D.C. voters in all likelihood will elect the first democratic socialist mayor in the history of the nation’s capital Tuesday, while Marylanders cast ballots in a congressional redistricting skirmish that has ricocheted from state to state ahead of the midterm elections.
The elections also feature Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s reelection bid and some last-minute drama on the D.C. Council, with former Council member Robert White resigning his seat to become eligible to serve as the District’s nonvoting representative in Congress.
The rise of Janeese Lewis George from a D.C. Council member to prospective mayor could heighten tensions between her administration and the White House.
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The District’s heavily liberal voter base means that Democrats who won their party primaries over the summer are virtual shoo-ins in the general election.
Ms. Lewis George frequently slammed President Trump’s involvement in the District’s affairs on the campaign trail.
Mr. Trump called Ms. Lewis George a “communist” after her Democratic primary win in June and vowed to stonewall her agenda once she takes office.
She said she wanted to show that her administration could run the city effectively, both as financial stewards and as guardians of public safety.
However, Ms. Lewis George also said she intends to end any cooperation between the Metropolitan Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The partnership between the city’s police force and ICE formally ended after the president’s monthlong federal crime emergency expired in September 2025. Mayor Muriel Bowser did not include the Department of Homeland Security in her executive order listing federal law enforcement agencies that would be assisted by local police.
Yet news reporting has highlighted that Homeland Security Investigations units have been on patrol in the city since the initial surge ended last year.
Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said this year that Metropolitan Police officers work alongside Homeland Security Department agents only for criminal matters, not civil immigration enforcement.
On the D.C. Council, Mr. White, at-large Democrat, announced last week that he will resign from office so as not to interfere with his chances of becoming the District’s next congressional representative.
A 1970 law came to the fore prohibiting the District’s congressional delegate from holding another paid public office.
Mr. White, who won the Democratic primary this summer for the seat held by longtime Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s nonvoting representative in Congress, is practically guaranteed to replace his former boss at the ballot box Tuesday.
Mr. White said he disagrees with the law and argued that he should be allowed to stay on the council until the vote is certified, but clarified that he “will not jeopardize D.C.’s representation in Congress” by fighting the statute.
D.C. residents also will determine if foie gras, the duck and goose liver delicacy served at about 50 restaurants in the District, should be banned.
Initiative 86 would strike the luxury food item from menus, largely because advocates consider the force-feeding practice needed to make the dish cruel to animals.
Similar bans passed in California in 2012 and New York in 2019, but ongoing legal battles have kept the item available in the Empire State for the past seven years.
Foie gras would be outlawed from local cuisine by July if voters back the measure.
Maryland voters will weigh in on a pivotal constitutional amendment Tuesday that could help eliminate the state’s lone congressional seat held by a Republican.
The ballot initiative, if passed, would allow the Democrat supermajority in the Maryland Legislature to redraw a more favorable congressional map in time for the 2028 election cycle.
Depending on the outcome, the odds could be stacked against Rep. Andy Harris, the Republican who has represented the state’s 1st Congressional District for the past 15 years. Maryland’s seven other congressional representatives are all Democrats.
State party leaders, such as Senate President Bill Ferguson, originally opposed redrawing the map because lawsuits challenging the redistricting effort could backfire and cost the party seats in Congress. Still, Mr. Ferguson came around to the idea this spring when the Supreme Court significantly curtailed the Voting Rights Act.
Mr. Trump started the redistricting fight last year to ensure Republicans keep control of the House after the midterm elections.
Since then, redistricting in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas has helped Republicans pick up a likely 16 seats in the House, while new maps in California and Utah are projected to give Democrats six additional seats.
Marylanders have not been as gung-ho about the redistricting proposal as their elected officials. A poll released last month by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Institute of Politics found that 53% of likely voters opposed redrawing the maps.
The governor’s intense advocacy of the proposal has not affected his popularity in the state.
The same UMBC poll found that Mr. Moore, a Democrat, is favored by more than a 2-1 margin to defeat his Republican challenger, Dan Cox.
The gubernatorial race is a rematch of the 2022 election, which helped Mr. Moore become the state’s first Black governor.
Mr. Moore has said he is not treating his residence in Annapolis as a springboard to the White House, despite being favored for the position by his high-profile pals such as actor George Clooney.
Yet the governor’s repeated trips out of state and appearances on national television have made it less clear how likely that would be.
At his debate against Mr. Cox last month, when asked whether he would commit to serving his full term if reelected, Mr. Moore instead said, “I’m committed to the people of Maryland, and that’s why I’m running for reelection.”
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