A row of voting booths at a polling station. by Image by vesperstock (Shutterstock).

Voters will elect two at-large members to the DC Council on November 8, 2022, from a mix of incumbents and new faces. Importantly, each voter is allowed to vote for two candidates from a single list.

Many voters miss this distinction—understandable! In every other race in the District, we select one candidate per seat. But, selecting one candidate for the at-large seat in the general means that you only cast half your available votes. (While some voters choose to cast only one vote when they think it will strategically help their favored candidate the most, that advanced game theory discussion is reminiscent of a microeconomics class, and better left for another post.)

You could be forgiven for thinking that you made your relevant choice for one of two at-large seats in the June primary. At that time, incumbent at-large Councilmember Anita Bonds won the race for the Democratic slot on the general election ballot. While this makes her an assumed shoo-in for one of the two seats, said seat is not automatically hers.

Democratic nominee Bonds will share the ballot with the winners of the Republican and DC Statehood Green primaries, as well as independent candidates.

The complete list of candidates who, as of this writing, have qualified for the ballot in the at-large council race is:

  • Anita Bonds (Democrat)
  • Fred E. Hill (Independent)
  • Karim D. Marshall (Independent)
  • Kenyan McDuffie (Independent)
  • Graham McLaughlin (Independent)
  • Giuseppe Niosi (Republican)
  • David Schwartzman (DC Statehood Green)
  • Elissa Silverman (Independent)

Voters will select two candidates from this list of names on the ballot. The resulting winners could be two incumbents, an incumbent and a challenger, or two challengers.

There is no requirement that voters elect the Democratic nominee to one of those seats, but past elections have almost always seen the Democrat finish in first place, with the second seat going to an independent. For example, in the crowded at-large candidate field in 2020, in which 25 people (!) ran, Democrat Robert White finished first with 25.96% of all votes, and independent candidate Christina Henderson won the second seat with 14.77%.

Living at-large

The particulars of how at-large councilmembers are elected during the general are more visible in 2022 than in previous years, because three current councilmembers, with their attendant name recognition, are all running.

In addition to Bonds, incumbent independent at-large Councilmember Elissa Silverman is running for a third term. Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie is also running for an at-large seat after his primary bid for DC Attorney General was disqualified by the Board of Elections earlier this year. McDuffie changed his registration from a Democrat to an independent to qualify for this race.

Because of the aforementioned history of Democratic nominees finishing first, most observers are framing this as a race between Silverman and McDuffie for the second seat.

But the race isn’t between two sitting councilmembers for one of their seats. It’s among three sitting councilmembers, plus several challengers, for two seats.

Punditry aside, there’s no public information available about which candidates might prevail, which is typical; even the most sophisticated of polls can only illuminate so much in tightly contested races. However, Bonds’ performance in the primary, garnering approximately 36% of votes cast, showed that her support is not ironclad. With several challengers—McDuffie and Silverman, plus Fred E. Hill, Karim D. Marshall, Graham McLaughlin, and David Schwartzman—running for two seats, no seat is spoken for until November’s ballots have been counted.

Why are DC voters compelled to choose non-Democrats?

The District’s Home Rule charter stipulates that a single political party cannot have more than two of the four at-large seats on the Council. Congress, including Democrats, designed our local democracy this way in the early 1970s to ensure a “healthy” “balance” of “viewpoints.”

In effect, because of the dominance of the Democratic party in DC politics, that has traditionally meant the four at-large seats split as two Democrats and two non-Democrats. In the 2022 general election, the seats held by Bonds (Democrat) and Silverman (Independent) are both up for a vote. As mentioned above, there is no requirement that a Democrat continue to fill the seat held by Bonds. The only rule is that both seats cannot be held by Democrats, but the primary elections held in June already whittled the candidates down to one per party (Democrat, Republican, Statehood Green) to prevent that outcome.

Of course, every action has a reaction, and candidates have not exactly let these technicalities stop them. In practice, candidates who would otherwise very likely identify as Democrats simply run as independents (or switch their party affiliation to qualify, as McDuffie has done this year and other candidates like Silverman have in years past).

It’s our lot, at least for the time being, to choose at least 18% of our legislature from candidates who aren’t officially Democrats…even if they’re basically Democrats.

GGWeighing in

GGWash is endorsing in most elections in the District this year (check out our Elections Hub for more information), including the at-large race in the general election. We aim to provide voters with information that supports their decision-making. Recognizing that voting can be a complex process, and a stamp of approval alone won’t always cut it, we supplement questionnaire responses submitted by each candidate with comparisons, visualizations, and other resources.

We’ll be sharing more information about our general election endorsements process, as well as questionnaires and a visualization of at-large candidate responses, in the coming days.