The District of Columbia’s 2024 primary election is Tuesday, June 4, 2024. Greater Greater Washington will be endorsing candidates in races for council seats in Ward 2, Ward 4, Ward 7, Ward 8; for the at-large majority-party seat; and for United States shadow senator and shadow representative. While not part of the primary election, we’ll also weigh in on an emerging effort taking place during the same time frame to recall incumbent councilmembers, and GGWash endorsees, Brianne Nadeau and Charles Allen in, respectively, Ward 1 and Ward 6.

Later in the year, we’ll conduct a separate endorsements process for the District’s general election, which will include, but may not be limited to, our endorsements for the at-large minority-party seat and Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners. We’ll publish a post like this then, too.

The endorsements process

In consultation with GGWash board members and myself, GGWash policy staff are designing questionnaires for each race. While we know how tightly intertwined land use, housing, and transportation are with other topics, like economic justice, climate policy, and public safety, many trusted groups with expertise in those areas deliver their own endorsements. So, we focus our questionnaire on land use, housing, and transportation.

In order to be considered for GGWash’s endorsement, candidates must respond to our questionnaire. We send our survey to all candidates registered with the Board of Elections, to the email address on file, and with a clear submission deadline. Following receipt, we publish their responses on our website.

Then, our endorsement committee reviews candidates’ responses as well as other publicly available information, such as campaign materials, answers in public forums, press coverage, or candidate social media posts, to decide who to endorse. While the questionnaire typically holds the greatest weight in our decisions, we reserve the right to factor in other considerations at our discretion. We’ll write up our decisions and post them on our website and social media channels.

When we endorse a candidate, we’re able to promote positions and statements on our platforms, publicize volunteer opportunities with campaigns, fundraise, and, of course, encourage voters to vote for our endorsees. In conducting any political activity for any campaign, including publicly financed campaigns, we comply with District law as required by the Board of Elections’ regulations.

In 2024, a subset of GGWash staff and board comprise the DC elections committee:

  • Chelsea Allinger, executive director
  • Alex Baca, DC policy director
  • Kai Hall, DC policy officer
  • Dan Reed, regional policy director
  • Alberto Rivera, board member
  • Caitlin Rogger, deputy executive director

The above committee members are the sole individuals responsible for determining GGWash’s endorsements in 2024. No other staff, board members, or volunteers determine our endorsement decisions.

Ethics and conflicts of interest

GGWash maintains a political activity policy that allows people to work for, volunteer for, or otherwise serve GGWash while engaging in politics in various ways. It also contains guardrails to protect the integrity of our endorsements process and our work overall, including our non-political work. That policy is publicly visible here.

As detailed in the policy, we prohibit the sharing of non-public campaign information with individuals involved in making endorsements. Elections committee members with a campaign affiliation – whether on the basis of volunteering or financial contribution – are required to recuse themselves from the endorsement decision-making process for that race.

Per that policy, these recusals are in place during the endorsements process:

  • Ward 4 council seat: Alberto Rivera

Mission-driven work

GGWash engages in political endorsements as a service to voters and in service of our mission. It’s an intensive, important process that we take extremely seriously. We’ve developed this process and the policies that guide it through extensive work, discussion, and consultation with outside and legal expertise.

With these parameters in place, we look forward to delivering a slate of endorsements for candidates who will support more housing, more affordable housing, frequent and reliable public transportation, fewer trips by car, and fair land use, and do the work within their power to bring those things to bear for District voters. Any questions about the process guiding our 2024 endorsements should be directed to me at callinger[at]ggwash.org.

This process relies on staff to administer it, supporters to fund it, and readers to make it worthwhile. Thank you for believing in the value of this work.

[This post has been updated to reflect a shift in timeline].

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Tagged: about ggwash, brianne nadeau, charles allen, dc, elections, endorsements, politics

Chelsea Allinger (she/her) is GGWash's executive director. Before coming to GGWash in 2021, she spent nearly 15 years working in different capacities on land policy, urban policy, and community development. Outside of GGWash, Chelsea is a doctoral candidate in public policy and public administration at George Washington University. She served as an elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, DC, from 2019-2023.