Doni Crawford, a staffer for former D.C. Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie, will temporarily replace him on the council following his resignationearlier this month to run for mayor.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint Crawford to the role, the day after its chairman, Phil Mendelson (D), shared at a news conference that she was his selection.
“In talking with members, I found that there was broad support for Ms. Crawford — and for good reason,” Mendelson said Tuesday, adding that Crawford “struck multiple members as very authentic” and was clearly knowledgeable about how the council works.
Well known around the Wilson Building, which houses city government, Crawford most recently worked as director for the council’s business economic development committee, which McDuffie chaired, and as McDuffie’s legislative director. McDuffie said in a news release Tuesday that Crawford “was instrumental in advancing legislation to expand affordable housing, support small businesses across all eight wards, and ensure our economic development strategies benefit all Washingtonians, particularly our Black and brown communities.”
Before starting in McDuffie’s office in 2022, she worked as a policy analyst at the left-leaning DC Fiscal Policy Institute and at a nonprofit group in her native Pittsburgh.
“For most of my career, I’ve been a policy professional working behind the scenes: doing the research, building coalitions, and helping turn ideas into results,” Crawford said at a news conference Monday. “I wasn’t doing it for the spotlight. I was doing it because I believe in this city and in the people who call it home. Now I’m ready to step up and step forward.”
Crawford — a 36-year-old resident of Ward 5’s Carver Langston neighborhood — will be sworn into office Tuesday afternoon.
McDuffie resigned effective Jan. 5 after more than 13 years on the council. Crawford will fill the seat until results are certified from a special election on June 16, the city’s primary election day; she declined to say Monday whether she planned to campaign in that contest.
The seat, which is reserved for someone who isn’t a member of the city’s majority party, will then go up for grabs again in the fall general election.
Although Crawford’s tenure may be temporary, as an interim council member she could take part in some consequential votes — including on next year’s budget. She will also serve during oversight season, when lawmakers hold hearings with the directors of all D.C. government agencies to evaluate their performance and inform budget decisions.
D.C. law dictates that when an at-large seat becomes vacant, the political party of the departing council member should choose an interim placement. McDuffie, however, was an independent during his most recent council term, in which case the law says the council should appoint a “similarly nonaffiliated person.”
For some lawmakers, the process was fraught. Council members Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) and Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) questioned whether Mendelson had seized too much control, or criticized him for not laying out more defined criteria for McDuffie’s replacement, leaving the council prone to accusations of bias. Mendelson has emphasized that he was striving for consensus.
In the end, he said, the decision came down to “a combination of two things: one being impressed with Ms. Crawford, and the other being that there was broad support for her.”
Even lawmakers who criticized the process said they were happy with where things landed.
“I know that it was an arduous task and you were placed in a precarious situation,” council member Wendell Felder (D-Ward 7) told Mendelson on the dais Tuesday, “but at the end of the day, you made the right decision for the residents of the District of Columbia.”
“I know that for some, the process wasn’t perfect, but it was the process that we had, and I feel like we did land at the appropriate person,” council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large) said.
Henderson, herself a former council staffer, said she was proud to see someone else make a similar transition. “Former staffers unite!” she said, noting that Mendelson and fellow member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) also worked in council offices before becoming lawmakers. “It’s just really exciting to see someone be able to grow in their career in this way.”
While at the Fiscal Policy Institute, Crawford helped lead advocacy efforts during the covid-19 pandemic that expanded unemployment benefits to gig workers. She said Monday that she was also part of the council team that negotiated the deal with the Washington Commanders to redevelop the RFK site with a football stadium — adding that she pushed to strengthen the community benefits agreement and to bolster requirements for the hiring of D.C. residents.
Crawford, who was registered as a Democrat for the 2024 election, said she switched her registration to independent in the fall, anticipating a possible vacancy and wanting to be ready to put herself forward.
She said she had just one conversation with McDuffie to share her interest in the role; she earned the position on her own, she said, pitching herself to lawmakers one by one.
“I’m ready on Day One,” she recalled telling them. Between her work at the Fiscal Policy Institute and her years in the Wilson Building, she has been involved in seven D.C. budgets, she said.
“I know the legislative and budget processes,” she said. “My work ethic speaks for itself.”
At least one voice in D.C. politics was critical of the council’s approach. Patrick Mara, chairman of the DC Republican Party, said in a news release Tuesday that the seat “exists to ensure representation for minority parties, such as Republicans, not for a last-minute party switch by a lifelong Democrat who conveniently re-registered only months ago in anticipation of this vacancy.”
Crawford acknowledged Monday that this appointment process was unusual, and she said she knew she would have to earn residents’ support. She said she planned, in her first 30 days, to talk to residents across the city about their budget priorities.
Crawford emerged from a list of 42 people who either nominated themselves or were nominated by others. The list included at least three former council members — Jack Evans, Kwame Brown and Elissa Silverman — according to a person familiar with the discussions.
In the end, council members’ support coalesced around several candidates — including Crawford and Eboni-Rose Thompson, a Ward 7 representative on the D.C. State Board of Education, according to three people familiar with the council’s discussions. Amy Mauro, head of the D.C. Fire and EMS foundation and former chief of staff at the fire department, had also made the shortlists of several lawmakers, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay information from private conversations.
Mendelson, for his part, remained tight-lipped throughout the process, declining to disclose a list of candidates. He was vague on Monday when describing the mechanics behind the selection, describing it as “subjective judgment.”
Although the council’s selection fills the role on an interim basis, the special election campaign is already underway. Silverman announced Thursday she would campaign for the seat. Mauro, reached Friday, said she was still deciding. Thompson, who ran in the most recent contest for Ward 7 council member, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Meagan Flynn and Olivia George contributed to this report.
correctionA previous version of this article contained an incorrect photo credit. The photo was taken by Jenny Gathright, not Brittany Shammas.
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