|
Janeese Lewis George!
Democratic socialist and former council member
wins DC mayoral primary
- Janeese Lewis George, a 38-year-old former prosecutor, has declared victory in the DC Democratic primary in a city where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans. Her win in the primary all but assures her victory in the general election on November 3rd. She will become the first democratic socialist elected to lead the nation's capital.
-
Lewis George was inspired by the campaigns of Bernie Sanders for president and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for Congress and, in 2018, attended her first Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) meeting. According to a Washington Post-Schar School poll "nearly half of registered democrats in the city view socialism favorably." (D.C.'s mayoral primary leader; what to know about Janeese Lewis-George, Washington Post, 6/18/26)
- A third-generation Washingtonian, Lewis George's mother was a union postal worker. Janeese grew up in Northwest Washington in the 1990s and early 2000s where she witnessed the incarceration of relatives, neighborhood gun violence and drug addiction. Before attending law school a rent hike displaced her family from their home forcing her to live in her sister's attic.
- Her campaign was fueled by union support. Nearly two dozen unions endorsed her and union members were active as campaign workers and door-knockers. Her labor roots run deep. Her mother took her to union meetings and, while attending Howard University, she worked two jobs -- as a waitress and a Nordstrom clerk.
- She ran on a platform of universal child care and affordable housing. She supports expanding child care subsidies to families and fought to strengthen and expand rent stabilization. She wants to build 72,000 new publicly owned mixed-income housing units with stable rents that put people ahead of profits.
- Sam Epps, president of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO said of her victory, "we showed the world what happens when working people come together and demand a seat at the table."
Source: "D.C.'s mayoral primary leader, the race has not been called, what to know about Janeese Lewis George" by Steve Thompson, Jenny Gathright and Meagan Flynn; Washington Post, June 18, 2026. I am grateful for these journalists for their breaking news story from which I summarized, paraphrased or (mostly) quoted directly. Photo: Fox News Video.
| 
