jonetta rose barras: Is the DC Council at-large race in the general election mostly a fight among progressives?

Technically, as chair of the DC Statehood Green Party, Darryl Moch is the leader of the city’s oldest progressive political organization. That should give him a leg up in the race for an at-large DC Council seat in the November general election. Right?

After all, his party was at the forefront of the fight for DC’s quasi-independent local governance referred to as home rule. Further, it has always pushed for full autonomy and statehood — starting its advocacy long before the issue became the cause du jour.

The Statehood Party was founded in 1971, when Julius Hobson was urged to campaign to become the District’s first delegate to Congress. The Rev. Walter Fauntroy, a Democrat, won that race, however.

In 1974, Hobson circled back, running and winning an at-large seat on the DC Council in the first election under the Home Rule Act. He died three years later. 

Hilda Mason, a quintessential progressive who was then a member of the elected Board of Education, was appointed to fill Hobson’s seat. She became a leading voice in the party and in the statehood movement. 

Interestingly, Mason was one of the early members of the Democratic Socialists of America to be elected to office. Obviously, that occurred long before Janeese Lewis George would create a stir in the 2020 Ward 4 council race, declaring herself a democratic socialist — and before she would aggravate President Donald Trump by winning the Democratic mayoral nomination in this year’s primary, causing him to publicly demonstrate his ignorance about socialism and communism. Mason served in the District legislature for 21 years, until her defeat in the 1998 general election; Phil Mendelson and David Catania won the two at-large seats on the ballot that year. Around that same time, the local Statehood Party joined with the national Green Party, although Moch has been quick to clarify that he and his members don’t align with all elements of the group’s platform.

Still, there’s no denying this fact: Moch is heir apparent to DC’s original progressive movement. That seems an impressive political marker. 

However, many people I spoke with for this article doubt Moch’s chances of winning in the four-person race for the two at-large seats up for election this year. 

“Darryl is not going to have the [necessary] level of community support,” said Ambrose Lane, a Ward 7 resident who has been involved in local and national political affairs for years. He is also the founding chair of the DC Health Alliance Network, a nonprofit fighting inequity in poor and working-class communities. “People do not know Darryl in the trenches. I can tell you because I go all around the city.” 

Unquestionably, Moch faces strong headwinds. He is up against Councilmember Elissa Silverman, who recently and triumphantly returned to the legislature, beating out two opponents in a special election in June to fill the final months of Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie’s term.

Demonstrating a campaign built with organizational strength, Silverman collected more than 3,000 valid voter signatures to qualify for the special election ballot. Immediately after that victory, she collected another 4,000 signatures to ensure her place in the Nov. 3 general election.

Oye Owolewa, elected three times as DC shadow representative, overcame nearly a dozen opponents in the Democratic Party’s primary, all vying to succeed Anita Bonds on the council; he had to fight through eight rounds of ballot tabulation under the newly installed ranked choice voting before being declared the winner.

Darrell Green had fewer obstacles to become the local GOP’s nominee. He did not respond to my email request for an interview. 

I had conversations via Zoom in the past two weeks with Moch, Silverman and Owolewa for this article. Unsurprisingly, there isn’t much daylight between them on the big issues that have run like a river through DC’s elections for the past several cycles: equitable economic development, small-business expansion, improved public safety, increased affordable housing, improved healthcare, and quality education across all sectors.

They all support raising taxes given the District’s current fiscal situation, although Moch argued that there should be greater effort to create common ground, focusing on areas of agreement and negotiating solutions where there are differences.

Owolewa said the council should more aggressively track government spending. He also advocated for retaining the expertise of people like Bonds and Mayor Muriel Bowser even after they retire in January. “We can’t just let that brain trust go.”

Silverman, who previously served on the council for eight years, made her reputation based on intense oversight of executive branch agencies. She has promised to continue that practice.

Each has identified an area of potential concentration. Owolewa, a pharmacist by trade, said he will focus on the business side of healthcare; he also wants to bring more attention to Ward 8, which he calls home. Moch has mayoral control of education in his sights, although he proposed making changes incrementally to help extend the State Board of Education’s capacity to govern the school system. 

Silverman has indicated truancy will be a prime concern, but she’s tackling other issues as well. For instance, she recently persuaded 11 of her council colleagues to urge the Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking not to approve recently requested rate hikes in DC’s Affordable Care Act health insurance market. 

“We’re aligned on big issues. We want to make the city as economically vibrant as possible. We need to pivot with the federal government shrinking. [But] there are differences,” said Silverman. 

In assessing the race’s dynamics, Moch, a nonprofit manager who described himself as a new voice, intelligent, thoughtful and compassionate, agreed with the general assessment that he may be facing the proverbial David and Goliath battle, possibly without the celebrated biblical outcome. 

“We’re doing what we can do, which is more than what we’ve done before,” he told me, alluding to his party’s track record since Mason’s loss nearly three decades ago. Moch said his campaign intends to strategically use social media and to gain media attention as it seeks to engage tens of thousands of independents who did not vote in the primary with the argument that they should mark their ballots for a “true progressive.”

“I do think there is an opportunity, especially with ranked choice voting,” added Moch.

When Moch ran two years ago, he received 29,789 votes or 7.61% of the votes. The two incumbents up for election that year — Democrat Robert White and independent Christina Henderson — received 243,528 votes and 90,814 votes, respectively. However, there were more than 260,000 under votes in the at-large race, according to the Elections Board website.

This year, Silverman is the only incumbent in the at-large race.

In the past, District voters were able to mark their ballots for two candidates in the at-large race. Those with the largest number of votes would be selected as the winners. 

Voters can still vote for two candidates, but there’s a caveat: This year, according to a spokesperson for the DC Board of Elections and several experts, the same tabulation system used in the primary will be deployed for the pick-two at-large council race in the general election. Essentially, the winners will be the last two standing.

A voter’s top-ranked candidate will count in the initial tabulation. If a voter has the winner of that initial round ranked first, their ballot will be put aside at that point. Thus, even if that voter has selected a second candidate, their ballot will not be included in any subsequent rounds in the at-large contest. 

“That is voter suppression,” said Lane, concerned about the process — although he does not think it will end up harming Owolewa, the Democratic nominee.

“Oye is well known. That is the reason he was able to prevail in the primary,” explained Lane, noting that many of the candidates in that race had a solid base of support, had previously served in elective office, or had worked in government.

Nevertheless, Owolewa and Silverman each said that as they ramp up their campaigns, post-Labor Day, they are urging voters to “rank” them No. 1. (That’s not to be confused with the order in which the candidates are listed on the official printed ballot: Owolewa is first, followed by Moch, Green and Silverman, according to the Elections Board’s website.)

“I am in a very good position, but it is not over. I am not taking anything for granted,” said Owolewa.

The child of Nigerian immigrants, Owolewa said his parents expected him to be a doctor or a lawyer. He became interested in healthcare after serving as a caregiver for his grandmother. But it was his dissatisfaction with his local advisory neighborhood commission and a dare from someone that caused him to jump into politics. He won his first ANC race by one vote. 

“Everybody is voting, which shifts the dynamics significantly,” Owolewa said of the November election, acknowledging the difference in the electorate that gave him his June primary victory. “We have to make sure we get the Number 1 ranking.

“Number 2’s aren’t going to be counted,” he added. 

Silverman essentially made the same argument. Instead of two votes, “voters have one vote for two positions.”

“We’re going to lean in to say, ‘Please rank me first,’” she added. “If you vote Oye 1 and me 2, I will never get your vote.”

None of the candidates seems particularly satisfied with the predicament in which they find themselves under ranked choice voting in the general election. “These are the rules of the game. I have to play under the rules of the game,” said Silverman.

The city’s latest voter registration statistics depict the District’s deep-blue electorate. Of 449,417 registered voters as of Aug. 31, 76.38% are registered as Democrats; 17.20% as independents or no party; 4.95% as Republicans; and 0.92% as Statehood Green Party members.

It’s clear that Moch has a long journey to any victory finish line.

Truth be told, he isn’t the only candidate facing obstacles. Silverman may have won the special election, but her victory was less decisive in wards 5, 7 and 8. In the Democratic primary, Owolewa had only 34.58% of the vote during the initial ballot count. It took eight rounds of ballot counting, with him receiving votes from those candidates who were eliminated, to gain majority support and be certified by the Elections Board as the winner.

Echoing Lane’s assertion, Silverman said Owolewa has the edge based on party affiliation. “He has the ‘D’ next to his name.” 

That’s true. But this is an election to watch to determine whether ranked choice voting weakens the Democratic Party’s hold in DC races. The results could help shape future elections, especially since beginning in 2028, independents may be able to vote in party primaries.

Silverman was a Democrat when she ran unsuccessfully in the special election that brought Bonds to office in 2013. For her next attempt, Silverman became an independent and won. Her time on the council may give her greater name recognition and cache than Owolewa. 

Equally important, in the past several weeks, she has been renewing her relationship with District residents. She told me that soon after being sworn into office, there were numerous constituent service requests.

She quickly hired a director of constituent services. “People trust me to get things done. I’m happy for that trust that voters have in me.” 

She also brought on a legislative director and a legal counsel, who she said are laying track for quick action on issues of importance to residents including utility costs at many rental housing complexes; how the DC Department of Transportation treats residents when it makes changes to nearby streets; and passage of the bottle bill, among others. She said there are several “controversial” pieces of legislation pending before the council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment.

With her newly restored incumbency, Silverman could have home field advantage. And with three successful at-large campaigns, she is an experienced, strategic political player notwithstanding her 2022 defeat. 

If that all proves to be the case — and if Moch is able to leverage the long-term progressive bonafides of the Statehood Green Party — the real fight could be between him and Owolewa. The latter has the money advantage; he said he has “saved some money from the primary to make sure we can pay for door knockers, digital mailers and whatever.”

Moch admitted that his campaign faces organizational and monetary challenges. “As far as fundraising and that kind of thing, we are far behind,” he said. Perhaps to create some equity, he is trying to turn around the anti-establishment argument often wielded by DC progressives against incumbents: Said plain, the current progressives have been around for years, and nothing has changed.

“There are problems we have that we cannot get rid of, and yet we keep electing the same people, many of whom are [native Washingtonians] and they keep hurting us,” he added.

And then, there is his push to end mayoral control of schools. “I do not think [it] is necessary, warranted or feasible,” he said of the status quo. “We have to unleash ourselves from things we don’t need to be embodied in.”

Many DC parents, teachers and education advocates agree. Can reconstructing an independent school board help Moch achieve his goal of grabbing “the imagination of voters,” catapulting the city’s oldest progressive party back into relevance and animating November’s at-large election into a much more competitive race?

Stay tuned.

jonetta rose barras is an author and DC-based freelance journalist, covering national and local issues. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.