Washington, D.C. voters chose D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George as the city’s next mayor on Tuesday, electing the Democratic Party nominee by a wide margin over independent candidate Rhonda Hamilton.
According to results reported by the New York Times, Lewis George received 151,539 votes, or 84.3 percent, while Hamilton received 18,073 votes, or 10.1 percent. She also defeated Robert L. Gross of the DC Statehood Green Party.
“Washington DC, thank you for trusting this Daughter of the District to lead us!” Lewis George wrote in a post on X.
Her victory ends an eleven-year stretch without a new occupant in the mayor’s office. She will succeed Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat who did not seek a fourth term and is leaving public office, according to NBC News. Bowser’s departure prompted a crowded Democratic primary in June, with the party’s nominee considered a near-certain winner in the general election since no Republican candidate ran.
The race drew national attention earlier this year when President Donald Trump criticized Lewis George’s platform in a Truth Social post ahead of the primary. Trump wrote that Lewis George, whom he called a “Communist,” wanted to “empty the prisons, make D.C. a Sanctuary City, oppose ICE, welcome Criminal Illegal Aliens back into our beloved Capital, resist Anti-Crime Crackdowns, Defund the Police, continue and expand Cashless Bail, and so many other Capital destroying ‘things.'”
Trump said at the time that he would “not let” Lewis George carry out those policies in the nation’s capital.
Lewis George responded that she would be “willing to work with anyone, including the Administration,” but added that she would also “stand up to anyone who puts our city or its residents in harm’s way.”
