Congress

D.C. delegate candidates pledge to raise their voice after Norton’s long fade

Published

3 months ago

May 18, 2026

The fight for voting rights, self-governance and eventual statehood for the nation’s capital has had one consistent national face for nearly three decades: House Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Now the 88-year-old Democrat is retiring after having been a diminished presence in recent years, and the candidates to replace her in Congress are debating how to redefine a job that comes with little concrete power but a significant public megaphone.

They are seeking to balance the need to be an aggressive national advocate as President Donald Trump chips away at the District of Columbia’s autonomy with the delegate’s historical role as a behind-the-scenes operator who works inside the halls of Congress to get things done on the city’s behalf.

Norton, who came of age in the Civil Rights Movement, saw success on both fronts. She helped engineer aid for the city in the 1990s and secure local control of key federal property, among other lobbying triumphs. She also occasionally garnered national attention for the city’s status — including multiple viral appearances on “The Colbert Report.”

But Norton has hardly been a cable-news fixture or social-media standout, and many of the younger candidates to replace her are hoping to change that.

“I believe that, where we are in history, the delegate needs to have a higher national profile,” Robert White, one of two D.C. Council members in the race, said in an interview. “Because people can’t support an issue that they don’t understand, so I need to make sure the rest of the nation understands D.C.”

Brooke Pinto — the other local legislator who, like White, is considered a front-runner — played up the communications demands while also saying the more prosaic parts of the job cannot be neglected.

“This seat has to be held by someone who can manage that legislative process and build those coalitions,” Pinto said, “but also can be an effective and authentic messenger to people across the city, across the country and across the world.”

Pinto, 33, and White, 44, are battling ahead of the June 16 election for the Democratic nomination — which tends to guarantee victory in the deep-blue District — alongside former federal nuclear regulator Greg Jaczko, former Norton aide Trent Holbrook and former Justice Department and DNC official Kinney Zalesne. It is the first time since 1990 that Norton won’t be on the ballot.

The victor will inherit what is both one of the most consequential political offices in the District and one of the least inherently powerful. Delegates do not get a vote on the House floor, denying them the foundation of political clout in the House, but Norton was able to carve out spheres of influence on the Oversight and Transportation committees and as a key intermediary on matters involving the city.

“Most of the power is not in law, it is in tradition,” White said. “If the next person stepping into the role doesn’t know where the power is, it’s gone, and it will take at best several decades to reaccumulate it.”

But Trump’s recent hardball moves — including commandeering the D.C. police department for a time and sending in National Guard troops to patrol the city, not to mention undermining the city’s economy by decimating the federal workforce — have put more emphasis on resistance tactics than backroom operating.

Pinto said she would bring D.C. residents into other states to educate them on the city’s unique issues, arguing there must be electoral consequences for lawmakers who fail to support D.C.

“We have to really support our friends who are pro-D.C. statehood,” she said. “And we have to make clear to people who are not supportive that they are not on this team.”

Statehood has long been the north star for D.C. activists, but it has not been a front-burner issue for national Democrats. Norton spent years pursuing efforts to gain only partial congressional voting rights for the city but later engineered a pair of successful House votes backing statehood, which was also added to the 2024 Democratic platform.

While D.C. statehood would mean adding two likely Democrats to the Senate as well as a full member of the House, party leaders have not fully embraced the issue — even when they last controlled Congress and the White House under former President Joe Biden.

Several candidates said they would be pushing their fellow Democrats to put the District closer to the top of the party’s priority list.

“D.C. issues are on the list of Democratic priorities, but they’re never at the top,” Zalesne, 59, said. “So in order to elevate our issues, we have a lot of relationship-building to do and a lot of advocacy and persuasion to do.”

Holbrook, 40, said in an interview he would “be a little bit more aggressive in calling out people who attack our home rule, especially the Democratic side.”

Zalesne is leaning heavily on her party-insider cred in her campaign, touting endorsements from Democratic Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.

White has the backing of PACs affiliated with the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus, as well as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), while Pinto has the support of Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).

White has also talked about campaigning in swing districts and targeting lawmakers who have gone after the city. But he is also making the case that Democratic Party leaders should embrace D.C. statehood as a way to offset recent GOP political hardball: If Democrats can invest in redistricting to gain a political edge, he argued, why shouldn’t they also promote statehood?

The new delegate will have to build close ties with a relatively new House Democratic leadership team fronted by New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who has consistently voted to protect D.C.’s autonomy but said little about expanding it.

The irony is that many of the District’s biggest congressional wins in recent decades have come only with the participation of Republicans. A longtime Norton goal — transferring the land under RFK Stadium to city control for development — occurred in 2024 with the backing of scores of GOP lawmakers.

That has candidates like Pinto appreciating the tightrope Norton walked for so many years, even as they pledge to inject more energy into the office she held.

“I really want to build on that legacy, and I also recognize that in 2026 … with a hyperpartisan political environment, we also have to do things a little bit differently,” Pinto said.

Congress

Jack Smith invited to testify before Senate next month

Published

2 hours ago

August 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Jack Smith, the former special counsel who brought criminal charges against President Donald Trump, has been invited to testify Sept. 22 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to an invitation from Chair Chuck Grassley reviewed by Blue Light News.

Smith previously testified before the House Judiciary Committee in January, but Grassley (R-Iowa) and his team have been probing Smith and his investigations for months.

Grassley recently revealed that Smith obtained text messages that 44 members of Congress sent to White House officials during the waning months of Trump’s first term leading up to and around the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

Grassley’s texts were among those accessed by Smith’s team, along with Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

“In the process of a deeply flawed, weaponized investigation, Jack Smith subpoenaed phone toll records from a dozen senators, scooped up text messages from over 40 members of Congress, and subpoenaed the private communications and financial records of hundreds of other Republican entities and individuals,” Grassley said in a statement.

“He needs to answer directly to Congress for his actions,” Grassley added. “Smith has requested to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and our committee looks forward to hearing from him as part of Congress’ investigation into Arctic Frost and his time as Special Counsel. Smith must be honest and forthcoming in his answers, because the American people deserve nothing less than full transparency and accountability.”

Lawyers for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During the January hearing, Republicans focused on technicalities of how Smith investigated the probe into Trump’s election interference, such as whether he properly signed his oath of office and whether he was sufficiently versed on the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause that protects members of Congress from criminal investigation for their lawmaking actions.

Congress

Chuck Edwards recommended for censure by House Ethics Committee

Published

3 hours ago

August 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Ethics Committee recommended Monday that lawmakers censure Rep. Chuck Edwards for engaging in “persistent unprofessional and inappropriate conduct towards two young female staffers” — cataloguing multiple episodes of sexual harassment by the married lawmaker.

Censure is the most severe punishment the panel can recommend short of expulsion, requiring targeted members to submit to a public shaming on the floor. The bipartisan panel said it plans to bring a privileged resolution to a vote once the House returns to session later this month.

A spokesperson for Edwards, 65, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a 15-page rebuttal, lawyers for Edwards said that the Ethics Committee “failed to demonstrate that either of the two staffers expressed discomfort to Representative Edwards regarding his conduct with them.” They also rejected the need for censure, noting that it has been used “sparingly in this context and directed only at matters of severe sexual misconduct.”

The panel itself released a trove of evidence including emails, text messages and photographs showing how Edwards had insinuated himself into intimate aspects of their lives.

Edwards, the committee found, made comments on the appearance of two young female staffers in his congressional office, telling them they looked “pretty” or “breathtaking” and made a comment on one staffer’s weight. He also lavished the young women with gifts, including purses valued at more than $1,000, as well as guns, shoes, flowers and one-on-one dinners.

Text messages from one of the women showed Edwards at one point sent her more than 20 containers of ice cream because, he said, she needed “a lot of cheering up!”

Sexual harassment is prohibited by House rules and federal law, and the committee found that Edwards violated “the spirit of the House’s prohibitions on sexual harassment and unwanted advances, as well as the requirement to act in a manner that reflects credibly upon the House.”

The report found Edwards brought one of the staffers to a holiday event at the White House, gave her flowers and texted her how he was “so excited about tonight” and that he pressured her to continue the night with him after the event. Edwards told the committee he accompanied that staffer to her home in Virginia because he “felt uncomfortable dumping a young lady on the street.”

Edwards also talked to that staffer and others about going to strip clubs in Washington, the report says.

The panel concluded that Edwards did not engage in sexual activity with either of the women, nor did he explicitly proposition them or other staff members for sex. Edwards, who is facing a competitive race for reelection in his western North Carolina district, cooperated with the probe, the committee said.

In one instance, the panel found, Edwards skipped House votes one night to decorate the second staffer’s Christmas tree. He also went out drinking and gambling with her. On another occasion, he recited a poem at her going-away party in his office and cried during that incident, making his staff noticeably uncomfortable.

When the second staffer left his office, Edwards helped her move back to North Carolina and sent her a handwritten letter in which he described her as “the most amazing woman” and that she had “written a complex chapter in my heart that I will never stop reading.”

Edwards told the committee that letter was not romantic.

“It was only to imply that we had a relationship on so many different levels — on a congressional level, on a professional level, on a friendship level, on a helping-one-another-out-with-our-chores-and-responsibility level,” he said.

Congress

Cornyn, Tillis confirm they will vote for Blanche

Published

7 hours ago

August 3, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has a clear path to the Senate Judiciary Committee advancing his nomination to the permanent job after two GOP holdouts confirmed Monday they would vote for him.

The statement from Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) comes after the late-night announcement Sunday of a Justice Department agreement to clarify a controversial May settlement agreement between President Donald Trump and the IRS.

A successful Judiciary vote Tuesday would set Blanche up for confirmation on the Senate floor later this week, before the chamber breaks for August recess.

“We want to express our gratitude to Mr. Blanche and his staff for working with us on this, and we look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon,” Cornyn and Tillis said in a joint statement.

The senators suggested their agreement with Blanche also satisfies the concerns of several other Republican senators off the Judiciary Committee who have raised concerns about the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” created in the original settlement, as well as provisions immunizing Trump and his family from some tax audits.

“We are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund. Additionally, the Department has acknowledged in a binding written order that the audit settlement is limited to the plaintiffs and the scope does not extend beyond the defendants in the lawsuit, the IRS and the Treasury, addressing concerns that multiple of our Republican colleagues share,” Cornyn and Tillis said.

Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, John Curtis of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are among the other Republicans who have expressed concerns about the payout fund. Blanche recently visited Alaska and announced a flurry of settlements benefiting Alaska as he courts Murkowski’s vote.