{"id":214106,"date":"2026-06-17T09:53:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-looms-over-dc-mayoral-primary-vote-as-democratic-socialist-leads-polls-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T09:53:38","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:53:38","slug":"trump-looms-over-dc-mayoral-primary-vote-as-democratic-socialist-leads-polls-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-looms-over-dc-mayoral-primary-vote-as-democratic-socialist-leads-polls-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump looms over DC mayoral primary vote as democratic socialist leads polls – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janeese Lewis George\u2019s \u2018people-first platform\u2019 appears to have given her an edge as how the next mayor will handle Trump is key question on residents\u2019 minds
There\u2019s a transplant from Mar-a-Lago at the center of DC\u2019s mayoral primary race on Tuesday, but his name is nowhere on the ballot.
For the first time in more than a decade, Washington DC<\/a> will have a new mayor this year as the city faces concerns about how to address public safety, housing affordability and increased federal immigration enforcement in the district. How the next mayor handles Donald Trump is also key question on residents\u2019 minds, with many closely watching to see if any of the president\u2019s supporters are pouring money into the race, as well as the primaries for the city\u2019s congressional delegate.
Two frontrunners, DC councilmember Janeese Lewis George and former councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, both Democrats<\/a>, are vying to succeed Mayor Muriel Bowser, who led the city during both of Trump\u2019s terms in office. In a Democratic stronghold, whoever wins the primary is likely to win the election in November.
Lewis George,<\/a> a democratic socialist and two-term city councilmember, has been campaigning on what she calls a \u201cpeople-first platform\u201d, promising to lower childcare costs and utility bills, stabilize rent for tenants, and prioritize down payment assistance for homebuyers. Currently, Lewis George has an 11-point lead over McDuffie, according to a new poll released<\/a> by the Washington Post and George Mason University\u2019s Schar School of Policy and Government.
McDuffie,<\/a> a former at-large city councilmember and former prosecutor, has garnered support from much of Washington\u2019s business community, including restaurants and realtors, while promising to expand affordable housing, improve public safety, and diversify the local economy.
Trump weighed in a week before the election \u2013 threatening DC home rule, which allows district residents to elect their own mayor and council, if Lewis George wins the mayoral primary. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t like it. Maybe we take back Washington and run it on the federal basis. We won\u2019t put up with it,\u201d he <\/a>said.
Meanwhile, Bowser, who has had her own trying<\/a> journey with the administration, expressed her support for McDuffie, but stopped short of a full endorsement. \u201cI have always supported Kenyan McDuffie \u2026 [but] I\u2019m not endorsing or making any endorsements for mayor because I\u2019m stepping off the political stage,\u201d said Bowser during an Axios event on 10 June.
During interviews with the Guardian, both leading candidates outlined how they would stand up to the current administration.
Lewis George said she plans to build relationships with members of Congress while also looking for areas of compromise with the Trump administration<\/a>.
\u201cMy approach to Donald Trump<\/a> is one where I set a line that there is going to have to be [that] DC autonomy and DC statehood are non-negotiables, our immigrant community and neighbors, our Black youth are non-negotiables,\u201d said Lewis George. \u201cBut if there are things you want to work with together, I\u2019m happy to do that \u2026 I look at Union Station as an opportunity to build and create a regional transit hub and create jobs for our city.\u201d
If elected, McDuffie said he would be a \u201cfighter\u201d for Washingtonians, working with the attorney general to preserve DC home rule.
\u201cWashington DC residents deserve leaders who will never back down from Congress or the White House when they attempt to undermine our autonomy, and I have consistently opposed federal interference in DC\u2019s local affairs and fought to protect our rights to govern ourselves,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know as local officials what\u2019s best for local Washington DC, and we are really working hard to make sure that we can protect our home rule.\u201d
In response to increased federal immigration activity in the city, Lewis George said she would rescind former chief of police Pamela Smith\u2019s executive order,<\/a> which directs Metropolitan police department officers to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement for individuals not in police custody.
\u201cOur officers need to be focused on getting guns off our streets and solving crimes. It is not their jobs to be alongside or babysitting or transporting federal immigration officers across the city to wreak havoc on our communities in our neighborhoods,\u201d she said.
McDuffie offered a different approach.
\u201cOn day one, I\u2019m going to appoint a police chief and a chancellor of our school system, and to make sure that we have an interagency coordinated effort to tackle the biggest challenge facing Washington DC residents right now, which is affordability,\u201d said McDuffie.
Throughout this election, Democratic candidates have pushed to distance themselves from Trump while attempting to connect him and Republicans to their opponents, and ramped up attacks on each other\u2019s campaigns.
In a recent televised debate on NBC4 Washington,<\/a> Lewis George accused McDuffie of accepting \u201ctens of thousands of dollars from Trump\u2019s supporters\u201d, though it was actually a relatively small number of donors<\/a> who have given to both Trump and McDuffie.
\u201cMy principal opponent has been running a disinformation campaign that rivals Trump in spreading rumors and innuendo about donors to my campaign,\u201d McDuffie said. \u201cThe reality is \u2026 largely 99.9% of my donations have come from Democrats and independents who agree that I am best qualified to lead Washington DC and make our city safer and more affordable.\u201d
Days before the election, the DC Office of Campaign Finance <\/a>fined Lewis George $16,000 after it investigated her campaign for improperly coordinating with unions that also manage an independent political action committee.
The campaign said it would appeal the order, calling it a \u201creckless order \u2026 riddled with factual errors\u201d. Lewis George\u2019s team also raised concerns about the process. \u201cFiling an order without legal merit just before an election follows a disturbing pattern of OCF\u2019s conduct,\u201d said the campaign in a written statement.
\u201cI want [voters] to see through the political attacks and this political strategy to try to muddy the waters. It is clear that there is a candidate in this race who is accepting Trump donor dollars, big Trump donor dollars, and that is my opponent, Mr McDuffie, who has accepted those dollars and refused to return them,\u201d said Lewis George before the OCF decision.
Conservative dollars have also appeared in the race to replace Eleanor Holmes Norton, the city\u2019s non-voting House delegate for Congress. Five Democratic candidates are running to succeed Norton, and one of the more well-known candidates, Brooke Pinto<\/a>, also a city councilmember, has reportedly received nearly $170,000 from donors <\/a>who have also contributed to Trump and other Republican candidates in the past.
In a social media video response, <\/a>Pinto said five of her donors out of nearly 2,000 have previously donated to Trump, adding that her opponent, Robert White,<\/a> also has donors who have given to the president.
\u201cThe difference, though, is that I understand what it means to build a broad tent coalition. I have support from Democratic socialists, and Democrats, and independents, and yes, even Republicans,\u201d said Pinto in the video. \u201cIt\u2019s time that we have someone in this seat who can work with a broad set of stakeholders to make sure that those values are carried out.\u201d
After the top frontrunners, these candidates are also on the ballot for DC mayor: Rini Sampath, Vincent Orange, Gary Goodweather, Ernest Johnson and Hope Solomon.
The 16 June primary also marks the first election using ranked choice voting in Washington DC.
This story was done in collaboration with URL Media<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janeese Lewis George\u2019s \u2018people-first platform\u2019 appears to have given her an edge as how the next mayor will handle Trump is key question on residents\u2019 mindsThere\u2019s a transplant from Mar-a-Lago at the center of DC\u2019s mayoral primary race on Tuesday, but his name is nowhere on the ballot.For the first time in more than a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}