DC’s Political Earthquake: Janeese Lewis George Challenges the Establishment

Paul Riverbank, 12/2/2025Janeese Lewis George shakes up DC’s mayoral race, promising bold change and grassroots energy.

At 37, Lewis George doesn’t quite fit the stereotype of a D.C. insider. Her kickoff video, which made its rounds on local networks last week, cut straight to the point: “Rent’s rising in homes people can’t afford. Folks are working hard and still feeling the squeeze, while the few in power rake in profits.” If you happened to be riding the Green Line that morning or standing near Georgia Avenue, these weren’t just campaign slogans—they were observations echoed by residents hauling groceries or hustling to a second job.

Her path here hasn’t been typical, either. Not so long ago, she unseated an ally of Mayor Bowser in Ward 4—a win that sent polite shockwaves through the circles of city developers and business interests. The DSA, usually more peripheral to D.C. power plays, called her “an elected leader who stands with the working class.” For a city with gilded corridors and tenants barely scraping by just streets apart, such language resonates, or at least it provokes a fresh round of questions at dinner tables and community meetings alike.

Lewis George isn’t content to let her campaign settle into the pattern of previous races. She’s after a 5,000-strong volunteer operation—door knocking, phone banking, digital blitzes. It’s a tactic borrowed straight from recent progressive surges in Seattle and New York, where the formula is simple: meet voters where they are, literally. (One campaign staffer joked recently that they’re logging more steps than the city’s postal carriers.) Her chief digital adviser, incidentally, helped Zohran Mamdani defy the odds in his own New York City State Assembly race.

Yet it’s not just policy talking points and ground game that define Lewis George’s brand. Her stance on law enforcement—perhaps the city’s most persistent wedge issue—has evolved more publicly than most candidates would risk. In 2019, she declared her intent to “absolutely divest” from the Metropolitan Police Department, pushing instead for investments in violence interruption. By the following year, pressed by critics and curious constituents alike, she’d begun to walk a tighter wire: “We’ve focused a lot in the city on sentencing — but what I’ve learned in law school and as a prosecutor is what deters crime is an individual knowing — am I going to get caught, and what are the chances of me being held accountable?” It’s less a reversal than a recasting, but in D.C. politics, nuance can matter as much as conviction.

The city, of course, carries its own scars and sensitivities. President Trump’s decision to call in the National Guard looms large in neighborhood memories, sometimes surfacing in barbershop conversations or on stoops. Lewis George was blunt in her rebuttal: “A direct attack on the 700,000 residents of DC and we will not stand for it.” There’s a reason her campaign keeps returning to self-determination and the uneven sense of who gets heard in the halls of power.

Bowser’s imminent departure has turned the mayor’s office into the stage for a contest already crackling with urgency and hope. “Residents face uneven access to opportunity and a city government that...on its best days feels unresponsive,” Lewis George said when asked about her motivation for running. “On its worst, is leaving residents out in the cold all because leaders have chosen to prioritize the needs of the well-connected over us.”

Not every voter is ready to sign on to that vision, nor are her critics short on questions—what, exactly, would public safety look like with reduced policing? Can her ideas on affordability cut through decades of housing inertia? There’s no hiding from those debates, and they promise to define the months ahead.

If you squint, D.C. ahead of the mayoral race feels like a city studying itself in the mirror, uncertain if it quite recognizes the reflection. Lewis George, by leaning into both the city’s frustration and its hope, is betting there’s a hunger for something different. Whether she manages to translate grassroots bustle into lasting change is one of those questions that, for now, lingers unanswered—in the corridors of city hall, and maybe just as keenly in conversations overheard at the corner store.

There’s an unmistakable crackle in the air whenever a city senses change. Janeese Lewis George’s entrance into Washington, D.C.’s mayoral contest has, in a matter of speaking, jolted the city’s political rhythms. For some, she’s a breath of fresh air—a figure with deep roots in the city, unafraid to rattle the status quo; to others, she signals unsettling uncertainty in a town that has, for years, been managed with a kind of steady predictability.At 37, Lewis George doesn’t quite fit the stereotype of a D.C. insider. Her kickoff video, which made its rounds on local networks last week, cut straight to the point: “Rent’s rising in homes people can’t afford. Folks are working hard and still feeling the squeeze, while the few in power rake in profits.” If you happened to be riding the Green Line that morning or standing near Georgia Avenue, these weren’t just campaign slogans—they were observations echoed by residents hauling groceries or hustling to a second job.Her path here hasn’t been typical, either. Not so long ago, she unseated an ally of Mayor Bowser in Ward 4—a win that sent polite shockwaves through the circles of city developers and business interests. The DSA, usually more peripheral to D.C. power plays, called her “an elected leader who stands with the working class.” For a city with gilded corridors and tenants barely scraping by just streets apart, such language resonates, or at least it provokes a fresh round of questions at dinner tables and community meetings alike.Lewis George isn’t content to let her campaign settle into the pattern of previous races. She’s after a 5,000-strong volunteer operation—door knocking, phone banking, digital blitzes. It’s a tactic borrowed straight from recent progressive surges in Seattle and New York, where the formula is simple: meet voters where they are, literally. (One campaign staffer joked recently that they’re logging more steps than the city’s postal carriers.) Her chief digital adviser, incidentally, helped Zohran Mamdani defy the odds in his own New York City State Assembly race.Yet it’s not just policy talking points and ground game that define Lewis George’s brand. Her stance on law enforcement—perhaps the city’s most persistent wedge issue—has evolved more publicly than most candidates would risk. In 2019, she declared her intent to “absolutely divest” from the Metropolitan Police Department, pushing instead for investments in violence interruption. By the following year, pressed by critics and curious constituents alike, she’d begun to walk a tighter wire: “We’ve focused a lot in the city on sentencing — but what I’ve learned in law school and as a prosecutor is what deters crime is an individual knowing — am I going to get caught, and what are the chances of me being held accountable?” It’s less a reversal than a recasting, but in D.C. politics, nuance can matter as much as conviction.The city, of course, carries its own scars and sensitivities. President Trump’s decision to call in the National Guard looms large in neighborhood memories, sometimes surfacing in barbershop conversations or on stoops. Lewis George was blunt in her rebuttal: “A direct attack on the 700,000 residents of DC and we will not stand for it.” There’s a reason her campaign keeps returning to self-determination and the uneven sense of who gets heard in the halls of power.Bowser’s imminent departure has turned the mayor’s office into the stage for a contest already crackling with urgency and hope. “Residents face uneven access to opportunity and a city government that...on its best days feels unresponsive,” Lewis George said when asked about her motivation for running. “On its worst, is leaving residents out in the cold all because leaders have chosen to prioritize the needs of the well-connected over us.”Not every voter is ready to sign on to that vision, nor are her critics short on questions—what, exactly, would public safety look like with reduced policing? Can her ideas on affordability cut through decades of housing inertia? There’s no hiding from those debates, and they promise to define the months ahead.If you squint, D.C. ahead of the mayoral race feels like a city studying itself in the mirror, uncertain if it quite recognizes the reflection. Lewis George, by leaning into both the city’s frustration and its hope, is betting there’s a hunger for something different. Whether she manages to translate grassroots bustle into lasting change is one of those questions that, for now, lingers unanswered—in the corridors of city hall, and maybe just as keenly in conversations overheard at the corner store.