Democratic socialist wins DC mayor’s office

Democratic socialist Janeese Lewis George was projected to win the race for mayor of Washington and lead the nation’s capital through the end of President Trump’s second term, according to Decision Desk HQ.

Retiring Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) has led the city for a decade, tangling with the Trump administration over crime, public safety and the president’s changes to the District . Lewis George garnered about 86 percent of the vote, per DDHQ.

Lewis George emerged this summer from a crowded Democratic primary, the first in two decades without an incumbent on the ballot. She defeated a more moderate competitor as progressives notched key midterm wins across the country.

Roughly three-quarters of D.C. voters are registered Democrats , leading to friction between the city’s leaders and the Republicans controlling the White House and Capitol Hill.

Trump last year took federal control of the D.C. police department and deployed the National Guard in the city, claiming that the capital had been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people.”

Crime was down 35 percent in D.C. in 2024, marking a 30-year low. It dropped 18 percent in 2025, the first year of Trump’s second term, according to data from the District.

Lewis George, a former prosecutor who has served on the D.C. Council for six years, pledged to “work with anyone to the benefit of D.C. residents,” calling work with the federal government “an essential” in an interview with 7News just ahead of Election Day.

Lewis George joins New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as another member of the Democratic Socialists of America to win the mayor’s office in a major blue city.

Amid the primary, Trump warned that the government could “take back” D.C. if a “crazy socialist” was ultimately elected.