Congress

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

Published

2 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

Mitch McConnell is still in the hospital after medical episode, his office says

Published

4 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Mitch McConnell remains hospitalized, his office said in a statement Thursday — without offering details about a recent medical episode that has renewed concern about the health of the former Republican majority leader.

McConnell “continues his recovery in the hospital” and “continues to improve,” his office said.

“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the statement said. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

The statement did not explain why he was hospitalized last month.

The update comes after multiple outlets reported details of a first responder dispatch call indicating emergency medical personnel responded to McConnell’s home last month to treat an unconscious person who had experienced “cardiac arrest.”

Blue Light News has not independently verified the dispatch call.

The 84-year-old senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, has experienced multiple medical incidents in recent years. On two occasions in 2023, he froze while speaking with reporters. He has also suffered multiple falls and temporarily used a wheelchair, a move his office described at the time as a precautionary measure.

Congress

House Ethics says it doesn’t have information to share on lawmaker sexual misconduct settlements

Published

12 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House adopted a resolution Tuesday requiring the House Ethics Committee to release information on taxpayer funds used to pay out sexual misconduct settlements with lawmakers — but the committee now says it has no information it can share.

In a statement Thursday, the committee reiterated it does not manage sexual harassment lawsuits or their settlements; taxpayers have not footed the bill for those payments since 2018.

Since that time, according to the statement, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or other sexual misconduct by a Member.”

Instead, the bipartisan Ethics Committee said it was up to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to publicly release a list of each member who has received settlements for sexual misconduct allegations, as mandated by the resolution championed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

The committee, in the Thursday statement, said it “fully supports the release of information about sexual misconduct settlements and calls on OCWR to abide by [the resolution] and make publicly available information about Member sexual misconduct matters resulting in payment of taxpayer funds.”

Massie, in a text message Thursday, said “OCWR can release it.”

The OCWR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bipartisan Ethics Committee has been under pressure in recent months to show it takes allegations of sexual misconduct against colleagues seriously. Two former House members — Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) — were forced to resign earlier this year amid serious accusations against them.

The renewed reckoning has prompted new questions about whether the House is up to the task of policing its own. The resolution earlier this week was adopted nearly unanimously, with just one member, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), voting “present.”

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said in an interview earlier this week that while he would support Massie’s resolution, the relevant “information was already out in the public domain.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

AOC endorses El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race

Published

15 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat on Thursday, a decision that comes as progressives look to capitalize off a series of recent high-profile primary victories in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.

Her endorsement could provide El-Sayed with a critical boost just over a month before the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The former public health official is locked in a heated contest against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the right to take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.

It also comes as El-Sayed has risen to the top of the pack in recent public polling.

Virtually any Democratic path to flipping the Senate in this year’s midterms would see the party hold the open Michigan Senate seat, with two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) retiring at the end of his term.

The race has emerged as perhaps the largest battleground over the ideological future of the party. El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has collected endorsements from progressives, while Stevens has the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with AIPAC also boosting her candidacy.

El-Sayed, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times, is her party’s best chance.

“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said. “And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”