D.C. mayoral candidates addressed their plans to advocate for affordable housing, solidify D.C. statehood and tackle government corruption at the Jack Morton Auditorium Wednesday.
Democratic mayoral candidates Janeese Lewis George, Gary Goodweather, Ernest Johnson, Vincent Orange and Rini Sampath laid out their plans and policies for their mayorship, including addressing record-high utility rates, the ongoing housing crisis and the need for restructured government accountability systems to combat the “culture of corruption” in D.C. Steve Roberts, a professor of media and public affairs and member of The Hatchet’s Board of Directors, moderated the non-partisan forum, which GW hosted in partnership with The Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area and the League of Women Voters.
Lewis George, a D.C. Councilmember for Ward 4, and former At-large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie currently lead the polls in the race that will give the District a new mayor for the first time in a decade after Mayor Muriel Bowser said in November 2025 she will not run in this election cycle. McDuffie took part in a previous debate at the Jack Morton Auditorium but did not participate in this one.
The Democratic primary for the mayoral election is set for June 16.
Lewis George said the city’s next mayor would need to address the District’s affordability crisis, stand up to the President Donald Trump and ensure safety for all families in D.C. She said in her last six years on the D.C. Council, she has been frustrated that the body has not done enough to pass legislation providing basic government services.
“I believe that leadership on the executive level is necessary to fix all these issues, and I’m ready to do it on day one,” she said.
She said her humanity would help guide her as mayor, a driving force behind her desire to stand up for D.C.’s underpaid Black and brown women, early childhood educators and workers in the District. Lewis George said she has worked with these groups in the past and wants to see them gain a livable wage.
“I want to lead as a leader with humanity and seeing people at their best,” Lewis George said.
Lewis George said the government needs to rethink D.C.’s development, and she will do that by creating a business development corporation to ensure the government is making “smart investments” downtown, promoting and expanding D.C. universities and leveraging hospitals for innovation and growth to attract people to the city.
“We have to reimagine D.C.,” Lewis Geogre said. “The last 50 years of D.C. is not going to be the next 50 years.”
Goodweather, a real estate developer who is running for his first elected position, said the current government is not “truly” supporting its residents, and D.C. has been divided racially, socioeconomically and physically because of the policies in place under the current government.
Goodweather said he is focused on making the District affordable for “everyone.” He said the first thing he plans to do as mayor is audit the budget to see what programs are working for residents in the District and which ones are not to find funds to reallocate.
“The ones that are working, we can allocate more dollars to, and the ones that are not potentially need to be eliminated,” he said.
Goodweather said the District’s government needs to start utilizing all of the intellectual capital in the city by making it easier for workers to get their businesses running in the District. He said he plans to accomplish that through his workforce development program, which he said will help provide career pathways for residents.
Johnson, who worked as a real estate executive and community activist but doesn’t hold a government position, said the mayor needs to be able to represent the city and look out for residents’ interests. He said residents shouldn’t have to read all the reports or go to all of the meetings and advocate for themselves, because that is what government officials are given “millions of dollars” a year to do.
“I think you have to have a mayor that’s willing to stand up to special interests and say that the money is going into our school system, and needs to go into our classrooms and not into your pocket,” he said.
Johnson said he is “really disappointed” in the representation the District has had historically and that there has been too much violence and major crimes, which is “unacceptable.”
“It’s time for authentic grassroots leadership, and that’s what my campaign calls for,” he said. “It’s people first.”
Orange, who served as an at-large D.C. councilmember until 2016, said he is “able to deliver” on issues like increasing the minimum wage. He said that D.C. doesn’t have a money problem, it has a management problem.
He said the pursuit of home rule is “not negotiable,” and he plans to approach the White House with that attitude, but he said as mayor he would also work to tackle corruption within the city, particularly considering the recent Metropolitan Police Department restructuring, which included putting 13 members of MPD on leave amid an internal investigation.
“We got to tell the truth about the money, we got to tell the truth about public safety, we got to hold these parents and teenagers accountable so we can be around in the city and all the city tells the truth,” he said.
Orange said another one of his priorities is ensuring younger residents of the District can get their education, and he wants to stop giving D.C.’s youth money to “leave the city” and encourage them to stay to get their education.
“Education is the key, and I’m going to make sure that the children in the District of Columbia have a better and a better quality of life,” Orange said.
Sampath, who is running for her first elected position, said she wants to promote good governance in government and that when she points out corruption, she does it because she cares about the District’s people and wants them to live better lives. She said she wants to use technology to improve how public agencies provide benefits and programs across the government.
“I want to see D.C. government actually perform as a high-performing organization that caters to your needs, that treats the people as true customers, and we can do that through technology,” Sampath said.
Sampath said she is the “only” candidate in the race who is not proposing new programs. She said it is “dishonest” to suggest expanding certain programs when the current economic environment makes it difficult to provide certain basic services like childcare centers in the District, which she wants to do by recovering money from other parts of the budget that aren’t as necessary.
“If we run D.C. government effectively, we don’t propose any programs until we actually clean up our city and make it work better, we’re not going to have to deal with a crisis like this,” Sampath said.
