On a chilly October afternoon, D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. offered a blunt appeal to the nearly 150 supporters who had gathered in Southeast to support his mayoral bid.
In a city with a $17.5 billion budget, he asserted, no resident should ever be in need.
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Yet, White (D-Ward 8) said, the District’s economic prosperity is not reflected in the daily lives of many residents. In a city with immense gulfs between rich and poor, he charged, gentrifying neighborhoods have blossomed during the seven-year tenure of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser. But in other communities like the ones he represents, problems like gun violence and unaffordable housing have been allowed to fester.
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“People that are wealthy are getting wealthier, and people who are poor are getting poorer,” said White, who was met with nods from the crowd at Oxon Run Park. “And if we don’t unite now, there may not be a tomorrow.”
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At a virtual launch for his own campaign for mayor, at-large council member Robert C. White Jr. extended a similar plea to voters. Many residents who needed the most support from the city’s government over the course of the pandemic, he said, “have felt left behind yet again.”
“I’m going to work to level the playing field,” he added. “Equity can no longer be something that we talk about or dream of — it has to be something that we act on boldly.”
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Both men’s messages signal that income disparities in Washington will be a major part of their pitch to voters, setting the stage for a 2022 election that will be a referendum on Washington and its direction: as a city on the rise, or one with a perceived prosperity that leaves too many people out.
Council member Robert C. White Jr. will run for D.C. mayor
“There are tens of thousands of people in this city who do not have the same opportunities and access to services the rest of the city has,” said Chuck Thies, a longtime D.C. political strategist who is advising Kenyan R. McDuffie, a candidate for attorney general. “But it’s easy to be a critic: the challenge will be speaking specifically about what they would do differently, and why that would be more effective.”
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More than 9 out of 10 D.C. residents vote for Democrats, so candidates don’t split along party lines. But divisions emerge, and activists who identify as progressives have racked up a list of differences from the more moderate Bowser, who has not yet declared whether she’ll run again but is expected to seek a third term.
Council member Trayon White Sr. is planning to run for D.C. mayor
The small but ardent group of local advocates keeping score have knocked Bowser for her efforts to increase the size of the police force, and her opposition to the city’s generous paid family leave program and a recent tax increase on high earners, among other issues.
The tax increase on wealthy residents failed by a vote of 8 to 5 in 2020, then passed this year, also by a vote of 8 to 5. Both Robert White and Trayon White supported the legislation, though neither were among the three council members who crafted and introduced it.
Sarah Novick, a leader in the left-leaning advocacy group Jews United for Justice, said these local activists — who operate under many banners, like “Just Recovery DC,” “Way Home Campaign,” “Under 3 DC” — have become more vocal in recent years, particularly during the pandemic.
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Those same liberal activists also will get involved in the 2022 mayoral race, Novick predicted, with demands that candidates go farther in embracing government supports to prevent evictions and narrow the gap between rich and poor. “A lot of people are still struggling to pay their bills and to pay their rent,” she said.
The council’s liberal actions, including the creation of the paid parental leave program and a new “baby bonds” law that will open bank accounts for low-income newborns, are generally popular in the District, political strategists say.
But outside of the activists who monitor every council hearing, many residents who approve of these actions might not know which lawmaker was on which side. A resident who likes living in a city with generous maternity leave may well thank their mayor for the benefit, not knowing she opposed its creation.
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“The administration in place is going to get more blame than they deserve, and more credit than they deserve,” said Marcus Goodwin, who has himself run unsuccessfully in citywide races in the last two election cycles in the District. Goodwin said he generally hears praise for Bowser’s stewardship of the city, and despite Robert White and Trayon White’s attempts to make inequality a salient issue, he does not think most people are looking for a change.
Earlier this year, Bowser announced a record-setting investment into affordable housing production in the District, which she said would expedite her administration’s goal of building 36,000 housing units by 2025 — 12,000 of them affordable to targeted income groups. But as development has accelerated in recent years, so too have forces of gentrification that have intensified the displacement of some low-income families and stratified neighborhoods where the interests and needs of longtime residents and newcomers do not always align.
D.C.'s racial makeup has shifted, too, according to recent census estimates. While the population has grown in the past decade, the city also got Whiter, renewing attention to disparities in housing and economic access that will likely continue to be major themes in the upcoming mayoral election.
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During his Sunday event at Oxon Run Park, Trayon White — who has not yet filed paperwork to run — said too much city funding is going toward developers who build housing that is not available to the neediest residents.
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He decried a recent report penned by the D.C. Office of the Inspector General, which found among other things that the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development failed to meet a legal requirement to spend 50 percent of the city’s Housing Production Trust Fund to provide housing to households at the lowest income threshold (which in D.C. is about $38,700 for a family of four). The report said much of the funding went toward housing for higher income levels instead.
“That’s a problem for me,” he said of the spending.
Shawnita Humphries, a 35-year-old homeowner in Ward 8, said she plans to support Trayon White because of his efforts to address the gun violence and the lack of healthy food options in the ward where she was born. He is well known for his activism, delivering food to constituents and comforting families at crime scenes.
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Humphries said she’s also seen the effects of gentrification, including housing development projects that she says are either unaffordable or not livable for her peers. She alluded to the recent plight of dozens of homeowners in Anacostia who were ordered by an engineering firm to evacuate their homes, which were built partially with city funds.
“We need more affordable-priced housing available to singles like me,” Humphries said. “We need to be able to afford things and not feel like we’re living check-to-check because prices are so high.”
At the same time, Humphries said she was encouraged by the development at Skyland Town Center, which is expected to bring more food east of the Anacostia River. She did not acknowledge Bowser’s role in moving the project forward after it had stalled for years.
They found dream homes through D.C.'s first-time homeowners program. Now they have to evacuate.
In public appearances and interviews about his campaign, Robert White. — who has long been discussed as a potential future mayor since he has handily won citywide elections and has risen as a leader of the council’s more left-leaning wing — touched on similar themes of displacement and affordable housing.
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D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) quickly endorsed Robert White, saying it was because the city is facing “drastically increasing divides between the haves and have-nots,” including displacement of long-term residents and a widening racial wealth gap.
“Slogans are catchy, they can even last for a year or two, or maybe even seven,” Racine said at White’s campaign launch. “But when there’s action that doesn’t follow the slogan, those are mere words.”
But Thies said that backing slogans with substance will be even more important for Bowser’s potential challengers. He said discussions around housing, public safety and economic development weren’t happening at such a robust level in 2018, when Bowser breezed through a mayoral primary without serious opposition.
Soon, however, whoever ultimately runs will need to delve deeper into specifics and defend their track records.
“And that’s a public service, because it’s been nearly eight years since there was a citywide conversation and debate among mayoral candidates around anything substantive,” Thies added.