The key to Magic Johnson’s game was always communication.

Johnson, a basketball Hall of Famer, was renowned for his highlight-worthy passes to teammates, a skill that required constant communication with teammates. That desire to interface with those around them is shared by Rondell “Magic” Jordan, the independent, write-in candidate for the D.C. Council’s Ward 2 seat — who happens to be nicknamed after the basketball legend.

Jordan, a Brooklyn native who moved to Dupont Circle in 2019, is a civil rights attorney who has spent his career representing young people in the criminal justice system. Jordan is embedded in the life of Ward 2, which encompasses GW and Foggy Bottom, and wants to take on city-wide issues like the housing crisis and poverty without retreading failed policies. That’s why this election, we urge Ward 2 residents to vote for him. 

Jordan wants to help unhoused people in the District by, at first, talking to them — collecting data to form an evidence-backed understanding of how to help them. His plan to address poverty in the area is very simple but refreshingly visionary: Just give people money. Jordan wants to stop pouring funds into service workers who “manage” those living in poverty and instead give that money back to the people who need it most. He said he’s happy to eliminate managerial jobs if it alleviates poverty for a handful of D.C. residents. We view this direct approach to reducing poverty for our neighbors as a breath of fresh air. We can’t guarantee that the policies will work, but we know the current plans aren’t effective, and Jordan does too.

Jordan said he also wants to hold D.C. housing developers accountable by “calling them out.” He slammed developers who take advantage of tax breaks that root in the construction of “affordable” housing units. He recognized the “ugly truth” that after completion, these apartments can ultimately be unaffordable and remain unfilled while developers face no consequences. As he put it, “you can’t unbuild the building.”

We find these goals commendable, taking on established unnecessary D.C. bureaucratic infrastructure to remedy the ever-growing housing crisis in the city and deliver real help to those who need it. But what’s as appealing as the goals themselves is his approach to tackling root problems. He said he wants to talk to unhoused residents about their situation because “the people who are experts on homelessness are the unhoused.” We’re glad to see a public leader in the District focused on listening to all their residents, not just those who wield the most power to influence politicians.

Another tenet of Jordan’s campaign is a conversation-based approach to gun violence issues, which he views as a public health crisis. He said most leaders are eager to define young Black boys and men as either “super predators or particularly dangerous human beings” that should be locked up. Having a leader in Jordan willing to identify problems in the criminal justice system is the only way those problems can be fixed. 

Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto — the Democratic incumbent for the seat who does appear on the ballot — whose Secure DC law passed earlier this year, instituted harsh penalties and broader definitions of crimes. Jordan said her policies are reminiscent of the infamous 1994 crime bill that led to increased mass incarceration. On her website, Pinto calls the bill a “historic” achievement. Jordan, on the other hand, plans to examine the history of crime reduction, educate young people about the harms associated with gun violence and offer grief and trauma counseling for victims of such violence — a preventative, rather than retroactive, approach. In an interview with the Georgetowner, Pinto said she wants to “maintain the systems in Georgetown.” But there’s broken systems outside Georgetown’s row houses, and we’ve seen that approaches to crime prevention like Pinto’s don’t work. Ward 2 residents deserve someone who recognizes that. 

When we spoke with Jordan, he didn’t recite a series of focus group-tested phrases most likely to win voters over. He cursed and blasted city leaders for not giving “a damn.” Every politician, from advisory neighborhood commissioners to the president of the United States, would probably say they wanted to listen to their constituents and solve problems accordingly — but Jordan made his case in a way that put his passion on display and showed that status-seeking career advancement isn’t at the forefront of his work. 

Ward 2 is also yearning to have a councilmember that they can trust. In 2020, longtime Councilmember Jack Evans resigned amid corruption from using his political power to pad his wallet. Pinto, his replacement, has faced allegations of campaign finance law violations. This campaign hasn’t been free of controversy, either. Jordan said he wound up running as a write-in for the seat after Pinto contested the signatures he collected for ballot access over the summer, leading them to be deemed invalid due to what he called honest mistakes. Our editorial board wrote in 2020 that Ward 2 voters had a chance to “turn over a new leaf” by voting for Pinto’s opponent. That’s still true today.

We reached out to Pinto’s campaign to meet before writing this endorsement and received no response.

If Jordan were to win, we don’t think that he will have solved poverty, gun violence and housing insecurity four years from now. But we do think he would have had the right conversations with the right groups — those affected by the issues — and would make himself more visible than our current representative. That’s all you can ask from your leader in local government.

That being said, we hope to see Jordan expand the realm of his communication with constituents. He readily admitted that he doesn’t spend time in Georgetown, though the neighborhood falls in Ward 2, and we would remind him that if he wins, he will represent those constituents as much as any others. We appreciated his ideas on how to fix District-wide problems, but we also would have liked to see more plans specifically targeted for Ward 2. Jordan is right to critique the “weird idea that what happens in Ward 7 and Ward 8 doesn’t affect” Ward 2 residents — but ultimately, he will be elected by people in this area and no one else. If he emerges victorious, we encourage him to strike a balance between serving Ward 2 on an immediate level as he works to solve the most pressing city-wide issues.

We also want the idealistic Jordan to view governance through a more practical lens. It can be refreshing to hear a candidate openly blast “Suits”-style bureaucrats as “the worst kind of lawyer,” but amid the impending possibility of a Republican in the White House that seeks to ramp up federal control over D.C., we hope Jordan can balance his desire to take on the establishment with necessary compromises that make up the core of governing.

Ultimately, we see Jordan as a candidate who promises the communication, approach and advocacy that a local politician should have, and Ward 2 residents should write in his name for D.C. Council because of that. Like his namesake, Jordan deserves a chance to run the point on Ward 2 policy.