How a Socialist Can Govern a City Under the Thumb of the Trump Administration

Socialists will soon govern three of the United States’ most influential cities: Los Angeles, New York City, and the District of Columbia.

Janeese Lewis George joins Zohran Mamdani and Nithya Raman as part of a new wave of socialist local executives. But unlike Mamdani and Raman, Lewis George will govern a city under federal rule.

D.C. is a “federal district,” subject to the whims and micromanagement of the president and Congress. If the federal government doesn’t like the city’s legislation, it can override it. This poses additional challenges if Lewis George wants to change how things are done in the nation’s capital.

Lewis George, a current D.C. city councilmember, has promised to usher in sweeping reforms centered around affordability, including stronger tenant protections, investments in affordable childcare, and long-sought-after reforms on the city’s restrictive zoning laws. She rose to political prominence as the first socialist on the city council, winning her seat on a platform of defunding the police in the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor protests in 2020. (She has since called for hiring additional Metropolitan Police officers.)

For Lewis George to fulfill her campaign promises is “going to require Janeese to use her position and her longstanding reputation as an organizer to convince members of Congress that we can exercise Home Rule and that we deserve the dignity of any other collective body, like a state, in this country,” said Kurtis Hagans, chair of Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, which endorsed Lewis George in the primary. 

All local D.C. bills are required to go through a congressional review period of 30 working days for civil legislation and 60 working days for criminal bills. If Congress doesn’t like the bill, it can either decide to let that review period lapse, allowing the legislation to go into effect, or pass a joint disapproval resolution in both the House and the Senate. If they pass a disapproval resolution, it goes to the president’s desk, where they can choose to veto and let the new law stand or sign it and override the legislation. 

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Speaking to The Intercept on Election Day, voters said they supported Lewis George because they wanted to elect someone who would fight for everyday Washingtonians. 

“I was certainly motivated by wanting really strong leadership for D.C. and people who are going to put D.C. first, in the sense of the residents and the community members and not solely as our role as the capital city,” said Izetta Mobley, a voter in Ward 4, where Lewis George serves as a councilmember.

For Mobley and other voters, that primarily means tackling issues of affordability. “Affordable housing and the rise in unhoused folks, and making sure that unhoused folks have support and city resources …those were very important to me,” said Mobley. 

Although Democrats took both houses of Congress on Tuesday, paving a clearer path for the district to flex its autonomy, Lewis George will still have to contend with Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, both moderates, who are likely to lead the Senate and the House next session. Schumer and Jeffries were often critical of Mamdani when he was running for mayor in their home state of New York, though they seized primarily on his stance on Israel.

Hagans pointed out that Lewis George has the longtime support of former at-large councilmember Robert White, who was elected as Washington’s non-voting delegate on Tuesday. But Hagans said the DC Metro DSA is also preparing to organize residents to put pressure on Congress, given ”the relative powerlessness of the district in the face of Congress.”

Governing Washington has other pitfalls. The district is hamstrung by the fact that the D.C. Council is required to pass a balanced budget and is prohibited from carrying it over into the following year. (Congress also gets to approve it.) The city is already struggling to close a $1.1 billion budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year — caused by Congress.

In order to achieve her agenda, Lewis George has suggested raising taxes on businesses and the city’s wealthiest residents. For that, she’ll need the support of the city council.

Lewis George is aided by the fact that Tuesday also ushered in a record number of socialists on the city council, adding two, Aparna Raj and Oye Owolewa. “A big part of the vision for the district is to have these organizers on the council as well as an organizer-in-chief at the executive level,” said Hagans.

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Aside from bold economic policies, many voters who spoke to The Intercept said they want the new administration to prioritize resistance to the federal takeover of Washington, D.C., and ending the scourge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We’ve seen ICE raids in our neighborhood, literally where our kids used to go to school,” said Jason Cherkis, another Ward 4 voter. “That’s one reason we voted for Janeese for mayor because she was out front and speaking about ICE in a way our current mayor never did.”

Despite the restrictions placed on a D.C. mayor, immigrant advocacy and civil rights groups concerned about the incursion of ICE in the district are pushing for Lewis George to take a stand.

“We want to see the next mayor doing everything possible to protect these most vulnerable communities from continued attacks,” said Peggy Ramin, policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia. “Whether that is legislation or the mayor ensuring that the administration’s agencies are well educated as to what that means in terms of limiting cooperation and even prohibiting cooperation.”

In particular, Ramin said that her organization is calling on the D.C. council and Lewis George to pass legislation that would allow residents to sue any officer — local or federal — who violates constitutional rights.

Ramin is aware of the challenges facing the district to pass this type of legislation without incurring interference from Congress or President Donald Trump — who has personally vowed to oppose Lewis George. 

“No matter what Congress ends up doing, whether it disapproves or passes a disapproval resolution or not, I think people here in D.C. are really demanding and asking our council to step up and pass this sort of legislation,” said Ramin. 

Aside from federal immigration officials, residents also complained about the National Guard, whose presence was felt even on Election Day. “I have two boys, Black men,” said one voter, Tamika Jackson, “and the harassment is out of control.”

As evidenced by the record number of socialists winning power across the country, Hagans says it’s clear both D.C. and the nation are looking for fighters.

“Democrats have promised a lot for a long time, but they seem unwilling to stand up to Trumpism,” said Hagans. Voters are noticing “this new class of democratic socialists,” he said, concluding, “Maybe I don’t know what that means entirely, but let’s give it a shot.”

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