Washington, D.C., just voted to put a democratic socialist in charge of the nation’s capital. Council member Janeese Lewis George has won the city’s mayoral race, NBC News projects, one of the most symbolic outcomes of Tuesday’s midterm elections. She faced no Republican opponent, cruising past Robert L. Gross of the DC Statehood Green Party and independent Rhonda Hamilton. The result keeps the District under Democratic control while moving the mayor’s office well to the left of the administration that has run the city since 2015.
Lewis George will be Washington’s first new mayor since 2015. She succeeds Muriel Bowser, who didn’t seek re-election after three terms and is leaving public office altogether. A large field of Democrats crowded into the June primary for the right to be the party’s shoo-in nominee in November, and no Republican entered the race. Tuesday’s contest was also the first time the city used ranked choice voting in a mayoral election, after voters approved the system as a ballot measure in 2024.
Her election adds the District to a string of American cities that have handed their top jobs to self-identified socialists. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the highest-profile of the group, is part of the Democratic Socialists of America, and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson also identifies as a democratic socialist, though she isn’t a member of the DSA. Lewis George, who has served on the D.C. Council since 2020, campaigned on universal childcare, expanding affordable housing, and making city buses free for residents enrolled in SNAP benefits.
The job also comes with a built-in adversary in the White House. As NBC News reported, Lewis George will be responsible for managing the capital’s relationship with the federal government and President Donald Trump, who posted after her Democratic primary win that he would not let Washington “be destroyed by a Communist adherent.” Lewis George answered the president’s post at the time with a statement that struck a far more diplomatic tone than the one she would take on election night.
“The fact is that the mayor of our nation’s capital and the administration are going to be meeting with each other. I’m willing to work with anyone, including the administration, to improve the lives of D.C. residents, and I will stand up to anyone who puts our city or its residents in harm’s way. Making D.C. safe and more affordable for our residents is my immediate focus,” she said at the time. By Tuesday night, that tone was gone.
As NBC Washington reported, the mayor-elect told supporters, “We will defend our families, our immigrant families, because D.C. is a sanctuary city. And more importantly, we will protect our local autonomy and we will win D.C. statehood.” She continued, “It’s a new day in D.C., one where we don’t make excuses and we don’t retreat, a D.C. where we don’t give into the apathy or leave each other behind.” She also pledged to deliver on the basics, saying, “We will pick up the trash, plow the snow, eliminate the rats and make every tax dollar count.”
Watch her full election night speech here:
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She had previewed her first move in office months before Election Day. In an interview over the summer with News4’s Mark Segraves, Lewis George said her administration would move immediately to pull the District out of federal immigration enforcement. “Probably on that Monday, what you will see is my administration signing an executive order rescinding the participation with our law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement,” she said.
The mayor-elect is already building her administration. As DC News Now reported, Lewis George announced Wednesday that Jennifer Levy will serve as her transition director, alongside co-chairs that include former Obama administration appointee Aaron Jenkins and former director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel Gautam Raghavan.
The team will help her select deputy mayors and commissioners and plan her first 100 days in office, with a swearing-in expected on Jan. 2nd, 2027. Outgoing Mayor Bowser congratulated her on social media Wednesday morning, writing, “Congratulations to Mayor-Elect Janeese Lewis George. I’ll run through the tape and support a seamless transition.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.