DC could see Mamdani-style campaign to replace outgoing mayor, endangering cooperation with Trump

The retirement of longtime Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has the potential to shake up the relationship between the Trump administration and the nation’s capital city.

Under President Donald Trump, Washington has become ground zero for his administration’s efforts to boost immigration enforcement and reduce urban crime. The mayor’s office, despite trading rhetorical barbs with the president, has been remarkably cooperative with the administration, especially when the federal government offered resources to bolster the city’s Metropolitan Police Department. 

But, the battle to replace Bowser could pit business-friendly centrists against progressive Democrats, creating uncertainty in the White House about what kind of leadership it will contend with when the dust settles. 

One of the leading likely contenders, a progressive Democrat council member for D.C.'s Ward 4, Janeese Lewis George, is reportedly aiming to run a progressive Zohran Mamdani-style campaign that vaulted the famed democratic socialist to the New York City mayoral office. 

Lewis George has been a vocal critic of Bowser’s centrist leadership of the city, especially her approach toward Trump’s crime-fighting and immigration enforcement efforts in the city. If she wins, she could make federal operations in the city difficult and obstruct the Trump administration. 

In August, Lewis George declined to say whether she was planning a run for mayor, but slammed the Republican administration’s federal takeover of the city. “We are in a crisis right now, and I’m focused on fighting fascism in this country and in this city,” she said.

Several reports indicate that Lewis George was already gearing up for a mayoral bid. But, Bowser’s decision to step down, rather than run for reelection, will likely fuel the nascent campaign to replace her.  

Last week, Axios reported Lewis George’s closest advisers were prepping a campaign to mirror the successful effort by Mamdani in New York, who challenged the New York Democratic Party establishment and shifted the city’s politics far to the left. Other “democratic socialist” candidates have also found success across the country in recent years. 

Lewis George is undoubtedly one of them. She openly describes herself as a democratic socialist and has championed many policies shared with Mamdani from her seat on Washington, D.C.’s council. She has supported social housing, stripping “military equipment” from the police, and minimum wage increases. 

“Housing is too essential to leave solely to the private market,” Lewis George said in 2022, years before Mamdani launched his mayoral campaign. She introduced a bill that year called the “Green New Deal for Housing” that would authorize the D.C. government to buy property and convert them into social housing. 

Lewis George was first elected in 2020, at the height of the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests. During the campaign, Lewis George said that she believed in stripping funds and taking away military-style equipment from D.C.’s police department. Her incumbent opponent, who was endorsed by Mayor Bowser, tried to use the stances against her, but Democratic primary voters awarded Lewis George a resounding victory. 

Unlike Bowser, who took a more equivocal position, Lewis George’s views have placed her in firm opposition to President Trump’s federal takeover of the city’s police department and ongoing National Guard deployment aimed at countering violent crime. If elected mayor, President Trump could face a city government more opposed to his plans for the capital. 

The mayor originally opposed Trump’s decision to assume emergency control of the Metropolitan Police Department this summer, but changed her mind after crime rates began to decline. By September, she had thanked the president for the extra resources. 

For many in the city, Bowser has shown minimal resistance to Trump in his second term. During the height of the George Floyd protests, Bowser had the city paint “Black Lives Matter” on a main road leading to the White House. But, this year, the mayor wilfully stripped it from the road.

Bowser has also faced backlash from fellow Democrats for the Washington Metropolitan Police Department’s growing cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the city. 

Lewis George has strongly criticized the city’s cooperation with federal agents and the Trump administration takeover, making it likely she would strive to limit any collaboration if elected next year. 

"I have been horrified and outraged by the conduct perpetrated by federal law enforcement officers, including ICE agents, targeting our most vulnerable neighbors – especially unhoused and undocumented residents who are simply trying to live their lives,” Lewis George wrote in August. “This cruelty is the opposite of who we are as a District and as a community who has long stood up for those who need protection most.”  

If elected, Lewis George could do what other blue city mayors across the country have done in order to make things difficult for the Trump administration’s crime and immigration crackdowns. 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, for example, has resisted the president’s suggestion of deploying National Guard troops to his city. He also signed an executive order making clear that the Chicago Police Department would remain under the city’s control and barred city law enforcement from helping federal immigration authorities with civil enforcement.