Loathing and Apathy in DC's Congressional Race

Photo via CNN

Patrick McFarland: Since 1991, Eleanor Holmes Norton has been Washington, DC's non voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives and while she has faced challenges in previous years, this year there is a stronger desire for change as Norton approaches her eighty-seventh birthday.

Norton’s past four elections have been decisive, with over 85% of the vote each year. This year, Norton faces Democratic primary challenger Kelly Mikel Willians, Republican Myrtle Alexander, and Kymone Freeman from the DC Statehood Green Party.

Only 2.3 miles separate Congresswoman Norton's Capitol Hill office from main street Anacostia. It is a short drive, a longer bus ride–there are no close metro lines–and a fifty-minute walk across the river from Southeast Washington D.C. to Capitol Hill. Yes, they are in the same city, but what seems like a short distance initially shows the ideological divide between Norton and her constituents.

In this election cycle, there is a malaise that looms over the electorate. In Washington, there are themes of rising crime rates, police reform, small businesses’ financial difficulties post-COVID, fears of displacement from gentrification, and a disconnect between communities and their government.

“We constantly have a change in residency,” said Rakin Pugh, campaign staffer for Myrtle Alexander. “Almost every three to four years, the demographics of every ward are changing. There is a lot of diversity, which is a good thing, but it doesn’t feel like everyone is on the same page in bringing the community together.”

According to the US Census Bureau, in 1970, Washington was 71% Black. By 1990, it was 65% Black, and according to the 2020 census, the city’s Black population had decreased to 41%. Washington’s demographics are changing, and for Pugh, it feels like the city is losing its sense of community and character. For others, like DC Green Party candidate Kymone Freeman, the change is more personal.

“My grandfather had an apartment in Shaw. When I was born, Shaw was 90% Black. Now Shaw is seventy white,” said Freeman. “No one told my grandparents or educated my grandparents about TOPA or the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. Every time I go by their building, I feel like I have been denied a birthright because that apartment building was in my family for 30 years. They could have had generational wealth; we were denied that.”

While a loss of community is one reason the voters seem more apathetic, there is also a feeling that the city’s politicians and representatives do not look out for them while treating other residents more favorably.

“The economics of the city have shifted,” said Reverend Graylan Hagler, political and social justice campaigner at Faith Strategies. “Blacks who generally lack behind in terms of wealth, in terms of income to their white counterparts, are completely priced out of the market in DC. DC becomes more attractive as a playground for younger folks. You could find a house on the north or east side of DC that was nearly identical to one on the west side, but the one on the west side would be for a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand dollars more.”

The demographic and economic changes are a significant reason Freeman decided to run for Congress. Called the Fresh Prince of Anacostia by some, Freeman is stylizing his campaign after Martin Luther King's call for a “Revolution of Values.” He centers his campaign around the topics of broadening democracy, increasing voting rights, self-determination, human rights, and a call for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Although these themes may seem broad, the native Washingtonian channels his experiences growing up in the city as it has changed to address significant issues like displacement due to gentrification. Freeman hopes to address the disconnect between voters and those representing the city. Like Hagler, Freeman feels the disconnect began when Anthony Williams took office in 1997.

“We have leadership that has been co-opted and allowed these things to happen,” continued Freeman. “Anthony Williams is single-handedly responsible for displacement in this city. He went around the country to bring businesses to invest in DC. They offer companies 10 years of tax credit. Did they give small businesses a tax credit during the construction of the Metro? No, that’s misleadership.”

While a desire for a change in leadership is one of the many issues driving Freeman's campaign, Kelly Mikel Williams' campaign is motivated by a lack of an effective social safety net and his experiences being homeless in the District. Originally from Southern California, Williams moved to Washington in 1997 to work in Bill Clinton's White House. When Bush took office in 2001, Williams was left without a job.

“It was a very significant time; my son was three at the time,” Williams said. “We were trying to find the services and help from the District only to find that there were no shelters or programs being provided.”

Running a campaign against a well-established incumbent, Williams has centered his campaign around “commonsense thinking and real-life experience,” focusing on affordable housing, crime, economic development, education, youth development, and DC Statehood. Williams has not done much to distinguish himself from Norton or stray from the Democrats’ positions on policy.

“We have great opportunities here, but we haven’t had much of a vision,” continued Williams. “We don’t know what’s happening in Congress from the standpoint of our elected official. There is a low expectation and vision of where we are going.”

While Williams uses his story and personal experiences to connect with voters and hopes to use federal revenues more effectively to relieve the financial burden on the Mayor and city council, Williams and Republican Myrtle Alexander share a desire for better use of federal spending. Alexander, who is originally from the United Kingdom, has spent the past 25 years working at the intersection of academia, business, and education. She launched projects assisting students in alternative schools to obtain apprenticeships.

“I have watched the United States from when I was a toddler - America the Great,” said Alexander. “But when you come to the nation’s capital, you think, where are the Founding Fathers, where are the values, where is everything we read about? Why are there homeless people on the street? Why is there so much crime? How can it be so bad? Everybody wants to come to the USA, and I want people of the nation’s capital to have the best.”

As a Republican, Alexander is running on the “Party of Lincoln” banner to distinguish herself from the national Republican candidates. Occasionally, Alexander slips into modern Republican talking points, focusing her campaign on the “seven pillars” of bringing back the bible, restoring the traditional family, education choice, being tough on crime, reenergizing the economy, addressing mental health, and assisting the homeless in obtaining homeownership.

Although she is not a native Washingtonian, Alexander’s message resonates with District residents like Rakim Pugh, who want something to change.

“I want my community to all strive for the same common goal, and I don’t think we are there yet,” said Pugh. “We don’t have a standard to effect change. We need to have a conversation among all groups. We need to allow people to discuss how to build a community, starting a project, funding an organization. Elanor has been in office longer than I have been alive, and people are used to certain people, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need change.”

Norton’s campaign team did not respond to requests for comment.

Across the board, the candidates are calling for change. Their shared concern is that Norton’s age breeds apathy, and in the past few years, they have not seen results. Much like disenfranchised voters nationally, the upcoming election is a referendum on how voters feel about the trajectory of their community. While each candidate brings different approaches to address the malaise they notice with voters, they hope they will be part of Washington’s next chapter.

Patrick McFarland is a Masters student at Georgetown studying Communication and Journalism. He writes for other on-campus publication organizations such as The Voice.