Lynn French, a sixth-generation Washingtonian, has lived in her house in Columbia Heights for three decades.
But over the years, French said, she’s seen neighbors “disappear” from the community, seemingly pushed out because of the high cost of living.
“I’m concerned about housing, and I’m concerned about young people in this city having an opportunity and being able to flourish,” said French, 79.
Affordability is top of mind for French, and an issue that has largely dominated the platforms of the handful of candidates running to represent Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant and other neighborhoods that make up Ward 1 on the D.C. Council.
Democrats Rashida Brown, Aparna Raj, Terry Lynch, Miguel Trindade Deramo and Jackie Reyes Yanes are competing in this month’s primary to fill the seat being vacated by Brianne K. Nadeau, who has led the ward for more than a decade. It’s the first time since the 1980s that the race has not included an incumbent.
The outcome could also bring the city council’s first Latino or Asian member. The winner of the primary would face Republican Jett Jasper in the fall.
It’s a tight and crowded race, so much so that the ward’s Democratic Party organization couldn’t make an endorsement because no candidate received enough votes in the group’s process to reach a threshold needed for an endorsement, said Alex Baca, the ward party chair.
Baca said three candidates, Brown, Raj and Trindade Deramo, are all fairly similar — progressive and whose platforms focus on supporting building more housing and, simultaneously, tenants’ rights.
“They’re running in races where they need to distinguish themselves from each other,” Baca said.
She said Lynch and Reyes Yanes invoke the same political style as Jim Graham, who ran the ward before Nadeau and was known for regularly showing up at everything from fires to ribbon cuttings. “People really, I think, loved the sort of retail politics of ‘oh, something’s happening,’ Jim Graham is on the scene,” Baca said.
In interviews, both Lynch and Reyes Yanes nodded toward Graham’s influence in their approach.
Advisory neighborhood commissioners and local organizations said residents want a leader who will work to cut down the cost of living and create more housing, support small businesses struggling to keep up with commercial rent and labor costs, and follow through on city services, like trash pickup and handling rats.
“This feels like a moment of opportunity to shape the priorities for the future of the city,” said Omar Parbhoo, chair of ANC 1D in Mount Pleasant and northern Columbia Heights. “I’m hopeful that they’re going to start thinking about these very sticky problems from different angles.”
The June primary also marks the city’s first election using ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to select up to five candidates on a ballot in many races. That has led some on the ballot to team up and encourage voters to rank them and another candidate on the ballot, so that if either hopeful is eliminated, the vote from their supporters would shift to the other.
In Ward 1, Brown and Trindade Deramo have formed an alliance over their shared progressive values and experience as ANC commissioners. The two have cross-endorsed one another.
Brown, whose Ward 1 roots date back to her time at Howard University, has served as an ANC 1E commissioner representing the Park View and Pleasant Plains neighborhoods for more than a decade.
Brown said she’s witnessed people, particularly Black and Brown neighbors, moving to other wards or out of the District entirely because of child care and housing costs.
To help combat that, Brown said she is committed to expanding affordable housing, like she did with the Park Morton and Bruce Monroe redevelopment project underway along lower Georgia Avenue NW. She also wants to invest in anti-displacement tools, including fully restoring the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act that allows tenants a chance to buy their building if it’s for sale.
“My vision for the ward is to ensure a diverse, inclusive ward where everyone can belong no matter their income or their walk of life,” said Brown, 48. “We cannot balance the budget on the back of low-income and working-class families.”
Trindade Deramo, chair of ANC 1B, encompassing the U Street corridor, said he wants to eliminate the regulatory roadblocks that often impede starting a business or breaking new ground on a housing development. He wants the government to follow through on its implementation, including providing city services, he said, such as trash pickup.
“We have sterling values and bold progressive ideas in D.C. … but we don’t always do implementation very well,” said Trindade Deramo, 40. “It’s one of the reasons that I’ve decided to join this race, to be … a bit of a policy nerd and really stick the landing.”
Trindade Deramo, raised by Brazilian immigrants, said Ward 1 also has been hit hard by federal immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, with many Latino neighbors bearing the brunt during traffic checkpoints or on streets.
Coupled with ramped-up federal law enforcement efforts under the Trump administration, he said voters have told him the ward is eager to focus on its local values and caring for one another.
Raj, 32, a democratic socialist running for the seat, said she has been organizing for years to keep people in their homes and improve housing conditions, stemming from her own experiences with landlords.
As a renter, Raj supports expanding rent stabilization, restoring tenant protections and creating more housing, particularly family-size, not just studios and one-bedrooms, she said.
Raj is also pushing for free child care for children ages 3 months to 3 years, which she says can be funded by a business activity tax on companies that currently don’t pay a franchise tax.
She said bold policy vision goes hand in hand with government services working better for everyone. “This moment calls for someone who will be a real champion and organizer,” Raj said. “Being able to dream of what a better Ward 1 can look like includes a Ward 1 where everyone can afford to live, and a Ward 1 where your trash gets picked up on time.”
While the Ward 1 race has shaped up to be one of the most competitive in the city, Lynch sees his competition as not just the other candidates on the ballot.
“My opponents are the drug dealers in Columbia Heights, the blight that’s taken hold of Georgia Avenue, the rats that are winning across the ward, the trash that’s overflowing,” Lynch, 66, said. “That’s what I’m running against.”
Lynch has lived in the ward for 40 years and has filed thousands of 311 service requests to fix problems plaguing neighborhoods, he said.
Lynch said he wants to address public safety and youths by doubling down on arts, athletic and employment programs. He said supporting small businesses and solving building vacancies have also been core themes as he’s built his campaign.
“We’ve got to turn it around so that businesses can feel welcomed, can survive, can thrive,” said Lynch.
Reyes Yanes, 48, said she wants to see a revival in small businesses in the ward and push for no new taxes for local businesses.
A civil war survivor from El Salvador, Reyes Yanes led the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs and has nearly 20 years of experience working in city government. She’s particularly focused on youth safety and small businesses.
Reyes Yanes described small businesses as the “backbone of the economy.” She sees a joint strategy that would support small businesses and help pair them with young people who need work, which would develop their future.
From activating empty lots to supporting street vendors, Reyes Yanes wants to ensure local businesses have a chance to apply for dedicated grants, too.
“My plan is block by block‚” Reyes Yanes said. “The ‘Jackie’s way’ is to listen to people and to make sure that we have every single taxpayer interest at the table.”
Jasper, a nonprofit executive, is the first Republican to run for Ward 1 since 2010, according to his campaign manager Kilian Mallon. Although it will be an uphill battle to win the seat, “democracy is the ability to have choices,” Jasper said.
Jasper, 37, said he sees public safety as the ward’s biggest need. He has focused his campaign on addressing vacancies within D.C.‘s police department through increased compensation packages for new hires and a hiring “frenzy.”
As Election Day looms, one message seems to be resonating with ward voters most, said Brad Howard, an ANC 1E commissioner representing most of northern and eastern Park View who is a congressional chief of staff.
“Making government work is an affordability argument,” Howard said, such as being able to start a small business quickly or taking a reliable bus. “These government services are designed to make life more affordable in D.C., and right now they’re not.”
French, who said she’s been in Ward 1 “before it was Ward 1,” wants to know the area has a strong future ahead. She’s leaning toward Brown.
“I just want us to have some communitas,” French said. “Where we respect each other, work together and everybody can live and thrive.”
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