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\n

Washington will soon enter a new chapter after voters pick the capital\u2019s first new mayor in a dozen years and its first new Congressional delegate since 1991. And no matter who wins Tuesday\u2019s primaries, they\u2019ll be on a collision course with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The frontrunners in both races have hinged their campaigns on opposition to Trump, who since returning to office has chipped away at Washington\u2019s autonomy and sought to remake parts of the city in his image. Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has led the city since taking office in 2015, has taken a pragmatic approach to working with the president in an apparent effort to avoid further furor. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has represented the District since 1991 and condemned Trump’s actions in strongly worded statements, but the 89-year-old has dodged the spotlight amid questions about her acuity and ability to serve.<\/p>\n

The candidates running to replace them say that\u2019s far from enough.<\/p>\n

In interviews with Blue Light News, those leading candidates emphasized that they hoped to find common ground with the Trump administration and coordinate where possible, especially on projects that could jumpstart Washington\u2019s sluggish economy. But they all drew a red line at Trump\u2019s extraordinary law enforcement actions, including sending in the National Guard indefinitely and surging federal immigration agents in coordination with local police.<\/p>\n

\u201cWashington, D.C., residents want and deserve a mayor who’s going to stand up and fight back, and that’s what I’m bringing,\u201d said Kenyan McDuffie, a relatively moderate, pro-business former D.C. Council member who is polling second in the mayor\u2019s race. He has pledged to end coordination between the Metropolitan Police Department and ICE on his first day in office.<\/p>\n

Janeese Lewis George, a D.C. council member who is polling more than 10 points ahead<\/a> of McDuffie, has taken an even more adversarial posture against the president. She told Blue Light News she would \u201cactively tell our employees to resist\u201d if Trump again federalized the MPD, adding that she would work with D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb \u201cto defend D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump is already making known his displeasure \u2014 particularly with Lewis George, a democratic socialist whose platform and campaign are reminiscent of those of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Asked last week about the possibility of Lewis George winning the primary, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we\u2019ll take back Washington, run it on a federal basis,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe won\u2019t put up with it. We\u2019re not gonna lose our businesses.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lewis George\u2019s campaign almost immediately cut Trump\u2019s comments into an ad. \u201cLook, we\u2019re not going to get ICE off our streets by fearing this president,\u201d she said in response. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to protect our rights, or Home Rule, by complying in advance. Threatening Home Rule because you don\u2019t like how residents are voting is an attack on democracy itself. The people of D.C. elect their mayor, and they want someone who\u2019s gonna stand up to Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a similar sentiment among the leading delegate candidates.<\/p>\n

Robert White, a city council member and one of two frontrunners in the delegate race, described Trump\u2019s surge of federal agents and National Guard troops to the city as \u201clawlessness\u201d and \u201cthe opposite of public safety.\u201d He said he would seek to build a coalition in Congress to \u201cpush back in every way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brooke Pinto, a fellow council member and the other delegate frontrunner who has centered public safety in her campaign, said the administration\u2019s use of National Guard troops and ICE agents have not helped the city. \u201cWhile I am very committed to advancing public safety in the District of Columbia, what we’re seeing from the Trump administration undermines those efforts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That type of messaging is politically savvy in a city with an electorate that heavily supported Kamala Harris in 2024 and whose lives have been directly impacted by the president\u2019s grip over Washington \u2014 from the troop surge to his sweeping cuts to government programs and razing of the federal workforce<\/a>, which have severely contracted the District\u2019s economy. That\u2019s not to mention his efforts to splash his name and face across federal buildings, and mounting moves to beautify portions of the city and stand up ambitious architectural projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen politicians try to interfere with our local public safety, when they are sweeping up unhoused residents, cutting jobs, when they are pushing policies that negatively affect our local economy and driving up overall costs of everything from gas to housing, I’m going to fight back,\u201d McDuffie said.<\/p>\n

But it sets the candidates \u2014 whoever wins \u2014 in explicit opposition to Trump, who has consistently sought to bring his enemies to heel whenever he gets the chance. The president has several levers at his disposal if he chooses to retaliate against Washington, from another federal law enforcement surge to using his influence over Congress to weaken D.C. Home Rule. The city also depends on the federal government for high-profile projects that would improve public spaces and bring jobs to the District, including upgrades to Union Station and the redevelopment of the RFK Stadium campus.<\/p>\n

Asked how the White House is preparing for a potentially more adversarial mayor and delegate, a spokesperson referred Blue Light News back to Trump\u2019s Oval Office comments.<\/p>\n

Like this content? Consider signing up for Blue Light News’s <\/i>Playbook newsletter<\/i><\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington will soon enter a new chapter after voters pick the capital\u2019s first new mayor in a dozen years and its first new Congressional delegate since 1991. And no matter who wins Tuesday\u2019s primaries, they\u2019ll be on a collision course with President Donald Trump. The frontrunners in both races have hinged their campaigns on opposition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}