A City Chooses Its Next Chapter
On Tuesday, November 3, 2026, voters in Washington, DC, will make a choice they have not faced in more than a decade: who should lead the city next. Mayor Muriel Bowser is not seeking a fourth term, so the mayor’s office will change hands for the first time since she took office, and the ballot below that headline contest is unusually full. Residents will choose members of the DC Council, decide who speaks for them in Washington’s complicated federal arrangement, fill seats on the State Board of Education, weigh in on neighbourhood commissions, and vote on a ballot measure about foie gras. Taken together, the ballot is less a single election than a reset of much of the city’s elected leadership at once.
The practical details matter as much as the names. Early voting ran from October 26 through November 1, from 8:30 in the morning until 7 in the evening, and on Election Day voting centres are open from 7 in the morning until 8 in the evening. Voters can cast a ballot at any voting centre in the District, regardless of where they live, which removes one of the most common sources of confusion on polling day. Mail ballots also remain part of the picture, with drop boxes open in the run-up to the election and mailed ballots counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within the window set by election officials. For residents who work long hours or commute across ward boundaries, those logistics determine who can actually take part.
This election also arrives under a changed voting system. Voters approved ranked-choice voting in 2024 as Initiative 83, and the new system made its debut in the June primary before reaching a general election for the first time this November. In contests with three or more candidates, voters may rank candidates in order of preference rather than picking just one name. If no candidate initially wins a majority, the last-place candidate is eliminated and those ballots are transferred to each voter’s next-ranked choice, and the process repeats until a winner emerges. The change is most visible in the at-large Council race, where voters face a grid asking them to rank up to five choices, but its logic runs through the ballot: in a crowded field, a voter’s second or third choice can become decisive.
The Mayor’s Race: A Succession, Not Just a Contest
Three candidates are running to succeed Bowser: Janeese Lewis George, the Democrat; Rhonda Hamilton, an independent; and Robert L. Gross, of the DC Statehood Green Party. Lewis George, a two-term DC Council member, won the Democratic primary in June, defeating fellow Council member Kenyan McDuffie in a contest that, in a heavily Democratic city, effectively settled the direction of the general election campaign. Reporting on the race has treated her as the heavy favourite to become the District’s next mayor, and much of the general election discussion has therefore focused less on whether the outcome is in doubt than on what kind of mayor she would be.
What makes this succession matter is the sheer breadth of the mayor’s job in the District. Washington is not a city inside a state; it is a federal district with a unique governing arrangement, a large public workforce, a school system, a police department, and a budget that must be negotiated in the shadow of Congress, which retains oversight powers over District affairs. The mayor sets the tone for agencies that touch daily life in concrete ways: how quickly a pothole is filled, how a housing development moves through review, how police and emergency services are staffed, how parks and libraries are maintained, and how the city responds when federal decisions ripple through its streets and finances. A new mayor does not merely inherit an office; the new mayor inherits relationships with the Council, with Congress, with business and labour groups, and with neighbourhood organisations, and must renew them while keeping city government running.
The campaigns in this race have focused on local issues generally, and this article does not attribute specific policy pledges to candidates beyond what reputable reporting has established. That restraint matters in a race where national attention can tempt writers to fill gaps with assumption. What can be said with confidence is that the contest is about stewardship of a city in transition: a city that has grown and changed, and that now must choose a leader to carry that work forward without the continuity of an incumbent seeking re-election. The winner will face the familiar District paradox from day one: governing a city of more than 600,000 people with the responsibilities of a mayor and a governor combined, while lacking the voting representation in Congress that a state governor’s residents take for granted.
The Council: Citywide Seats and Ward Races
The DC Council has thirteen members: a chair and four at-large members elected citywide, and eight members elected by ward. Two at-large seats are on this ballot, and the contest for them is the most structurally interesting race in the city. Four candidates are running: Oye Owolewa, the Democrat, who currently serves as the city’s shadow representative to the US House of Representatives; Elissa Silverman, the independent incumbent; Darrell Green, the Republican, a retired DC police officer; and Darryl Moch, of the DC Statehood Green Party, who chairs that party in the District. Under the District’s rules, only one of the two at-large seats can be held by a member of the majority party, so the contest is not simply a race between two Democrats but a competition across party lines for a seat reserved, in effect, for a non-majority voice.
The at-large race matters because at-large Council members are the only Council members, apart from the chair, who answer to the whole city rather than to a single ward. They shape citywide legislation on housing, taxes, public safety, transportation, and the budget, and they often become the Council’s most visible voices on issues that cross ward boundaries. A ward member can champion a neighbourhood; an at-large member must balance neighbourhoods against one another. In a city where development in one ward can affect traffic, schools, and rents in another, that citywide perspective shows up in votes on large projects, on tax policy, and on how money is spent across eight very different wards.
The ward Council races on this ballot cover Wards 1, 3, 5, and 6, and they illustrate how different a local election can feel from one part of the city to another. In Ward 3, incumbent Democrat Matthew Frumin is running unopposed in the general election, so that contest was effectively settled in the primary. In Ward 1, the Democratic nominee, Aparna Raj, faces Republican Jett James Jasper, independent Ryan Prince, and Statehood Green candidate Jude Crannitch, in an open-seat race after the incumbent retired. In Ward 5, incumbent Zachary Parker faces Republican Jeffrey Kihien-Palza and Statehood Green candidate Joyce Robinson-Paul. In Ward 6, three-term incumbent Charles Allen is defending his seat. Voters in each ward are deciding something different: continuity in some places, a fresh start in others.
Voters will also choose the chair of the DC Council, with incumbent Democrat Phil Mendelson facing Republican Abi-Ananiah Prudent and independent candidate John C. Cheecks, and the District’s attorney general, with Democrat Brian Schwalb seeking another term against Republican Manuel Rivera. The chair sets the Council’s agenda and manages the legislative calendar, which gives the office quiet but real power over what gets debated and when. The attorney general handles the District’s legal affairs, from consumer protection to litigation involving city agencies. These are not glamorous contests, but they determine how the Council works and how the city defends its interests in court. The Council writes local laws, approves the budget, and oversees agencies, so its choices show up in rents, classroom sizes, commute times, and the condition of the street outside a voter’s front door — and how policies can change profit and loss for households is felt first at the kitchen table, not in a hearing room.
Representation Without a Vote in Congress
One of the most distinctive features of the DC ballot is that it asks voters to choose representatives to a Congress in which the District has no voting voice. DC does not have voting representation in Congress, but residents elect a nonvoting delegate to the US House of Representatives, and that seat is open this year for the first time in decades after Eleanor Holmes Norton chose not to seek another term. The candidates are Robert White, the Democrat; Denise Rosado, the Republican; and Kymone Freeman, of the DC Statehood Green Party. White, an at-large Council member, won the Democratic primary for the position, and reporting has treated him as the heavy favourite. The delegate can speak on the House floor and serve on committees, but cannot cast a vote on final passage of legislation.
Voters will also elect a shadow US senator and a shadow US representative. These officials advocate for DC statehood but do not hold voting seats in Congress, and their role is often misunderstood. The shadow delegation exists to lobby, to organise, and to keep the statehood argument in front of Congress and the public, rather than to legislate. In the shadow Senate race, incumbent Democrat Paul Strauss faces Republican Robert Simmons. In the shadow House race, Democrat Franklin Garcia, who previously held the seat, faces Republican Ciprian Ivanof. Owolewa, the outgoing shadow representative, is giving up that seat to run for the at-large Council position, which is why the shadow House contest is open. For voters, these races are a statement about the District’s political identity: they ask whether the city should keep pressing for statehood, and who should carry that argument.
Schools: The State Board of Education in Four Wards
Residents of Wards 1, 3, 5, and 6 will also elect members of the State Board of Education, and these races deserve attention precisely because they are easy to overlook at the bottom of a long ballot. The State Board is an independent, elected body that shapes public education policy in the District, and its members represent individual wards rather than the city as a whole. The positions are nonpartisan, so candidates do not run with a party label, and the contests often turn on questions that matter deeply to families: how schools are supported, how standards are set, and how the District balances traditional public schools with charter schools.
In Ward 1, Ben Williams is running unopposed. In Ward 3, incumbent Eric Goulet is being challenged by Aaron Wesolowski, in a contest that has drawn attention because of disagreements over education policy, including Goulet’s friendliness toward charter schools and Wesolowski’s backing from the teachers’ union. In Ward 5, two non-incumbent candidates are running: Jon Alfuth against Lynn Jennings. In Ward 6, three non-incumbents are competing: Amber A. Williams, David Parker, and Joshua Wiley. An unopposed race in one ward and a three-way contest in another mean voters in different parts of the city are exercising very different degrees of choice over who oversees their schools. Schools are also among the largest public institutions in any ward, anchoring communities and influencing where families choose to live, so these races ripple well beyond the classroom.
Neighbourhood Power: Advisory Neighborhood Commissions
Below the citywide and ward offices sits a layer of government that many voters encounter only when something goes wrong on their street: the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, known as ANCs. Dozens of ANC seats are up for grabs, and their commissioners advise the city on zoning, development, traffic, liquor licences, and other neighbourhood-level decisions. ANCs do not pass laws, but their advice carries formal weight: city agencies are required to give “great weight” to ANC recommendations, and a developer, a business owner, or a resident seeking a change to a property or a licence will often find the ANC is the first body to hear the case. A proposal for a new apartment building, a change to a bus route, a late-night licence for a bar, or a traffic-calming measure on a residential street all pass through ANC review, and the commissioners who sit on those bodies are neighbours, not professional politicians. Many Council members began as ANC commissioners, so these seats are also a training ground for the city’s future leadership — and a seat left blank can leave a neighbourhood without a voice when a consequential decision arrives.
Initiative 86: The Foie Gras Question
The ballot’s most talked-about measure may also be its most unusual. Initiative 86, the Prohibiting Force-Feeding of Birds Act of 2026, would prohibit force-feeding birds to enlarge their livers and ban the sale or distribution of products made through that practice, including foie gras. A yes vote supports adopting the restrictions; a no vote rejects them. The measure would be enforced by the DC Department of Energy and Environment and would include civil penalties for violations. It qualified for the ballot after supporters gathered more than the required number of valid signatures, clearing a threshold that ensures only measures with demonstrated public support reach voters.
Supporters frame the measure as an animal welfare issue, arguing that force-feeding birds to enlarge their livers is cruel and that the city should not permit the sale of products made that way. Opponents frame it as a question of choice and government overreach, arguing that diners and restaurants should decide for themselves, and that a ban would affect chefs, suppliers, and small businesses serving a niche but loyal market. What the measure would actually do, if passed, is narrower than the headlines suggest: it would target a specific production practice and the products resulting from it, of which foie gras is the best known, rather than banning poultry products generally. Initiative 86 also illustrates how direct democracy works in the District, where residents can gather signatures to place a proposal directly before voters without first passing it through the Council. Whether it passes or fails, its presence is a reminder that DC voters can write law themselves, one measure at a time.
What Happens Next
When polls close on November 3, results will arrive in stages. Unofficial results will be reported on election night, but they will not become official until the Board of Elections certifies them, allowing time for mailed ballots to arrive and for close contests to be checked. Ranked-choice tabulation adds a further step in multi-candidate races, so some races may take longer to call than others. The winners will then face a city expecting continuity and change at the same time: a new mayor assembling an administration, new Council members learning the legislative process, and a new delegate building relationships on Capitol Hill from scratch. Think of this ballot as nested decisions — a mayor, a Council, a delegate and shadow delegation, a school board, neighbourhood commissions, and a direct question about foie gras — adding up to a portrait of a city deciding, in one day, how it wants to be governed for years to come.
Sources
USN reviewed reporting from multiple outlets for this story. Read more from USA Today, City Cast DC and Washington Blade.