Thousands of voters in D.C. turned out to vote in the 2022 midterm elections Tuesday night, re-electing several candidates while also ushering in change for the District’s tipped minimum wage.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser won her third term, at-large Council member Anita Bonds’ won reelection and D.C. voters passed Initiative 82, which will gradually phase out D.C.’s tipped minimum wage, according to WTOP. As of Wednesday morning, the battle for the second at-large seat on the D.C. Council has yet to be called, but moderate Ward 5 Council member Kenyan McDuffie is currently leading progressive incumbent at-large Council member Elissa Silverman by about three percent with votes yet to be counted.
Check out what D.C. voters decided Tuesday:
Bowser becomes D.C.’s 2nd three-term Mayor
Bowser won a crowded primary in June, facing opposition from progressive Council members Robert White and Trayon White. In the general election, Bowser ran against no significant opponents and secured her widely expected win early Tuesday night, with the Associated Press calling the race around 8:30 p.m.
Bowser, a moderate Democrat, became nationally known during her second term, where she frequently sparred with former President Donald Trump on issues like the pandemic response and social justice, which included the renaming of a section of 16th street to Black Lives Matter plaza in 2020, in the middle of national BLM protests. Bowser also led the District’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering 1.4 million vaccines to D.C. residents.
Bowser has attracted both praise and criticism for her handling of homelessness and affordable housing in D.C. and has signaled both issues as priorities for her next four years in office.
Bowser campaigned on the addition of revenue-generating developments like supermarkets in Wards 7 and 8, and she oversaw a 2019 plan to build 36,000 houses in D.C. by 2025, a project which reached its halfway point last year. Bowser increased the number of police officers in the District to combat an uptick in violent crime.
Anita Bonds re-elected to the D.C. Council
Bonds, who was first elected to the at-large Council seat in a 2012 special election, won her third full term on the D.C. Council. After winning the Democratic primary in June, Bonds led the at-large field by a comfortable margin all Tuesday night, finally winning the seat around midnight with 32 percent of the vote, according to WTOP.
Despite a reputation as a contrarian on the Council, Bonds enjoyed endorsements from several unions and received praise from Bowser at the latter’s election night victory party. Bonds has identified “responsible” implementation of D.C.’s funding for affordable housing as a top priority for her future on the Council.
D.C. votes to phase out tipped minimum wage
District voters overwhelmingly chose to approve Initiative 82, which will gradually increase D.C.’s tipped minimum wage to $15.05. The race was called around 10 p.m. Tuesday, with the Initiative receiving 75 percent of the vote and leading in every single precinct in D.C., according to the Washington Post.
Ryan O’Leary – the chairman of the D.C. Committee to Build a Better Restaurant Industry, which spearheaded efforts to pass the initiative – said earlier this month that the initiative, which has received strong support from progressive groups and worker rights advocates, will help both businesses and workers, giving workers higher wages and incentivizing higher retention rates at restaurants and bars.
“When you pay everybody a fair wage with tips on top, they generally stay where they’re working, which saves the business owner money, but also, it just makes the businesses themselves more resilient to economic changes,” O’Leary said.
In 2018, D.C. voters passed Initiative 77, which passed with 55% of the vote, but the D.C. Council overturned the measure before it could be enacted. A majority of incumbent Council members have signaled they will not seek another repeal in the event of an Initiative 82 victory.
