jonetta rose barras: Two candidates in the general election delegate race say no federal taxes for DC residents
The DC Council is expected to meet next month, just weeks before the general election, to hear testimony on a bevy of taxes and other revenue-raising mechanisms, including a wealth tax, a business activity tax, a pied-à-terre tax, and legislation that would change the frequency of property tax payments while altering the criteria for determining market value. One thing that won’t likely be on the table at that invitation-only Oct. 16 public hearing is a proposal that would exempt District residents from federal taxes.
That latter concept has been embraced and is a major part of the issues platform advocated by Kymone Freeman and Denise Rosado, the DC delegate nominees for the Statehood Green Party and the Republican Party, respectively. Their names will be on the ballot for the Nov. 3 general election along with that of at-large Councilmember Robert White, the Democratic Party nominee. Each is vying for the seat being vacated by Eleanor Holmes Norton, who, after 35 years of representing the District as essentially a non-voting member in the U.S. House of Representatives, has decided to retire at the end of her current term in December.
“DC should not be paying federal taxes without statehood. We pay more per capita than any other state,“ Freeman told me during an extensive interview via Zoom last week.
“It’s a message that is starting to resonate,” added Freeman, co-founder of We Act Radio, based in Ward 8. In 2024, he ran against Norton. Now with the popular pol out of the picture entirely, the Ward 5 resident is hoping he has a better chance of succeeding her.
Rosado called the no federal taxes proposal “fair. There is a precedent.” She noted that none of the U.S. territories — not the Virgin Islands, not Guam, and not Puerto Rico — pay taxes.
“Most of the money District residents pay is not even going to DC,” said Rosado, a lawyer by trade and a resident of Ward 4. Years ago, she was a member of the Democratic Party. That was before she spent a stint at the U.S.-Mexico border, intent on helping immigrants who were seeking asylum only to learn that a good many did not legally qualify and were simply looking for better living conditions. That was also before she decided that birthright citizenship was “another racket.”
“I say the Democratic Party left me and people like me behind,” said Rosado, contending that, considering the socioeconomic challenges facing DC, it’s important to remember that “the same party has been in control of the District for 50 years.”
She said she “knocks on doors every week” in her campaigning and has experienced a good reception from residents throughout the city, including when she discusses exempting the city from federal income taxes.
The federal portion of the city’s $22 billion fiscal year 2027 budget is a mere $5.7 billion, down from $5.9 billion in FY 2026, according to government documents. The reduction doesn’t amount to a large share of the overall budget, but how will the city compensate for the loss of federal revenue needed for critical infrastructure improvements and healthcare, for example? One thought is that local officials, if Congress were to exempt District residents from paying federal taxes, could make small increases in DC taxes in order to capture some of the revenue not being paid to the feds.
“Congress is obligated to provide for the nation’s capital,” Rosado said when I asked whether the District might lose more federal dollars.
Many may see the tax exemption as unlikely to come to fruition, but notably it doesn’t face some of the political and constitutional objections to DC statehood cited by Republicans and other opponents.
Regardless, the debate over taxation without representation — and generally unfair taxation of District residents and businesses — is particularly significant right now. DC Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee has indicated the city faces a fiscal cliff in 2028.
There are deep, critical issues that have clouded the economic future of residents — from housing costs, to food deserts, healthcare, childcare and general education. In August 2026, the unemployment rate in DC was at 5.7%, down from 5.9% in July. Things may seem like they are headed in the right direction — except the national unemployment rate in August was 4.1%. The Federal Reserve Board recently raised interest rates, citing the country’s stubborn inflation.
Can making DC, the nation’s capital, a federal income tax-free zone improve the city’s economy and the quality of life for District residents? There do not appear to be any recent studies to gauge the pros and cons.
Freeman and Rosado are aligned on the tax exemption for DC residents. They are also focused on central political issues in the city like affordability, including rising utility costs. On other issues, they are miles apart. For example, Freeman wants to increase the level of confrontation in the fight for statehood and the fight against various policies undertaken by President Donald Trump’s administration, including the deployment of National Guard troops. He thinks the city doesn’t need any more policing via a federal surge; the government should focus on the root cause of crime and violence. Rosado would prefer cooperation, including more between the city and federal law enforcement.
“I don’t view their being here as an infringement. I have seen for myself that the streets have become safer,” she told me.
Rosado is critical of “socialist Democrats,” and calls White a moderate who is masquerading as a progressive.
“I would love to have a debate with Robert. He is aligned very closely with Janeese Lewis George. He is using the color purple,” said Rosado, adding that initially she attempted to send a unifying message by using that color in her campaign. “Now I am rebranding with Commanders colors.”
Freeman criticized White for dismissing the no-federal-income-taxes proposal.
White did not respond to multiple emails sent by me to his campaign requesting an interview.
When I interviewed him during the primary, White said he wanted to explore a policy initiative comparable to Act 60 in Puerto Rico. Currently, there is some controversy surrounding that law, which provides tax breaks to lure certain businesses to the island.
“Something like that could help us attract so many companies and jobs to DC,” White told me. However, he has not introduced council legislation as a step toward inviting a similar program in the District.
A hint of where White, a three-term legislator, might stand could be glimpsed from his vote last year to decouple the city’s tax codes from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Among its less controversial provisions, OBBBA created tax exemptions on tips and overtime wages and interest paid on car loans while creating a new $6,000 standard deduction for seniors. By decoupling from the federal tax code, District lawmakers denied residents those benefits on their local returns.
After catching flak from Congress, the council circled back and revised its legislation. In the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget and Financial Plan some tax credits were restored.
Interestingly, the District’s tax burden was the subject of a recent email fundraising appeal made by the DC Statehood PAC. The political action committee, co-chaired by Karen Marcou and Lorelie Masters, made the point that 702,250 people who are DC residents “pay federal income taxes every single year without having a voting member of Congress or a U.S. Senator to represent their interests in the federal government.”
“That’s larger than the population of two other U.S. States and 30 countries,” offered the PAC in its letter.
I’m not sure that every District resident actually pays taxes. Children are included in population totals but don’t generally file returns, for example. Still, the PAC’s point is taken.
Their answer isn’t the tax-free proposal, however: The PAC has declared statehood the cure-all. That is a battle in which the city has been engaged since before it received quasi-independent local governance known as home rule.
Rosado said she doesn’t believe statehood will ever be realized, citing the Constitution and “legislative intent.”
Freeman is not persuaded that Democrats, even if they gain control of the House and Senate during the midterms, will actually come to the city’s rescue in the remaining two years of the Trump administration. He speculated that statehood won’t arrive in the District until it has lost more of its Black population.
According to the DC Office of Planning, Black residents constituted 43.3% of the city’s population in 2024; whites make up 39.1%, and the next largest group is Hispanics at 11.65%.
“Once DC reaches a critical mass [of non-Black residents], it perhaps might see bipartisan support for statehood,” Freeman told me, citing conversations he has had with well-known and younger members of the national Democratic Party who have suggested statehood is not a major priority. For now, continued Freeman, “we are truly, literally on our own.”
That doesn’t seem to be White’s perspective, however. In the primary, he declared the delegate post a civil rights office — a contention that openly challenged any Black voters who may have been supporting his top opponents in that contest, all of whom were white. He received 86,979 votes or 63.6% of the 142,000 ballots cast by Democrats.
How will the this-is-a-Black-seat argument play against an African American opponent in the upcoming general election? Time will tell, but political observers I spoke with for this article said that Freeman is perceived to be more consistently progressive than White.
Since the primary, White seems to have bought into the decades-old mantra that winning the Democratic nomination in DC is tantamount to being elected to office. He has boldly conducted himself as the heir to the Norton legacy and essentially declared statehood the top issue. Recently, he convened Defend DC, a coalition of local organizations intended to “make the case for statehood that meets the moment”; accomplishing that, he wrote, means supporting “strong Democratic challengers taking on vulnerable Republicans” and “prioritizing candidates who will proactively stand with Washingtonians in our fight for statehood, self-government, and full representation.”
Interestingly, a similarly named Defend DC movement started in spring 2025, long before White stepped up to that plate. Rhonda Hamilton, a civic activist, decided to organize residents to push back against the so-called BOWSER Act, legislation introduced in the House to repeal the Home Rule Act. Hamilton told me that White has yet to acknowledge her earlier work or to invite her and others to join his group. A political independent, Hamilton is running for mayor against Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, the Democratic nominee.
Freeman described White’s actions under his Defend DC project as “performative” and insincere, contributing to his perception of White as vulnerable in November. “There’s nobody out here talking about [how] they love Robert White,” Freeman said.
He cited as an example progressives’ dissatisfaction with White’s position on various housing issues, including the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants and Landlords (RENTAL) Act, which, among other things, exempted certain properties from the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act and made it easier to evict renters for nonpayment.
Freeman told me a debate has been scheduled for Oct. 14 on WPFW 89.3 FM radio, a station whose programming frequently reflects progressive and social justice politics and issues. But it is only between him and White. What about Rosado?
When I mentioned the planned forum, Rosado said she had not heard anything about it. She echoed Freeman’s assertion that there is a media blackout of general election candidates who aren’t Democrats.
The election cycle isn’t over yet. A majority of eligible voters didn’t vote in the primary, noted Freeman. According to the DC Board of Elections, 32% of District voters participated in the primary and special elections held on June 16. In other words, nearly 70% did not cast a ballot.
That doesn’t even account for the fact that none of DC’s 77,000 independents could vote for congressional delegate in the primary. They will choose a candidate for the first time on Nov. 3.
Freeman said his strategy to win is to mobilize a large portion of those people who didn’t vote and to leverage ranked choice voting. “I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Democrat. I am DC,” declared Freeman in our discussion, during which he raised concerns about a litany of socioeconomic issues like chronic poverty in certain communities and the government’s failure to completely remediate lead pipes in the city.
He criticized Norton for supporting the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium land transfer, offering that the new home for the Washington Commanders is expected to be ready in 2030 while DC Water won’t finish removing lead pipes until 2037.
That feels like a non sequitur, but it may play well on a campaign trail, especially followed by Freeman’s pledge to create an office of environmental racism.
Are such local issues even under the purview of a congressional nonvoting representative?
Freeman also said he wants to push for a law to establish a federal cap on rent and utility costs to apply locally and nationally. It would be a limit of 30% of a person’s income. Then there is the federal income tax exemption for DC.
Like Freeman, Rosado seems to have her sights on local government concerns. For example, she is against DC’s use of cameras for traffic enforcement — a position that happens to align with GOP legislation approved by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. She also wants more development to increase the supply of housing; she has argued that less bureaucracy could facilitate that goal. She is advocating for new gun rights laws to encourage ownership by more women.
During my interview with her, however, she became most passionate about the state of public education in DC and across the United States. “We have a national literacy crisis,” said Rosado, adding that it impacts the country’s security and economy.
“We’re spending $30,000 per child in our school system, and children can’t read,” she continued.
Rosado said she would push through a law that mandates all children must be reading by the third grade. She also wants a stronger focus on the basics: “reading, writing and arithmetic.”
Such demands probably won’t get much opposition from DC residents, although they’re likely to raise an obvious reality: The national head of her party has slashed the Department of Education and executed a brutal assault on colleges and universities across the country, including in the DC region.
Rosado might be able to use ranked choice voting to tap the District’s more conservative or moderate independents to bolster her numbers in the general election. Except when I asked about her RCV strategy, she told me, “I’m still confused about ranked choice voting.”
That is a luxury no candidate in the general election can afford.
jonetta rose barras is an author and DC-based freelance journalist, covering national and local issues. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.