A 730DC Guide to the 2020 Washington, DC Primaries

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730DC

13 min readMay 31, 2020

This guide is about understanding your electoral choices in the 2020 Washington, DC primary, with an emphasis on the DC Council’s four Ward races. It comes very late in the game, but hopefully many of you are bad at procrastinating as I have been, and haven’t yet sent in your ballots, which are due Primary Day, June 2.

In developing this guide, I drew on a number of invaluable resources and references. Many of these endorsements and guides are linked at the bottom of this story, but I would be remiss not to highlight the guides published by Washington City Paper, DCist, StreetSense, Greater Greater Washington and more. These were prepared by professional journalists, which I am not, and are excellent resources for the voter.

There are more narratives to follow here than seats up for grabs. For one, it’s a field full of younger candidates, with a Millennial looking like a frontrunner or runner-up in every race. Some of these Millennials track with their generation’s progressive tilt, and could further shift the balance of the Council towards proactively legislating against inequality in healthcare, housing and civil rights. Another growing coalition: The numerous graduates of Attorney General Karl Racine’s office, apparently a sort of Xavier Institute for aspiring young Councilmembers, with Brooke Pinto and Janeese Lewis George angling to join Robert White and Trayon White.

The DC Council is nearly all-Democrat. But as the weekend’s protests show, the cry of “vote blue no matter who” has become a nationwide distraction from Democratic complicity, especially at the local level, in mass incarceration and militarized policing. Several of the candidates, including challengers Janeese Lewis George and Anthony Lorenzo Green, voiced critiques of our justice system long before this weekend.

There are so many ways to contribute to our city’s civic dialogue and political progress. Marching is one. Voting is another. Sartre remarked that elections were a “trap for fools.” The way to avoid this trap is not to spurn voting entirely, but to understand electoral politics in the full context of their powers and limitations — to not be a fool at all.

The Black Lives Matter movement and decadelong organizing against stop-and-frisk moved D.C. towards the NEAR Act, a bold reenvisioning of violence prevention as a matter of public health. Now, by building power in the streets and at the ballot box we can continue to build the city — just, fair, exciting, antiracist, happy, healthy — we want our home to be.

Earlier this week, we described how to vote, and published a Q&A from a poll worker about voting under pandemic conditions.

The Ballot

All ballots include fields for President, Delegate to the House of Representatives, US Senator, and US Representative.

If you live in Ward 2, 4, 7 or 8, you’ll also get the choice of voting in a Democratic primary for Councilmember. Because of DC’s overwhelmingly Democratic electorate, whoever wins these races is very likely to win the seat.

You can view a sample ballot here.

The Federal Stuff

Eleanor Holmes-Norton is our current Delegate to the House of Representatives, and will surely win again. The US Senator and US Representative are basically uncontested as well. Paul Strauss has held the former seat since 1997. Oye “TAXFREEDC” Owolewa has 98 Twitter followers and is the only candidate on the ballot for US Representative. These jobs do not involve being seated in Congress, as Holmes-Norton is, but advocating for statehood.

Even though Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee for US President, your vote for President still matters, and you should cast it as if the field were wide open. The DNC process is, of course, extremely confusing and opaque, but your vote will be reflected in the delegates we send to the Convention, and therefore in the DNC platform.

Now, let’s get to the DC Council. Skip to your ward, or read the whole thing.

Ward 2

Incumbent: Jack Evans
Challengers: Kishan Putta, John Fanning, Jordan Grossman, Patrick Kennedy, Brooke Pinto, Yilin Zhang, Daniel Hernandez

The short version: Jack Evans’ ostensible demise opened the floodgates for would-be Ward 2 politicos — whose numbers could, in turn, leave Evans the ignoble crack through which he might sneak back on to the DC Council. (Forget sneaking, actually; he’d probably double-park his signature Sebring in front of the Wilson Building.)

This is a headscratching field. Three-quarters are certified Millennials running in the city’s second-richest ward to replace its most conservative sitting official. But don’t let their fresh faces fool you: Several have been in and around the Wilson Building for some time. Brooke Pinto bears AG Racine’s imprimatur, and Jordan Grossman worked for the city in health care finance.

To some degree that reflects, perhaps, some demographic change. But it’s still a bit surprising that the other two contenders, Kishan Putta and John Fanning, never seized control of the race. Both have been around DC politics for a while. Putta has run before, and Fanning ran constituent services for Ward 2 for several mayors — none of whom, perhaps tellingly, perhaps meaninglessly, endorsed his candidacy.

Neither Hernandez nor Zhang has gained much traction. But a poll commissioned by Kennedy suggests he’s in front, followed by Evans and Grossman.

Most endorsements have been split between Kennedy and Grossman, though it was Pinto who took home perhaps the biggest prize. The Post editorial board endorsed Pinto as “steeped in reality,” an interesting turn of phrase for a 27-year-old who has never voted in DC. (This is true.) Pinto has some chops and appears to have headed the AG’s recent victory against the Greyhound bus company’s polluting practices. Overall her vision hews to “do what we’re doing, but better.”

Side note: The Post endorsements have been a little hard to understand for some time; in contrast to a lot of their local coverage, they generally are scant on details and can come off as out of touch. They certainly didn’t move many votes when they endorsed the challengers for Mary Cheh and Elissa Silverman last cycle. But it’s likely that a Post endorsement moves votes in Ward 2 more than anywhere else, so it’ll be interesting to see if this elevates Pinto from the scrum of less-than-frontrunners.

The choice between Kennedy and Grossman is interesting.

Kennedy won Greater Greater Washington’s endorsement, which is no surprise — he’s a longtime contributor to the blog, well-versed in urbanist wonkery as well as its application (he has been an ANC for eight years, where he was one of the main stewards of the compromise that led to the under-construction 21st/22nd/G St cycletrack network). He also received Sierra Club’s endorsement, though they were careful to note they were impressed by Putta and Grossman as well.

But he also carries a dubious political lineage, one GGW doesn’t mention in their endorsement post, despite bemoaning that Ward 2 politics have centered on Jack Evans too long: One of his top experiences in local politics (he is 28 years old) comes as Evans’ former campaign chair. Yeah, that Evans. Many of us have held our noses at jobs for bosses we did not love, in the name of experience or money or healthcare, or maybe there were few inroads in Ward 2 that didn’t run through Jack Evans. But that’s quite a stink to endure.

A weighty note: Ward 2 is the only race I know of where Chairman Phil Mendelson made an endorsement.

Mendelson isn’t just ideologically centrist for DC; he is the Council’s center of gravity, sitting in the middle of the room, constantly moderating the pace and tone of the proceedings. Mendelson may see in Kennedy enough of a continuation of the parts of Evans that he liked — the two were voting partners, flying the flag of fiscal prudence, many times over the last several years — without the distasteful scandal. (Anita Bonds also endorsed Kennedy, as did David Catania, the ex-Republican, ex-Independent ex-Councilmember.)

On the other hand, Grossman has charged ahead in alliance with Mendelson’s frequent opponent Elissa Silverman. And that’s exactly how DC Line columnist jonetta rose baras describes the Kennedy/Grossman split, as a proxy battle between a “progressives’ obvious machine-building agenda” and “moderates, particularly business leaders, pushing back.” (For those perhaps perplexed by his boasting of an endorsement by Amy Klobuchar, he also received endorsement by the Warrenite Persist DC.)

This is borne out by the slew of endorsements Grossman has pulled, including several major unions (UNITE HERE, SEIU 1199, WTU, ATU Local 689), climate justice campaigns like Sunrise and 350DC, and progressive lights like DC for Democracy, DC Working Families Party and Jews United for Justice, as well as an ANC, Madeleine Stirling, who has previously written for 730DC.

This flattening of the race into mods and progs may not be fair to Kennedy and Grossman, who are their own men. Their Reddit AMAs (Kennedy, Grossman) offer a genuine glimpse into those personalities. Ward 2 residents should read these and other materials to get their own sense of where they would take the city via a seat on the Council.

Could Kennedy and Grossman split the vote, leaving Pinto, Fanning, or even — gulp — Evans to ride in? It has happened before.

Ward 4

Incument: Brandon Todd
Challenger: Janeese Lewis George

While Ward 2 is a scrum, Ward 4 is a head-on collision.

Brandon Todd won the seat to succeed Muriel Bowser in 2014, and his reputation is closely tied with the Mayor’s. He was her constituent services director, which has shown in his behavior as Councilmember — big on the nuts and bolts of addressing concerns but pretty scant on legislative energy. Endorsements frequently cite this strong orientation towards constituent services.

A quick Wikipedia search suggests a personal journey: He was a Republican until his mid-twenties. But perceptions that he is close to business interests remain. He also has some reputation for vanity. A 2014 Loose Lips column unearthed a college-age bankruptcy tied to debts owed to clothing retailers, but there’s no need to dig back so far for whispers he’s a prima donna who couldn’t be bothered to show up for many candidate forums this primary season. (He also didn’t respond to Greater Greater Washington’s questionnaire.)

But there’s no need for ad hominem attacks when his record as a politician leaves so much to be desired. Things didn’t get off to a good start, as he was fined in 2017 for improper accounting of election funds from his 2015 campaign — he couldn’t say where $68,000 had come from. He was fined a second time in 2019 for using government resources to fundraise for a political ally.

His campaign tactics have continued to raise ethics questions. In this cycle, he — or a political ally — used city staff time to take down his opponent’s campaign signs. (He has separately been accused of putting yard signs in people’s yards without permission.) He claimed that he was endorsed by Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, which was a lie, and exaggerated his record on affordable housing.

As a legislator, many Ward 4 residents have the impression that “he votes the way the mayor wants him to vote.” (Bowser herself said “I can call on him to get the job done.”) Legislatively, a former staffer says “he doesn’t really care about the issues at all,” and that he only cares about being respected in what he calls “my ward.”

He voted to repeal the public’s referendum on Initiative 77 (setting a single minimum wage), and voted against Universal Paid Family Leave. He’s not been an ally to reducing reliance on cars, despite his rhetoric to the contrary (and being the gung-ho sponsor of Bus to Work Day). One of us is still hoping to get around to writing about how silly his comments about not raising taxes in times of economic growth are. (Maybe he’s still a Republican after all?) He also voted for the super-fishy sports betting contract that stunk from miles away.

Another Todd anecdote: he introduced a bill to legalize kids selling lemonade (a thing that was already legal) written by the Countrytime Lemonade company.

But you don’t have to worry about casting a vote against Brandon Todd. You can cast a vote for Janeese Lewis George, endorsed by DC for Democracy, Sierra Club, Washington Teachers Union, Black Lives Matter, Sanctuary DMV, Greater Greater Washington, Metro DC DSA, Sunrise Movement DC, and a handful of prominent unions. She is a champion of not just reclaiming rent control but also building more housing, including deeply affordable housing, and called for more density along the Ward’s key commercial and transit corridors.

Like Brooke Pinto in Ward 2, she is also coming out of the AG’s office, in her case as an Assistant AG, and as Rachel Kurzius noted when George made her announcement, her election would make three Racine alums on the Council. George has said her experience in the AG’s office led her to prioritize juvenile justice reform. She supports decriminalization of drug paraphernalia and sex work. She caught shit for misconstrued comments about divesting from MPD, but the events of the last week have shown that her understanding of the racist, carceral nature of the police institution is exactly what we do need from leaders.

Okay, one final thought: Brandon Todd said he had never cooked before quarantine, and keeps his Raisin Bran in the refrigerator?

Ward 7

Incumbent: Vincent Gray
(Main) Challenger: Anthony Lorenzo Green

How many politicians have come back from scandal so quickly?

Vincent Gray’s brush with the law derailed any plans he might have had for remaining in the mayor’s office. The federal investigation of his 2010 campaign financing is over; others were charged, but not him.

Nevertheless, his seat is as secure as any incumbent’s. Among his better points: he has been vocal about getting better medical care in far Northeast, an issue already urgent before the pandemic laid the horror of this inequality bare. But he voted against the public on Initiative 77. He is in favor of retaining rent control as it is, but against expanding it.

His challenger is Anthony Lorenzo Green, who earned a number of progressive endorsements and comes with a long background in community organizing, pushing for community benefits agreements and violence prevention. Black Lives Matter DC made a near-immediate endorsement of Green upon his announcement last fall, a testament to his work on this last front.

In a head-scratcher, Green did not participate in Greater Greater Washington or the Sierra Club’s questionnaires. (He has co-signed statements with Janeese Lewis George, another challenger who did win their endorsements.) So Gray earned Greater Greater Washington’s endorsement essentially by default, and Sierra Club’s for his work as mayor.

What differentiates them, besides four decades in age?

Green says the mayor should relinquish oversight of DCPS; Gray would keep it as it is. Gray says he wants to expand bike lanes, but then is equivocal about individual projects; Green embraces Vision Zero. Gray says single-family zoning is holy; Green says it can go. (See City Paper’s issues questionnaire.)

Despite his name and green-and-gold campaign materials, Green is not a member of the Green Team. In fact, he has made statements in tandem with Ed Lazere, Janeese Lewis George, and Jordan Grossman against the Mayor’s budget.

They are really about as starkly different as Todd and George, except that Gray — despite his even greater brush with campaign finance infractions — seems more secure in his seat. It probably also doesn’t help that the vote doesn’t fit as neatly as Ward 4’s into the meta-referendum on the invulnerable Bowser.

Ward 8

Incumbent: Trayon White
Challengers: Mike Austin, Yaida Ford

If you want to know what Trayon White is up to, his Instagram is as good a bet as any. The Ward 8 incumbent is constantly out and about in the community, a constant presence and advocate. His Instagram game displays that (though, of course, Instagram is not reality. It has also, at times, shown another side, including a vacation to Mexico during a budget vote and a strong dose of skepticism when it comes to vaccines and climate change. He was apologetic about the latter, a quality Jews United for Justice called out specifically in endorsing him, and his skepticism is to a degree understandable if not desirable in a city legislator.

His record is a similarly mixed bag. He opposed the Alabama Avenue bike lane, but has led on fare evasion, housing, and homelessness, and pushed the Comp Plan process to consider the impact of racism on the city’s development.

Endorsements have been split, with some perhaps dissuaded by the seemingly superior odds White retains. Greater Greater Washington literally couldn’t make up their mind, endorsing both White and Mike Austin, an ANC whose knowledge and zeal for housing policy they gushed over. The Post also endorsed Austin. Yaida Ford — who points to work representing victims of police brutality — also drew a few endorsements.

Neither White nor Austin responded to City Paper’s issues guide, but Ford did, with thoughtful responses, including an idea of green jobs for returning citizens that climate movements might do well to study. But she did suggest bike lanes were merely “trendy,” and did not support a ban on outside employment.