The District’s progressive candidates took healthy leads in crucial primary races Tuesday night as a new voting system resulted in hourslong delays.
D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George, a self-described socialist, was on a path to win the Democratic nomination for mayor while council colleague Robert White was doing even better in the contest to be the city’s nonvoting delegate to Congress.
With 66% of the first-choice votes counted, Ms. Lewis George had 53% of the vote for mayor while former council member Kenyan McDuffie had 37%.
With 64% of those votes counted in the delegate race, Mr. White had 66% to current council member Brooke Pinto’s 22%.
Nobody had claimed victory or conceded defeat as of 11 p.m., though the votes began being posted only 15 minutes earlier.
The D.C. Board of Elections had said it would not begin posting updates until all in-person ballots had been cast throughout the city.
A board spokesperson told reporters after 10 p.m. that there were still lines at eight voting centers in D.C.
The polls nominally close at 8 p.m., but anyone in line at that time can vote, and the stations will stay open until the last person is done.
Tuesday also marked the District’s first use of ranked-choice voting.
The new system allows voters to rank their candidates in order of preference and then redistributes the votes of the bottom candidates until someone gets more than 50% of the vote.
Ms. Lewis George and Mr. White appeared to ride a growing left-wing ascendance within the Democratic Party nationwide by taking comfortable leads against their more moderate opponents.
Primaries are the key races for the District, which is so overwhelmingly Democratic that the general elections in the fall are mostly a formality.
Ms. Lewis George is on track to replace three-term incumbent Mayor Muriel Bowser, and Mr. White could assume the seat held by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton since 1991.
The results seemingly put the District’s incoming political leadership on a crash course with the White House.
President Trump said last week that he would “take over” the D.C. government if Ms. Lewis George had a clear path to becoming the mayor.
The president has limited power to override a duly elected mayor without an act of Congress, but Mr. Trump has thrown his weight around where he can.
Because of its unique status vis-a-vis the federal government, a president has much more power over the District than over, say, Minneapolis.
He has pushed an ongoing National Guard deployment throughout the nation’s capital and had federal law enforcement join Metropolitan Police officers on patrols citywide.
Ms. Lewis George promised to fight the president’s perceived overreach in court with the help of D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who was also up for reelection in this primary, and she seemed to characterize Ms. Bowser as too accommodating toward the president.
Beyond her opposition to the White House, Ms. Lewis George ran a campaign focused on how the city government can improve affordability.
The Ward 4 Democrat aims to expand rent control, build more than 70,000 housing units over the next five years and push to make sure no family pays more than 7% of its household income for childcare.
Part of her strategy to accomplish these campaign promises is a proposed tax on out-of-state business owners in the District. This drew sharp condemnation from her main competitor, Mr. McDuffie.
Ms. Lewis George also opposed the enhanced juvenile curfew laws set to take effect soon after they clear a mandatory congressional review period.
The policing tool has been championed by Ms. Bowser and Metropolitan Police brass for its ability to break up the scourge of “teen takeovers,” but Ms. Lewis George argues that the measure puts children needlessly in contact with federal agents who are not equipped to de-escalate situations.
As for Mr. White, his campaign won over voters with a record that includes expanding paid family leave and granting voting rights to imprisoned felons.
He also emphasized his combative attitude toward the Trump administration when it comes to preserving the District’s autonomy. This is in contrast with his main opponent, Ms. Pinto, who said she would be more amenable to reaching across the aisle at times.
Aparna Raj led the Ward 1 council primary and Oye Owolewa led the Democratic primary for an at-large seat, while former council member Elissa Silverman was in the lead to take over Mr. McDuffie’s former at-large independent seat on the council.
