Member Statements on 2026-EER02: Endorsement of Janeese Lewis George for DC Mayor

Member Statements
61

AGAINST by Ellie F

I’m not asking members to reject endorsing Janeese Lewis George because it is too risky. Much of what we do as socialists is risky. I am asking members to reject endorsing Janeese because it would weaken the socialist, anti-imperialist and abolitionist horizons of our organizing.

JCRC of Greater Washington is not just a Jewish advocacy organization, if that label is even accurate. It one of many Zionist institutions which shields itself from criticism by saying it speaks for the Jewish community. Here at GMU, JCRC worked with our Hillel to lobby university administration to stop pro-Palestinian activism on campus, resulting in our Board of Visitors further engraining the false IHRA Definition of Antisemitism on campus. Across the region, JCRC has lobbied against municipal ceasefire resolutions, calling them a threat to Jewish safety. If the goal was to connect with the Jewish community, Janeese has already been working with progressive Jewish groups such as Jews United for Justice. Paying to be a panelist at a JCRC event did nothing but contribute to the normalization of Zionism.

Even with the pro-Palestine elements of her record, participating in a Zionist lobbying event and ambiguous QnA responses on Palestine make Janeese Lewis George ineligible for endorsement under the national and local Anti-Zionist Resolutions. This is not to mention her support for DC hiring 800 more police officers. It’s not worth breaking policies determined by our own membership for a membership bump and the prestige of the mayoral office.

When Janeese inevitably folds to pressure from capitalists and the federal government (which could be a personal failing, systemic or both), I fear our chapter leadership will not have the courage to act. Their failure to even publicly acknowledge Janeese’s mistakes, like our movement partners in Jewish Voice for Peace did in a statement published to their Instagram, does not inspire confidence. I worry we will prioritize supporting whatever reforms make it past the DC Council, Congress and the White House over fighting for a socialist future. Such an approach would quickly condemn us to division and irrelevance. To build socialism, we must build workers’ power at the grassroots level. We must especially improve our outreach to the marginalized communities we say we fight for. Embracing opportunistic electoralism will only have us running in circles.

62

IN FAVOR by Priscila C

Janeese shares our chapter values and has used her platform to advocate for affordability and stand up for working class Washingtonians.

63

AGAINST by Abel A

I urge members to vote AGAINST the endorsement of Janeese Lewis George for Mayor. While many here have focused on her betrayal of the Palestinian cause by normalizing Zionism, I want to instead urge members to vote against because JLG is not a socialist at all. In my many years of observing the DC Council, including my two years as an ANC commissioner in Ward 4, I have come to understand that JLG is not much better than any other liberal Democrat. In fact, JLG is more to the right than others on DC Council on certain issues such as policing and the environment.

In most aspects, JLG shows no signs of being a person will socialist views. She very often protects pro-business interests in the District especially landlords. One good example is her vote on B26-0429 - LIHTC Rent Stabilization Exemption Clarification Amendment Act of 2025 (https://lims.dccouncil.gov/Legislation/B26-0429). In August 2025, a judge in the Superior Court ruled that rental property supported by the federal LIHTC is not excempt from rent control.

In one fell swoop, a judge had given us the gift of making 99 buildings in DC to come under rent control automatically with no need for legislative action. Of course, the landlord class lost their minds and went begging to the mayor who pushed the Council to amend the law on an emergency basis to undo this gift to the working class. With lightening speed, the Council passed emergency and temporary legislation to ensure these nearly 100 buildings never go under rent control. JLG voted on these emergency and temporary measures to take away rent control from these buildings, including my building. She then tripled down by voting yes on the first reading of the permanent bill, B26-0429. **Before we are finished voting on her endorsement, she will have voted on the final reading of the bill to permanently deny rent control to these buildings.**

Will JLG sound the alarm bells? No. Did she object? No. Did she let her constituents or members of this chapter know so we can mobilize in response? No. She remains silent. She has voted with the rest and will vote for the landlord class again because we refuse to hold her accoutable at all. This is just one instance of the many ways JLG is not a part of our movement at all but enjoys our support for some reason. She does not promote our policy goals. (For another example, she has thus far refused to sign We Power’s Public Power Pledge and gives some of the worst answers in that section of the questionnaire.) She does not involve us in her community or legislative work at all. Instead, she does the two-step with MPD officers at events she organizes and to which she invites the police. (Yes, really, if you look hard enough on Instagram, you will find the video her dancing with the pigs.)

I will be voting NO on JLG’s endorsement, even if I will vote for her in the election. The two are not the same! She may be better than some, but she is not fit for our chapter’s endorsement. Please vote NO with me.

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64

IN FAVOR by Marli K

I am writing in favor of Metro DC DSA endorsing Janeese Lewish George in her run for Mayor of DC. Janeese has been a strategic ally on the DC Council since 2021, and this is a historic opportunity to elect a socialist to be Mayor of DC. While on Council, she has championed social housing and other socialist causes, and I believe if she is elected as Mayor she will continue to champion socialist priorities and demonstrate that just like in NYC, socialism can win. People look to the nation’s capital as an example for leadership, and it would be a huge win for DSA as an organization to elect Janeese Lewis George following on the historic election of Zohran Mamdani in NYC. The choice of who leads DC is incredibly important, especially over the next few years as we continue to fight fascism in the District with continued threats to our immigrant neighbors and threats to our basic rights from the Trump Administration. It’s incredibly important that we have a Mayor who will fight back. In addition, there are important issues at stake at the local level as well. I’ve been a core organizer with We Power DC since 2019–as folks know, we are fighting for a public power utility in the District. In order to win public power, the Public Service Commission (PSC) needs to approve legislation passed by the Council. The Mayor appoints the PSC Commissioners, and we need Janeese in the Mayor’s office to ensure good folks are appointed next. We can’t have another corporate backed candidate in the Mayor’s office. It’s incredibly important that we work to get Janeese elected and the best way to do this is through a Metro DC DSA endorsement.

65

AGAINST by Far

I am writing against endorsing Janeese Lewis George for this campaign, and encourage others to also oppose. I had hoped she would have been responsive to the outreach chapter members made to her about her violating the Anti-zionist Resolution, but she and her staff have demonstrated a complete unwillingness to engage with and very few efforts to rectify their rhetoric or campaign to meet the democratically decided values of our organization. This does not reflect a person who views DSA as their political home to me.

The question of what happens if we do not endorse and she wins mayoralty is almost entirely irrelevant. Whether or not we endorse, there are prominent members of our chapter already working in her campaign, so a relationship will exist regardless. Furthermore, these member’s personal decisions about the work they wish to do and for whom should not entangle our chapter, its resources or set the tone of our relationship with an elected official. Especially if we are constantly being asked to take an overly uncritical tone by some of these same people. This is an inappropriate dynamic to have, and unhealthy for our democratic deliberative capacities.

On the question of whether we’d miss out on something important by not endorsing, our chapter has plenty of other endorsed races and campaigns we’d continue to use to build our organization. The strength of our good works will ultimately be the most crucial factor in building for our longlasting success, not any single candidacy. I imagine most people, even those against her endorsement, would vote for her as mayor. However, I am unclear that participation in this one specific race will be a deciding factor to our success as an organization in the short or long term. I am more worried about tying our success or failure to any one candidate, particularly one who has already violated some of our red lines, and has demonstrated an unwillingness to be responsive to fellow DSA members or take an unambiguous stance on some of our organization’s key political questions.

It is my opinion that after what we’ve witnessed over the past 2+ years and the many decades before that in Palestine, there is no world where our organization can slide back into complacency, and again adopt a stance of “progressive except Palestine” in our electoral work or anywhere else. I ask members who are considering voting in favor of JLG to also be prepared to hold her and every one of our endorsed electeds accountable to our red lines on Palestine and beyond. We do not build power by capitulating, we build power by speaking our politics with our full chest. We do not build a socialist future by narrowing our politics and engaging in west-centric chauvinism. As we have repeatedly seen, the exact type of violence that Palestinians face, will find us at home. Janeese Lewis George has not responded adequately to bring her campaign into alignment with the values of our organization, and for this reason I cannot in good conscience vote to endorse her. So I am voting NO on endorsing JLG, and am encouraging others to vote against.

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66

IN FAVOR by Nketiah B

I am voting to have MDC DSA endorse Janeese Lewis George for Mayor of DC, and I urge my fellow comrades to do the same. I do so because I believe a JLG campaign and administration provide opportunities for seizing a leadership position in the twin wars on the economic and political freedoms of DC’s working-class residents.

Through both DSA’s organization and clear-eyed analysis of the forces threatening DC’s working residents, I believe that participating in JLG’s campaign presents an opportunity to shape the broader left over the next four years. An endorsement would provide us undeniable opportunities to reach thousands of DC residents who are looking for an answer to the fascist threat, are disillusioned by politics as usual, and yet are looking for a way to direct their energies. With confidence, then, I believe we should seize this opportunity, rather than let it pass us by out of fear, and use it to evangelize our theory of change.

I share the concerns that other chapter members have raised about JLG’s lackluster responses to the questionnaire, as well as her disappointing attendance of the JCRC event, and I don’t think these concerns should be dismissed lightly or downplayed. On balance, however, I do believe that JLG’s stated positions, be it on fighting against the repression of pro-Palestine activists or supporting legislation to divest public funds from companies complicit in genocide, strongly suggest that she will use municipal power to ultimately advance, rather than frustrate, a pro-Palestine agenda.

In general, JLG’s track record suggests that a JLG administration would empower socialist organizing and organizers in the District, from pro-Palestine students to tenant and immigrant communities, at a time when such organizing is and has been under threat from the political and economic establishment on both the local and federal levels.

Finally, as other members have noted, DC, deprived of statehood, suffers uniquely from the twin burdens of political and economic unfreedom. It is not unlikely that, in the next four years, the federal government moves to assert even greater control over the District. Should that happen, I believe that having a mayor capable of using her bully pulpit to articulate the political and economic disenfranchisement of District residents will be a significant asset in the fight to organize and mobilize against occupation.

I don’t believe that a JLG campaign, or a JLG administration, for that matter, will win socialism in the DMV. Nor do I take lightly the critiques others have raised about her campaign so far. Nonetheless, I believe that JLG, self-described democratic socialist, as candidate and as mayor, provides DSA with a rare opportunity to loudly articulate our vision of democratic socialism - whether canvassing from Wards 1 to 8, through mass media, or in the halls of the Wilson Building - and to rally more of the District’s residents under our banner.

67

IN FAVOR by Irene K

I’m a former Steering member, chapter chair, PEC chair, and have been organizing in our chapter since 2018, and I’m so proud to be writing this statement in favor of endorsing Janeese Lewis George for mayor. We have an unprecedented chance to reshape the Council and elect a proud socialist to the most powerful executive seat in DC. We cannot cede that opportunity.

Our chapter members have helped shape her policy platforms and staff her office, campaign team, and core advisory team. She’s shown up to countless rallies to support tenants on rent strike, and always explicitly shouts out DSA organizers and tells the crowd to get involved with Stomp Out Slumlords. Even in the absence of a formalized Socialiats in Office structure, she has repeatedly met with our PEC and many of our working group leads to proactively strategize around upcoming legislative fights. For years, she’s attended national DSA Fund events to strategize with DSA electeds across the country. She spoke at the Fund Care Not Cops rally we organized during the summer of George Floyd and the late-night demonstration we held on the steps of the Supreme Court the day they overturned Roe. In front of hundreds or even thousands of people, she is always willing to tell people to join DSA. Just two weeks ago, during a live interview with NBC about her mayoral candidacy, she proudly described DSA as her “political home.” I cannot emphasize enough that these are not the words and actions of someone who sees our chapter as a junior coalition partner.

Anyone who has been to one of Janeese’s campaign events knows that those rooms look incredibly different from the room we’re in now. For years, DSA has struggled to recruit members who reflect the multigenerational, multiracial working class in our region, but what I saw at her campaign launch was exactly what we’re working so hard to build: thousands of Black and brown community members, seniors, high school and college students, DC natives, renters, Palestine solidarity activists, immigrants, and union members ready to throw down against the billionaire and developer class for a better world. We have an unprecedented opportunity through this campaign to massively expand our base across DC and politicize tens of thousands of people to democratic socialism.

Zohran has only been in office for a month, and we’ve already seen that elected officials with enough political will can just do things, whether it’s implementing universal childcare, repealing dozens of Eric Adams’ executive orders, setting wage floors for Doordash gig workers, banning junk fees, suing slumlords for neglect, establishing an office to protect tenants, appointing DSA members to lead city agencies, and more. We can accomplish that here, too. But that’s up to us: the only way for us to have any role in her campaign, to be a part of her transition team and governing coalition is to endorse—to lead with our values and politics and fight to win.

Since she announced, the media has already been describing her as the “democratic socialist candidate.” Whether we like it or not, even if we don’t endorse, this race will be seen as a referendum on DSA’s power nationally and locally. This is going to be an extremely tough race, but our chapter has proven that we can win and that we can be the difference maker in these close races. The stakes are too high to sit this out. Vote YES.

68

IN FAVOR by Eduarda S

Comrades, I urge all of you to vote YES on endorsing Janeese Lewis George for DC Mayor. I’ve been a DC resident for the last seven years and I’ve seen first hand just how much a horrible mayor can hold us back. Bowser has forced the District to live under a pro-business, pro-landlord, pro-capital status quo that has ignored the needs of workers, tenants, and marginalized folks. Enough is enough. We now have the opportunity to elect a democratic socialist mayor who will put people over profit and will fight nonstop to deliver for the working families of DC. I’ve known Janeese for years and she is a true socialist leader who fights for our people on the DC Council. We can trust her. Everyone always talks about “where’s our Zohran at home?” MF she’s right here!!! The entire DC labor movement and progressive left movement is getting together to back her, we need to be there with them. It would be a huge embarrassment if the Democratic Socialists of America doesn’t endorse the democratic socialist candidate for mayor. We need her to win. DC needs her to win. Our chapter will grow exponentially once we endorse her. We’re finally gonna have a mayor that respects the working class while we continue to fight for our demands. This is our time. Vote YES and come knock doors in every ward!!

69

ABSTAIN by Rakshith R

The general character of the statements and claims of the pro-JLG faction leads me to believe the threat of liquidationism into the progressive democratic coalition is real, and partially happening in this chapter.

A large section of this chapter has served a “disarticulating” function in attempts to request boundaries on our potential endorsees behavior, to commit to the same anti-zionist principle in action we ask of our mass membership. The attempts to deny the JCRC as a liberal zionist formation are additionally disenchanting.

The general argument for JLG has been one of opportunism and tailism. We are told that many are signing up, that the Activist orgs (which were supposed to be critical of) are signing up, the business unions (we were supposed to be critical of) have all signed up. That we are signing up for a potential administration that *cannot* fulfill its claims for affordability, good governance, worker power *together* is not considered.

Marx called on the militant to reject selling an opium to the masses, to not sell a “hope” to a world without one. To be clear-eyed about the socio-material conditions of our reality, to propagate that clarity to the masses, and to strike against that world.

Instead of doing so, this campaign appears aimed at selling a false hope. One that many people may believe *at this moment*, but that does not change the result. A progressive democratic city administration under the trump regime going into a recession will not birth *social democracy in one city*. The pressures to capitulate are vast. They are far greater than the limited counter-power of our existing worker-tenant formation (a power that a large section of this chapter appears intent on neutering).

In the face of the threats and the structural limits of the terrain of battle, we are not given an actual strategy. Instead, we are sold extreme volunteerism and a sack of false assertions about our relationship with the campaign. We are both apparently central to it, essential to it winning, and yet are to be marginalized by not participating. Without us she will supposedly lose, and yet the pro-endorsement campaign has largely opposed imposing any conditions, and her campaign has given none.

Gramsci called upon us to understand the war of position as a portracted trench struggle. When the the first trench line is crossed, there will be more lines. To face these lines we are given only vague promises of strategic escalation (now with a Minneapolis paint). Instead of preparing for this escalation, we are we are given nothing. Shut up and knock those doors.

Whatever the result of this vote, these 2 questions need to be faced:

1. How to stem the liquidation? How to keep our membership from becoming the defenders of progressive austerity and progressive carceralism? (what will be the left wing of post-fascism when JLG bends to Trump)

2. What is to be done to prepare for strategic escalation, to continue the struggle for the class when progressive civil society fails us and bends before power?

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70

IN FAVOR by Emma D

I am writing to express my strong support for endorsing Janeese Lewis George. As a twice-endorsed DSA candidate for Ward 4 councilmember and someone who sees our chapter as her political home, Janeese is an incredible candidate for mayor. On council, she has consistently fought for the working class in DC as a principled champion for tenants rights, labor rights, social housing, and other priorities. As mayor, she will do the same. I’m beyond excited to volunteer for her campaign. This election is an incredible opportunity for our chapter and for DC. Vote yes to endorse Janeese Lewis George.

71

AGAINST by Alex Y

First off, I want to acknowledge both the likelihood of and the benefits associated with Janeese being endorsed and becoming the next mayor of DC. I do not refute any of those and I will actively work towards to electing her as the next mayor upon the chapter’s endorsement. However, I think there are still reasons to vote against endorsing Janeese’s mayoral campaign while still assuming the chapter votes to endorse.

For one, the threshold by which the endorsement passes over the necessary 2/3rds majority matters. It matters because it shows the amount of chapter members less than pleased with every aspect of this campaign and the candidate. It matters because it shows the candidate and campaign staff that every position matters and that you cannot take our chapter’s endorsement for granted because you hit 80% of the issues on the head and were less than progressive on the rest of them. We all agree that our endorsements should mean something and not just be paper endorsements, but that should apply equally to both candidates we have never endorsed before as well as those we have, there isn’t a good argument for why some should get a free pass just because we endorsed them for a different position in the past. It isn’t the same as a simple re-endorsement for the exact same position in the exact same district. Our long endorsement process isn’t meant to just be a pain in the ass, it is meant to be meaningful so that the chapter can find the people that actually care about and want to fight for all the same issues we care about, and not just some of them! A smaller margin in favor is a sign to candidates that they need to care more about each and every one of those issues if they want to have a shot at re-endorsement or any future endorsement for a different position.

Furthermore, we should we willing to call out the foolish proposal to hire 800 more cops for the primary reason to save money on the current overtime paid to the MPD. That’s pretty close to the exact opposite of the Department of Community Safety Zohran proposed in NYC. If the MPD is being overworked, why are we not talking about taking away the responsibilities keeping them working overtime instead of creating more cops! This is simply a regressive policy.

I am hopeful about what is to come from the next mayor of DC, but I am not given hope by Janeese’s campaign. It is not enough to be anti-fascist and anti-capitalist to be the best of us and earn an endorsement for such a high office. I am hopeful because of the work comrades will put into making DC a better place. I just wish this campaign could also excite as much of this chapter as possible instead of making these policy mistakes in the waiting. I can only hope that I am proven wrong and policies such as hiring these 800 more cops never come to pass. I wish instead we had a cadre candidate to endorse more easily able to be trusted. Until that time, Janeese is the best we have, but certainly not the best that is possible.

72

IN FAVOR by Mike H

We need a mayor that reflects our values. Having someone with a strong history of upholding socialist values in the mayor’s office would go a long way towards achieving a lot of our goals for DC. A consistent labor ally, Janeese quickly earned the backing of unions across the city, and no doubt when in office she will be a great ally to many or our worker campaigns.

As a former Ward four member myself, I can attest that she has excellent constituent services. After someone let off a gun in our back yard, her office was at our door the next day asking how they could help. Soon after, they installed a light that make our street more secure.

DSA has already campaigned for her during her council races and it will be amazing to continue developing our relationship with her over this run as well as her first term as mayor. Please vote yes!

73

IN FAVOR by Rohin G

I strongly believe our chapter should endorse Janeese Lewis-George for mayor of DC. I specifically want to highlight how she has used her position as a councilmember to think outside the box of what an elected official conventionally does. This kind of approach is exactly what we will need to see from our next mayor.

The bottom line is this. Janeese literally stands with us when it matters most. When organized workers and tenants are flexing their collective power, and now more than ever, when neighbors are defending each other, Janeese is there as one of us.

Here are two examples that stand out to me as someone involved in Stomp Out Slumlords and the Community Defense Working Group:

In February 2023, Janeese joined tenants in Ward 4 for a rally protesting unsafe conditions in their building. The tenants were engaged in a protracted rent strike with the support of Stomp Out Slumlords organizers. The councilmember’s involvement helped draw media attention and bolster the tenants’ efforts to put pressure on their slumlord. Crucially, this bolstered tenants’ confidence in their organizing effort and the collective power they were building.

In August 2025, Janeese personally confronted ICE and MPD when they were kidnapping a delivery driver in Ward 4, and was verbally threatened while doing so. Beyond this one example, throughout the federal occupation, she has on multiple occasions shown up in person to keep neighbors safe, notably when massive deployments of armed federal agents have directly threatened Black youth at high school football games.

We as DSA, now have the chance to be the backbone of the coalition that gets a proud democratic socialist elected mayor and to be the force that binds together all of the progressive groups and causes in this city. We need to meet the moment and do so boldly by endorsing Janeese and doing everything we can to elect her mayor of DC.

74

AGAINST by Dami O

The word of today is- “honesty”

In the last 24-48h hours, I have gone back and forth about voting ABSTAIN, after all I’m just from Prince George’s County- my family couldn’t afford to live there 10-20 years ago, I don’t necessarily like going to DC- the gentrification, the pols, the decreasing amount of black people, the discomfort I feel when young white couples walk on the side of the road near me- it all freaks me out. The city is clearly not for me and ceased to be during the Bowser era. Would it be dishonest for me to just deny the potentials of this moment?

I’ve chatted to my dad and a few movement elders about my concerns and about the DSA endorsement- the elders’s curious enough in our internal process and not jaded from years of organizing have encouraged me to just vote YES, the rest have all advised me to stay out of it. “Not your problem” they have told me. Some of these folks have archetypical 30s popular front style beliefs- purity testing is something done by infantilism. “This is how fascism prevails, Dami.” they have chided at me.

Staring at these absurdities in the face I just have to assert something very clear. Key to the cause of socialism- is political and organizational independence. What caused me to join DSA was the willingness of other chapters to assert how much different they were from the political establishment. Social democrats are a dime a dozen- but can you actually find a group that champions the causes of the working people? Now people- identifying movements of ngo’s and people of middle class origin as working class protagonism- really frightens me. Was I duped into joining an urbanist wonk group?- (of which there is many in DC) or am I in an organization that seeks to organize the actual black working class?

Key to my case is the inability of Chapter leadership- for better or for worse in upholding the chapters desire for reductions in police in the district and meeting and affiliating with Zionists. I interpet this in two ways- either that the chapter does not care about these priorties and is back channeling to deconstruct them- or they have much more loose connections with the JLG campaign than we thought. Both of these are unsettling revelations- one shows a complete disrespect for the hundreds of rank and file people that signed the petition in favor of a pol that has betrayed our values and has not apologized for it and the other is rank liquidationsim (downplaying our socialist bonafides to be in a coalition with liberals). I couldn’t tell you which is worse for a socialist organization.

Both of these things are wildly inappropriate and dishonest. If these cracks are already appearing now, I can’t imagine when she meets with much harmful people- or votes for more bills we don’t like? What will give? Will we throw half of the chapter too please one pol? This will undoubtedly tear our chapter apart- not strengthen it. When people voted for Zohran, it wasn’t a question of his beliefs or character, it was a question of his viability. It’s telling that most of this debate is about her character- when she has displayed a big huge lack of it.

Comrades’ if you don’t want this dishonesty or politics to become commonplace in this chapter I urge you to vote against. This will only get worse from here.

75

AGAINST by Sheryl K

If MDC DSA endorses a candidate for any office, that person should be anti-Zionist, pro-Palestine, and against increasing police presence in vulnerable communities. Lewis George says she supports Palestinians yet she refuses to align herself with our Anti-Zionist Resolution. In fact, she won’t even acknowledge our concern that she is working with clearly Zionist organizations and appears willing to continue doing so.

I am so scared for our community with MPD already being a violent and corrupt organization and the influx of the monsters who work as ICE agents. Lewis George wants to increase the number of cops who harass, target, attack, and kill our neighbors. Moreover, MPD collaborates with ICE. Why would we endorse someone whose pro-cop plans will inevitably cause more harm to our neighbors?

I think it is unfortunate that Lewis George’s campaign has caused such division in our Chapter. I have seen people say and do things to increase endorsement votes that conflict with socialist principles. People have been mean to one another. Sometimes it appears people have focused more on their own political futures than on lifting up folks in the DMV as members of DSA. This campaign has brought out the worst in us.

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76

IN FAVOR by Aparna Raj

Janeese’s campaign is a once in a generation opportunity to seize power for the working class in DC and elect a native Washingtonian, democratic socialist mayor. This is a product of the electoral project that the chapter has been building since 2016. Just before Janeese’s first Council election in 2020, the left had almost no elected presence in DC. The 2000s and 2010s set the stage for mass displacement and an evisceration of public services. But Janeese’s win opened up a world of possibility for us and proved that DSA is a force to be reckoned with in DC.

Since she’s been in office, she’s been a true partner with the chapter. She has come out to SOS rallies and done building walkthroughs with tenants in her ward. She worked with the chapter to organize COVID vaccine canvasses during the pandemic and hold ERAP clinics. She helped pass a wealth tax to raise pay for childcare workers in DC. She worked with us on the campaign to pass Initiative 82 and efforts to defend TOPA and was one of the sole votes to uphold both. She signed multiple public letters from elected officials calling for a ceasefire, and was the only Councilmember in DC to do so, and when GW students organized an encampment for Palestine, she was vocally supportive and worked to keep MPD from interfering. She won labor protections in the RFK stadium agreement, has marched with labor and shown up to picket lines, and has often been the lone voice standing up for Black and brown kids against carceral legislation from her colleagues. She goes to DSA Fund events and works with DSA-endorsed electeds across the country to strategize about how to oppose the fascist moment we’re in. And in being a principled elected, she inspired me to run for office in Ward 1.

With Kenyan McDuffie now also in the race, this campaign is an existential fight for us. It’s big, corporate money vs. working people. This is not just an election, it is an opportunity for us to remake the city from one that continues to prioritize corporate interests to one that actually provides for its people and makes sure that every single person has everything they need and more. If we really believe that democratic socialist policies are popular, that they’re the answer to this fascist takeover, Janeese’s race for mayor is our opportunity to prove that.

Her campaign has hit record fundraising numbers and mobilized packed houses from Ward 1 to Ward 8. As much as this endorsement is about throwing our support behind a candidate who has been a partner with us over the years, it is just as much an opportunity to build the chapter and amplify democratic socialist values. Are we going to be an organization that throws down, that fights for the working class of DC, and has the power to improve people’s lives, or are we going to be an organization that sits on the sidelines while others govern for us? Socialism in our lifetime, if we’re willing to fight for it.