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Dear District · Jun 1, 2020

Your last-minute Dear District voter guide!

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Dan Essrow · Dear District

Dear District,

I’m taking a quick break from my shift volunteering outside an early voting center to remind you that tomorrow (Tuesday) is your last day to vote in DC’s 2020 Democratic Primary!! There are a few key races this year that together make up a Fight for the Soul of the DC Council.

If you want to vote early with no lines, do it NOW (before 7pm Monday) at any of DC’s voting centers. Tomorrow, Tuesday, is Election Day! You can register and vote in-person tomorrow from 7am until 8pm at any of DC’s voting centers.

The Mayor’s curfew goes into effect tomorrow before polls close at 8pm (wtf?!), but the official position is that voting is an allowed activity. Be safe!

If you have a mail-in ballot, make sure to complete it, sign in all the right places, and postmark it by 5pm Tuesday or drop it off at a voting center. If you requested a mail-in ballot but didn’t receive it, I recommend you vote in person if it is safe for you to do so.

Seven candidates are running in Ward 2 to unseat disgraced ex-Councilmember Jack Evans. Here’s a great Post profile of the race. The most progressive candidate in the field is Jordan Grossman. Jordan is endorsed by Councilmember Elissa Silverman, as well as a slew of labor unions representing frontline workers, and DC’s progressive community organizations like DC for Democracy, Sunrise Movement DC, Jews United for Justice Campaign Fund, and the Working Families Party.

Janeese Lewis George is running to unseat one of the Council’s most conservative and least productive members, Brandon Todd. Janeese is a young, Black woman who grew up in DC, attended DCPS, and has experienced first hand the realities of displacement and education inequity. She attended Howard Law School and has devoted her life to public service, including serving as an Assistant Attorney General alongside DC Attorney General Karl A. Racine. Janeese has led a community-driven campaign in Ward 4 that I am so proud to be a part of. She’s earned the endorsements of Attorney General Racine, Elissa Silverman, DC’s labor community, DC’s progressive organizations, and grassroots organizations like Black Lives Matter and Sanctuary DMV. Janeese is a policy expert with a working-class background who is running a people-powered campaign that could change the face of the Council.

X avatar for @Janeese4DC

Janeese Lewis George@Janeese4DC

Class of 2020 and all the young people who are newly eligible to vote: RuQuan’s got your info about why this election matters! Need to register? No problem. DC offers same-day registration, right at the polls.

4:19 PM · Jun 1, 2020

6 Reposts · 26 Likes

Former Mayor and current Councilmember Vince Gray is being challenged to the left in Ward 7 by Anthony Lorenzo Green. Green is an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (DC’s community-level body of elected officials) and community leader focused on radical evidence-based solutions to intra-community violence, police brutality, and the affordable housing crisis. He has been endorsed by unions representing DC’s frontline workers and DC progressive organizations such as the Working Families Party and Black Lives Matter DC.

Councilmember Trayon White is the incumbent in this race and has been a fierce advocate for his community. Read this Post profile about the race in Ward 8.

Councilmember Robert White is running for reelection as one of DC’s Democratic At-Large Councilmembers. He is running unopposed in the Primary. Councilmember R. White is a key ally on many progressive issues, though he occasionally casts votes that align him with the more conservative members of the Council and their donors. I was personally very disappointed that Robert White opted not to use DC’s new public financing program for his reelection this year and is instead funding his campaign the old-fashioned way with large checks and support from DC corporations and contractors. His ability to fundraise and win support in this race is likely a trial balloon for a potential mayoral run in 2022. While I agree with Robert White on a lot of key Council votes, I am disappointed he is not using public financing and will not be voting for him this cycle.

Del. Holmes Norton has been DC’s non-voting member of Congress since the 1990s. She’s running unopposed this year (as is often the case) and I will be voting for her.

DC elects two “Shadow Senators” who are not actually members of the Senate but focus their time on advocating for DC statehood. Senator Strauss is currently holding the position and running for reelection unopposed.

This is another statehood advocacy position. There is only one candidate running, Oye Owolewa.

Get out there and vote, DC! Or, preferably, complete your mail-in ballot and put it in the mail!! If you have any questions of have trouble voting, feel free to email or call me.

Sincerely,

Dan

Usual disclaimer that I do both paid and volunteer work for many candidates in DC, including Janeese and Jordan. I’m lucky to have had the opportunity to work for them both, and accepted the gig because I know they are great candidates with good politics. All of which is to say, I work for them because I support them, not the other way around :)

P.S. There is an amazing wealth of local DC reporting—longform and on Twitter. Dear District relies entirely on work from dedicated DC journalists and citizens like Keith Ivey, Erin Palmer, Fenit Nirappil, Martin Austermuhle, Rachel Kurzius, Tom Sherwood, Mitch Ryals, Perry Stein, and Jeffrey Anderson.

Here’s some links in case you want more local DC content in your life:

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