Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s nonvoting representative in the U.S. House for more than three decades, confirmed Wednesday that she will not seek reelection, bringing to a close one of the city’s most storied political careers in its modern home rule era.
Norton, 88, said she will serve the remainder of her term, which ends in January 2027.
“The privilege of public service is inseparable from the responsibility to recognize when it’s time to lift up the next generation of leaders,” Norton said in a statement. “For D.C., that time has come. With pride in all we have accomplished together, with the deepest gratitude to the people of D.C., and with great confidence in the next generation, I announced today that I will retire at the end of this term.”
Norton, who had faced increasing pressure to pass the torch given her age, had filed paperwork terminating her reelection campaign on Sunday, but was silent about her retirement until now.
For many Washingtonians, she is the only House delegate they have ever voted for, across 18 campaigns. Her exit opens the door to the first competitive House delegate race since Norton first ran for the seat in 1990.
Tributes poured in celebrating her long career, in which she became known as D.C.’s “warrior on the Hill.” On Sunday, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Norton’s work “embodies the unwavering resolve of a city that refuses to yield in its fight for equal representation.”
Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist and Norton’s closest confidante, said she was “incredibly proud of Eleanor’s unwavering dedication and lifelong commitment to her beloved hometown.”
“Eleanor has made significant contributions to our nation. We are the beneficiaries of her years of service,” said Brazile, who last year was among those urging her friend to step aside.
Norton became an icon in D.C. politics given her long crusade for D.C. statehood. She pushed it from a niche issue in the early 1990s to a central part of the Democratic Party’s voting rights platform, with two successful House votes on statehood in 2020 and 2021. (The bill has not advanced in the Senate.) And her relentless defense of home rule made her arguably the loudest voice on the nation’s founding principle: ending taxation without representation. Congress retains the ultimate authority over the District despite the fact that its residents have no voting representative in the building.
“Time and again, D.C. residents entrusted me to fight for them at the federal level, and I have not yielded,” Norton said in the statement. “With fire in my soul and the facts on my side, I have raised hell about the injustice of denying 700,000 taxpaying Americans the same rights given to residents of the states for 33 years.” (Norton took office in 1991 and has served in the House for 35 years.)
The organizers of Free DC, which advocates for home rule, said in a statement that Norton “laid critical groundwork in the fight for statehood and everyone in DC is in debt to her service.”
Pressure began publicly mounting on Norton to step aside last year. Concerns swirled about the aging lawmaker’s declining energy and limited public appearances despite the magnitude of federal intervention the city was experiencing, from a cascade of GOP bills targeting the city to President Donald Trump’s temporary seizure of the D.C. police department.
Norton spent months insisting she would run for reelection. Many in D.C. political circles had looked up to Norton for years, given her stature as a civil rights fighter in the 1960s and years of service to D.C., and wanted to see her go out trumpeting her legacy, not struggling to energetically represent the city during one of its toughest periods.
“I think we knew she was going to step down,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said Tuesday morning after hearing the news. “Still, it’s a moment to reflect on all that she has done and all that she has contributed — which is far more than most of us.”
Norton, a native Washingtonian whose formerly enslaved great-grandfather came to the District to escape a plantation, attended segregated D.C. public schools and went on to help organize the 1963 March on Washington through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. A formidable lawyer, she later became the first female head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1977.
While most known for fighting for D.C. statehood, she also played a critical role navigating some of the District’s most turbulent chapters, such as co-leading the 1997 Revitalization Act, which reorganized D.C. finances, transferred most criminal justice system functions to the federal government and served to rescue the District from bankruptcy.
She later helped the District unlock major redevelopment opportunities, such as at the Wharf and the Yards, by spearheading legislation. And she pursued other federal initiatives that have long aided residents, such as a college scholarship grant program for D.C. students.
Norton in earlier years was known for fiery speeches, castigating opponents for trampling on D.C. autonomy, as in her famous “I will not yield, sir!” speech in 2007.
“The District of Columbia has spent 206 years yielding,” she shot back after she was asked to yield the floor during her speech. “To the people who would deny them the vote, I yield you no ground.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California), who was House speaker during the statehood votes, called Norton a “towering civil rights leader.”
“Eleanor fought with deep patriotism for the people of the District of Columbia, honoring the history and promise of Washington while never wavering in her demand for justice,” Pelosi said on X. “A relentless champion of D.C. statehood, she led the charge against taxation without representation — and we were proud to follow her lead.”
“So many of the rights DC residents have today were made possible by Eleanor Holmes Norton, our Warrior on the Hill,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb (D) said in a statement. “No one has done more to move the District closer to self-governance, equality, and full representation.”
The campaign to replace Norton is shaping up to be a crowded field. Two D.C. Council members, Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) and Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large), are the candidates to beat. Other candidates include Trent Holbrook, a former top legislative staffer in Norton’s office; Kinney Zalesne, a former Democratic fundraiser who has raised more than $400,000; Deirdre Brown, a Democratic organizer in Ward 3; and Vincent Morris, who works in communications.
Pinto called Norton a “living legend,” whose “impact will be felt on the lives of Washingtonians for decades to come. White, who used to work for Norton and has considered her a mentor, wrote on X, “I promise you that we will not yield in carrying on your torch for DC and all of the causes that you have championed in Congress and your service to the nation prior.”
Norton thanked D.C. residents for electing her 18 times, and said she had “great confidence” in the next generation of leaders.
“I will leave this institution knowing that I have given you everything I have,” she said.
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