debates were sponsored by The Washington Informer, the D.C. Democratic Party, the Washington Association of Black Journalists, and the Greater Washington D.C. Black Chamber of Commerce.
The Democratic primary will be held June 16, with early voting beginning June 8.
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