Harry Thomas Jr. has dropped out of the Ward 5 council race and will instead run for shadow representative for D.C. in the U.S. House of Representatives, he said Tuesday evening.

       Journalist Tom Sherwood first tweeted news of Thomas’s withdrawal, which was announced at a forum for Ward 5 council candidates. Thomas, a former D.C. Council member in the ward, resigned from his seat in 2012 amid criminal charges but announced he was running for it again in November.

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       “I think it has a broader profile for many of the issues for many of the issues facing the community that I work on, including justice, and statehood and voting rights,” he said of his decision to run for shadow representative. “Because of the support I was getting, I wanted to broaden my platform.”

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       The District’s three-member shadow delegation to Congress, made up of two senators and one representative, are elected positions, but their roles are typically focused on advocacy: They are not granted a vote, salary or operating budget. The shadow representative is a separate role from that of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who represents the city in Congress but cannot cast a vote.

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       Thomas was elected in 2020 to serve as a committeeman in Ward 5 for the D.C. Democratic Party.

       His departure winnows a field of candidates in a wide-open race that includes a slew of Democrats: former council member Vincent B. Orange (Ward 5); Gordon-Andrew Fletcher, chairman of the Ward 5 Democrats; Faith Gibson Hubbard, a former official in the Bowser administration; and D.C. State Board of Education President Zachary Parker.

       Gary Johnson and Lauren Rogers have also filed paperwork to run as Democrats.

       The incumbent shadow representative, Oye Owolewa, filed paperwork last year to run again in the upcoming election.