Washington DC’s long-serving delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is under renewed pressure to step down after a city council member announced on Thursday he would challenge her in next year’s election, saying the federal district needs its “strongest fighters” as it faces unprecedented interference from Donald Trump and the Republican party.
Robert White’s decision to jump into the race for the non-voting role in the House of Representatives comes amid mounting concern over the 88-year-old Norton’s ability to continue doing the job at a tense moment for the city. Trump in August ordered a temporary federal takeover of the Washington DC police department and dispatched national guard and federal agents onto its streets to fight what he called an “out-of-control” crime wave, a claim city leaders disputed.
In a video announcing his candidacy, White, an at-large council member who made an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2022, referred to Norton as “our lion on the Hill” but implied it was time for new leadership.
“I have never seen my city more vulnerable than we are right now, and in this entire Congress, there is one person whose job it is to protect and stand up for our residents, and we need our strongest fighters,” said White. “I’m ready to take this torch.”
The announcement comes days after Donna Brazile, a former chief of staff to Norton who rose to serve as interim chair of the Democratic National Committee, said that she should not seek a 19th term in the office she has held since 1991.
Though not allowed to cast votes in the House, Norton was known as a tenacious advocate for the rights of the federal district, but has appeared subdued in recent years. She had been pictured requiring the help of an aide at public appearances, and reads haltingly from prepared remarks at committee appearances, even when the topic concerns contentious proposals to change Washington DC’s laws.
“She is no longer the dynamo she once was, at a time when DC needs the kind of energetic representation in Congress she provided for decades,” Brazile wrote in the Washington Post. “It’s in her best interest, and the interest of DC, for her to serve her current term but then end her extraordinary service in Congress and not seek reelection next year.”
The primary challenge came as Washington DC’s Democratic mayor Muriel Bowser and other city leaders on Thursday made their first appearance before Congress since Trump’s foray into policing the city.
After his 30-day takeover of the police department expired last week, Trump threatened to seize control again, while national guard troops and federal agents remain deployed in district neighborhoods. House Republicans have also proposed 14 bills to impose “tough on crime” policies in the district, some of which have been approved by the chamber this week.
“The left-wing politicians who say that DC does not have a crime problem are either delusional or simply lying to the American people. This body must ensure that the progress made by the president’s recent actions endures,” Republican chair James Comer said.
The lengthy hearing repeatedly veered off topic as lawmakers from both parties used their time to engage in partisan sniping or address issues with little connection to the city of 700,000.
“President Trump is obsessed with trying to run Washington DC, and if president Trump wants to run Washington DC, he should resign as president and run for mayor,” the committee’s top Democrat Robert Garcia said.
“If the majority today wants to talk about crime in DC, in the district, we’re happy to talk about crime in DC. We know that some of the worst crime and corruption in DC is actually found at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Democratic congressman Ro Khanna made a failed attempt at the hearing to subpoena Brendan Carr, the FCC chair who threatened ABC over comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s comments about the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The network suspended Kimmel’s show, prompting Democrats to accuse the Trump administration of censoring a prominent dissenter.
Republican Nancy Mace said the federal district has become “a poster child for DEI and gender madness”, then asked Bowser: “What is a woman?”
“I’m a woman. Are you a woman?” the mayor replied.
Bowser has generally avoided confrontation with Trump since he began his second term in January, and credited the federal deployment with pushing violent crime rates further down from the 30-year-low they reached last year.
But Democratic city council chairman Phil Mendelson described the district as “under siege” and the bills targeting the city proposed “without regard for community impact nor a shred of analysis”. He pointed to several areas where Congress could improve its criminal justice system, including helping pay for a new jail and approving new candidates for open judge and prosecutor positions.
Norton used her time to outline the case for Washington DC becoming the 51st state, a prospect she said Republicans opposed because they “do not like that DC votes for Democrats, so they deny DC statehood”.
She then gave the city officials the opportunity to explain why the city should become its own a state, and did not speak again before her time expired.
