Voters Guide: Ward 8 incumbent Trayon White faces three challengers

Challengers Stuart Anderson, Mike Austin and Yaida Ford are seeking to defeat incumbent Trayon White for the Democratic nomination for the Ward 8 DC Council seat.

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Stuart Anderson

• Neighborhood: Anacostia
• Occupation: Family engagement support specialist for Social Emotional and Academic Success for Children and Parents (SEACAP); marketing manager for Day Eight and the Essential Theatre; and founding director of Family and Friends of Incarcerated People (FFIP)
• Current or previous elected office/civic activities: Former community engagement specialist for the Anacostia Coordinating Council; co-founder of Don’t Mute My Health
• Education: Associate degree in legal assistance and bachelor’s degree in urban studies from the University of the District of Columbia
• Age: 60
• Hometown: District of Columbia
• How long have you lived in your current home?: 13 years

Stuart Anderson is a grandfather, community activist and returning citizen who spent over 10 years in prison. He believes his policies will reduce trauma and violence in Ward 8. The slogan of his campaign is “one aim, one mission, one ward.” 

Given Anderson’s background as a co-founder of Don’t Mute My Health, it’s not surprising that his No. 1 priority as a council member is health care, especially health care for senior citizens. 

Seniors are also a major factor in another of Anderson’s priorities: housing. In addition to maintaining public and subsidized housing, Anderson wants to make sure DC seniors can age in place. A champion for statehood, Anderson asserts that, as a state, DC would have substantially more latitude on housing policy without the potential for congressional interference, as well as greater access to federal grants. 

“We get statehood, there’s a lot we can do with housing,” Anderson said in an interview. 

When Anderson talks of reforming education, he starts by reverently reaffirming his respect for area teachers, saying that he believes DC has some of the “best educators and best instructors.” The candidate sees trauma as a major problem in DC classrooms, exacerbated in Ward 8 by limited access to grocery stores and quality, affordable housing. “Minds that have been nourished properly can learn better, make better decisions,” he said. 

Trauma and violence come up continually in Anderson’s focuses for Ward 8, but the candidate sees them as symptoms of deeper problems. Saying he doesn’t believe incumbent Trayon White is addressing root causes such as inadequate housing and health care, Anderson vowed to mobilize advisory neighborhood commissions and civic organizations to confront these issues if he is elected.

“I got a plan and idea for all of these,” Anderson said. “I’m trying to get it down to a one-pager.” 

— Click for a Q&A with Stuart Anderson

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Mike Austin

• Neighborhood: Congress Heights
• Occupation: Former vice president of public relations and corporate secretary for the United Medical Center; former legislative director for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Greater Economic Opportunity; former legislative director for LaRuby May, who represented Ward 8 on the DC Council from 2015 to 2017
• Current or previous elected office/civic activities: Chair, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8C; commissioner, ANC 8C01, representing Congress Heights 
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science from Xavier University in Louisiana; Juris Doctorate from the Charlotte School of Law in Charlotte, North Carolina
• Age: 32
• Hometown: District of Columbia (fourth-generation) 
• How long have you lived in your current home?: Since 2017

Mike Austin is a politically connected DC native who aims to improve living conditions in Ward 8 by using his nuts-and-bolts experience working as a legislative director for one of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s deputy mayors and for former Ward 8 Council member LaRuby May. He’s the chair of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8C, and at 32 he is the youngest candidate in the race.

Austin’s priorities as prospective council member flow into each other. At the end of the pipeline is a reduction in crime, which Austin hopes to achieve by strengthening job opportunities and workforce training. Austin believes that crime in Ward 8 has its roots in a lack of economic opportunity, and that the best way to combat it is to be more thoughtful about how the community builds its workforce. He aims to bring more high-paying jobs to the ward.  

Austin proposes to ensure that DC residents are ready to enter the workforce or college in part by improving conditions in Ward 8 schools. His plan includes expanding early childhood education, taking steps to slow the rate of teacher turnover, and addressing the needs of schools hurt by previous budget cuts.

“We’ve got 17 schools underfunded,” Austin said. “We have schools that are sharing nurses. I’m frustrated with that.”

During his phone interview with The DC Line, Austin was driving around delivering gloves and hand sanitizer to Ward 8 residents amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Mid-conversation, he pulled over to check on some drivers who had gotten into a traffic accident.

— Click for a Q&A with Mike Austin

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Yaida Ford

• Neighborhood: Anacostia
• Occupation: Civil rights attorney
• Current or previous elected office/civic activities: Worked as legislative counsel to the DC Council Committee on Human Services; served on the steering committee for the Fair Budget Coalition; taught constitutional law to students in DC Public Schools
• Education:  Bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish from Denison University in Granville, Ohio; Juris Doctorate from the Howard University School of Law
• Age: 39
• Hometown: Seattle
• How long have you lived in your current home?: 15 years (out of 18 years in DC)

Yaida Ford has called the District home for nearly 20 years since relocating from Seattle. As a civil rights attorney, Ford has worked on hundreds of cases, many with origins in DC neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. Several of Ford’s cases have involved instances of police brutality. Ford — known to clients as a “pitbull,” according to her firm — hopes to bring her legal chops and tenacious advocacy to the council.

Ford’s top issue in the campaign is education. She believes that making sure students are properly fed and that teachers are adequately paid are key components to providing equitable, high-quality education throughout Ward 8. 

Health care also factors heavily into Ford’s plans. Specifically, she aims to advocate for the creation of a full-service Ward 8 hospital. She also means to bring in two full-service grocery stores to alleviate the persistent issues of food insecurity that have plagued Ward 8 neighborhoods for years.

“We have to invest in the ward if we want to address the health disparities that continue to plague our community,” Ford said in an email exchange with The DC Line. 

Grocery stores aren’t the only new businesses Ford intends to encourage. She hopes to foster the creation of more small businesses in Ward 8 as well as to attract larger companies looking to expand, provided they are willing to commit to hiring Ward 8 residents and paying them a living family wage. By combining this approach with job training and apprenticeship programs, Ford expects to widen “pathways to the middle class” for Ward 8 residents. 

— Click for a Q&A with Yaida Ford

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Trayon White

• Neighborhood: Washington Highlands
• Occupation: DC Council member, Ward 8 (first elected in 2016)
• Current or previous elected office/civic activities: Former Ward 8 representative on the DC State Board of Education (elected in a special election in 2011 and to a full term in 2012); founder of Bold Brothas for Christ and Helping Inner City Kids Succeed Inc.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore; master’s degree in public administration from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida
• Age: 35
• Hometown: District of Columbia
• How long have you lived in your current home?: Nearly 10 years

Trayon White, a Ward 8 native who graduated from Ballou High School, is known for his boots-on-the-ground response to crime and violence that combines personal involvement and social media. White has said that he originally got into public service after losing four young men on a youth football team he was coaching to homicide. He sometimes heads to crime scenes with his smartphone in hand to stream or record. 

“I grew up in this community. I’m very familiar with the environment,” said White in an interview for The Rock Newman Show on WHUT shortly after his election to the council. “I’m connected a lot of times with the families.” 

White’s social media usage has also gotten him into trouble, most famously when he was criticized as anti-Semitic for saying in a Facebook video that the Rothschilds, a wealthy Jewish family at the nexus of many an internet conspiracy theory, were manipulating DC weather. 

White has called housing a “critical issue,” and he has made some legislative strides in this arena while on the council, including the introduction of the East of the River High Risk Displacement Prevention Services and Fund Establishment Act of 2019. The legislation would create a fund to help long-term, low-income DC residents stay in their homes as the tide of gentrification advances. 

White previously served as Ward 8’s representative on the DC State Board of Education from 2011 to 2016. As a council member, he introduced the DC Public Schools Alternative to Suspension Act, which aimed to more closely monitor the use of suspensions in area schools. He also netted $10 million in funding for Ward 8 schools that had lost funding in the mayor’s 2020 budget.

— Click for a Q&A with Trayon White campaign