Two years after winning election to the D.C. Council as a left-leaning advocate for supporting middle-class residents and reducing reliance on police, Ward 4 council member Janeese Lewis George announced her endorsement Thursday in the hopes that a candidate who shares some of her priorities will win the neighboring Ward 5 council seat.

       Wp Get the full experience.Choose your plan ArrowRight

       Zachary Parker, the head of the D.C. State Board of Education, is Lewis George’s pick. Parker also has racked up endorsements from left-leaning groups including the Democratic Socialists for America and Working Families Party.

       “This is an important chance to either elect a leader who will put people first, or someone who will maintain the status quo,” Lewis George, who is not up for election this year, wrote in an email to her own supporters. “He’s a passionate public servant who puts people first, and he has the record and policy expertise to back it up. … We’ll be able to accomplish great things together.”

       What questions do you have about the D.C. elections? Ask The Post

       The only other current council member to make an endorsement in the Ward 5 race so far is Christina Henderson (I-At Large), who endorsed former mayoral appointee Faith Gibson Hubbard. Gibson Hubbard has also been endorsed by the National Organization for Women, D.C. Women in Politics and The Washington Post’s editorial board, which is separate from the news operation.

       Advertisement

       Seven candidates are vying to fill the seat that will be vacated by Kenyan R. McDuffie, who filed to run for attorney general rather than seek reelection, then was knocked off the ballot after the D.C. Board of Elections determined he did not meet the qualifications for the position he sought.

       Parker said in an interview Wednesday that he appreciates Lewis George’s endorsement “as someone that’s just been, I think, an advocate for everyday Washingtonians and working-class people.”

       Pointing to his endorsements from Attorney General Karl A. Racine, multiple unions including the Washington Teachers Union, and groups like the Sierra Club and Greater Greater Washington, Parker said he doesn’t view the contest as one of moderate versus liberal, as some D.C. elections have been viewed.

       “You will see a range of people that span political ideology [supporting me]. And that is what we need more of in our political system,” he said. “Less rigid and more about building coalitions.”

       D.C. campaign spending ramps up as Election Day nears

       Parker and Gibson Hubbard lead the pack in fundraising by a significant margin, followed by Ward 5 Democrats chair Gordon-Andrew Fletcher and former council member Vincent B. Orange, though Fletcher has not yet filed the contributions report that was due May 10.

       Advertisement

       Fletcher said Wednesday the report was on its way, and touted that a higher portion of his donors live in the ward than those who donated to Parker, Gibson Hubbard or Orange. He also alleged that someone has been taking down his campaign signs and nailing them to trees.

       “Then I get calls from random folks: ‘Are you trying to hurt the environment?’ I would never,” he said. “Those are signs of a winning campaign. Folks are trying to stop the momentum.”

       Hubbard did not respond to a request for an interview Wednesday. Orange, a longtime Ward 5 and at-large council member who resigned before completing his last term amid scrutiny over his acceptance of a D.C. Chamber of Commerce job while legislating, said he predicts the election will be a “nail-biter” between himself and Parker, and he is campaigning on many policy differences that he sees as separating him from the school board leader.

       Muriel Bowser takes on her challengers in latest D.C. mayoral debate

       Orange supports police in schools and more funding for police. He supports mayoral control of the schools, and says of Parker’s opinion that the school board he chairs should have more independence, “I don’t think he’s been in town long enough to understand how the school board really operated back in the day” before mayoral control.

       Advertisement

       Orange angered some of Parker’s supporters during a recent forum hosted by an LGBTQ organization, when he suggested that Parker — who came out as gay during the campaign — should have come out earlier in his career. “He was an elected official for almost four years, and all the things that we’ve discussed here tonight, he could have helped those young kids, he could have helped adults by just being that proud LGBTQ leader,” Orange said at the forum.

       This week, Orange argued that Parker’s coming out was fair game — “He put this on his campaign letterhead. This wasn’t a private discussion.” — and that he meant to say the candidates should be debating about what they have done to help LGBTQ residents.

       “It had nothing to do with his sexuality whatsoever. It was about, how do you effect change?” said Orange, who opposed same-sex marriage as a politician in the 2000s before changing his stance.

       On Wednesday, Parker said coming out “was part of a very long journey.”

       “Needless to say, with rising violence, with the level of homophobia that runs rampant, we would be kidding ourselves to think that anybody would say that coming out in the middle of an election is easy or poses as a benefit,” he said.