A top staffer of Eleanor Holmes Norton, the civil rights icon and longtime nonvoting representative for D.C. in the House, is running for her congressional seat, joining a crowded field as the 88-year-old lawmaker faces ever-mounting pressure to step down.
Trent Holbrook, 40, who most recently served as her senior legislative counsel, intends to launch his campaign Wednesday for the position his boss and longtime mentor has held for more than three decades.
What he lacks in name recognition, Holbrook said in an interview, he more than compensates for in his intricate knowledge of city-federal relations to continue Norton’s legacy and guide D.C. through a period of unrelenting threats to its already limited right to self-governance.
Norton has faced mounting questions about her ability to serve — plus a public plea for retirement from her closest political adviser — as President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have tightened their grip on the city. Their actions have led to a billion-dollar hole in the local budget, a push to overhaulthe criminal justice system and a remaking of high-profile civic spaces.
Holbrook, who has stayed quiet about Norton’s ability to remain effective in the seat she has held since 1991, said he isn’t trying to undermine his boss and former law school professor despite the fact that she has continually told reporters she is seeking reelection. But he suggested that her chances of winning a 19th term are slim.
“I don’t consider myself to be running against Rep. Norton,” Holbrook said. “If Rep. Norton was running a campaign that I thought would win, you know, I wouldn’t be here. But that’s not where we’re at right now.”
Holbrook has informed Norton of his plans, he said, declining to go into detail beyond characterizing their conversation as “good.” His last day in her office was Monday, he said.
In an already crowded field, he faces two better-known candidates who have had a head start with fundraising.
D.C. Council members Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) and Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large) both launched their campaigns for her seat months ago.
Pinto, who has represented downtown D.C. since 2020, has built a reputation as a consensus builder who could harness her experience chairing the city’s public safety committee to navigate relationships with Republicans in Congress, for whom local crime and criminal justice issues continue to loom large.
White— who spent five years working for Norton and also considers her a mentor — tends to align himself with the council’s most left-leaning flank. He said accelerating incursions on D.C.’s autonomy led him to abandoned plans to run for mayor in the 2026 election and turn his attention to Congress, viewing it as the front line for fighting back.
Almost a dozen others have entered the race, including Democratic National Committee official Kinney Zalesne, D.C. State Board of Education President Jacque Patterson and Ward 3 Democrats Chair Deirdre Brown.
Holbrook says his more than eight years at Norton’s side best position him for this precarious time for the city and its relationship to Congress. D.C. has no vote in Congress, though its representative in the House can introduce bills and spearhead advocacy related to the city.
“This is not like any other position in government. This isn’t a D.C. Council position where you’re working just with Democrats,” he said. “This isn’t just something you can just step in and learn on the job.”
Norton, now in her 18th term, appears seldom in public. When she does, her halting speech and waned energy mark a sharp contrast to the spirited presence that earned her the moniker “warrior on the Hill.”
Holbrook had never thought about public office, he said, but several weeks ago he began mulling a potential run with friends and former colleagues.
“We’re at such an important moment right now,” he said. “I couldn’t not.”
He grew up in Odessa, Texas, and after college worked on a couple of political campaigns, including Hillary Clinton’s 2008 run for president. Then he moved to the D.C. region — initially to the Virginia suburbs “because of how expensive everything is in D.C.,” he said — and worked in the office of then-Rep. Mike Ross, a Democrat from Arkansas. He later spent a few years at the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency for national service now known primarily as AmeriCorps.
He enrolled in law school at Georgetown University in 2013 and, in his second year, took a seminar taught by Norton.
“One of the best professors I’ve ever had,” he said, praising her as sharp, thoughtful and inquisitive. “Brilliant, of course.”
Upon graduating, he worked briefly in the Office of Management and Budget. Then Norton hired him and he moved into the District. He served as her legislative assistant, ultimately becoming her senior legislative counsel, a position he has held for almost three years.
They worked together on a bill for D.C. statehood, which at that point the House had only voted on once before, in 1993. It failed with almost twice as many votes against than in favor.
Holbrook describes how he and Norton’s team grew unrelenting in making the subject of D.C. statehood a national issue. Even now, he is quick to deliver his elevator pitch: D.C. has some 700,000 residents, a population larger than two states. D.C. residents have fought and died in every war since the American Revolution. They pay more taxes than residents in many other states and pay more per capita to the federal government than any state.
“This Congress, we have built more momentum for D.C. statehood than at any point in our 218 years as the nation’s capital,” Norton said in a 2019 statement announcing that more than 100 national organizations had endorsed her statehood bill. The year after, the bill passed the House 232-180. A year later, it passed again but stalled in the Senate both times.
Since then, D.C. has shouldered several challenges, a chorus that reached a crescendo in August, when Trump declared a local crime emergency, temporarily seizing control of the D.C. police department and deploying the National Guard to city streets. Congressional Republicans have since sought to tighten their grip on the city, introducing dozens of bills in recent months that would touch aspects of local life such as policing and park maintenance.
All the while, concerns about Norton’s health and stamina to meet that moment have grown.
Donna Brazile, a close friend who served as her first campaign manager and then as her chief of staff, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed in September: “It’s time to turn things over. You’ve done it all.”
A month later, Norton was scammed in her home by people who said they were part of a cleaning crew. A D.C. police officer described Norton in an incident report later obtained by NBC 4 Washington as being in the “early stages of dementia.”
“I think its evident that she’s not going to successfully run,” Holbrook said, declining to elaborate and continually foregrounding his reverence for her. “Rep. Norton is one of the most successful lawmakers in American history.”
He reiterated that their conversation on his burgeoning campaign was “good.”
“It was also sad,” he said after a pause. “I did not look forward to leaving this job. This is sort of my dream job, and I’ve really loved working for her for the past eight years.”
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