GGWash endorses Janeese Lewis-George for DC Council's Ward 4 seat. Image courtesy of the candidate's campaign.

Greater Greater Washington is endorsing Janeese Lewis-George in the 2024 Ward 4 Democratic primary election for DC Council.

We endorsed Lisa Gore in 2022 when she ran for the at-large Democratic seat, in part because of her willingness to engage more on our issues, and we’ve appreciated her presence on ANC 3/4G. Her questionnaire responses, however, do not match the depth or enthusiasm of Lewis George, the incumbent councilmember, and she diverges from GGWash’s views more frequently; she would not exempt height and mass from historic preservation review, and supports public funding for privately owned sports stadiums in the District. Paul Johnson, a third contender, did not respond to our questionnaire, disqualifying him from consideration for an endorsement.

Lewis George works hard, with true ambition. In her four years as Ward 4’s councilmember, she’s palpably shifted public narratives with big-deal bills like the Green New Deal for Housing, which, as she puts it, “encompasses the totality of the need for housing—not just market-rate housing or housing for people living with very low incomes.” Likewise, the Safe Routes to School Expansion Regulation Amendment Act, which she championed, will result in aggressive traffic calming measures in school zones across the District.

Lewis George’s responses to our questionnaire show a willingness to engage with public policy in a way that few other candidates possess. She’s on firm ground on transportation, supporting road pricing and reallocating road space for bus and bike lanes, and identifying Grant Circle for road safety improvements. We’re partial to her insistence that existing housing programs, like the DC Housing Authority’s voucher funding, should work as intended. And we share her sentiment that “while housing creation is vital, we must also address how it impacts long-term residents and ensure that they have the ability to stay without feeling pushed out.”

We love a candidate, like Lewis George, who believes that apartments should be legal in all parts of the District’s neighborhoods and who’d direct their staff to figure out how to legalize two- and four-unit buildings. Of anyone running for a council seat in the 2024 Democratic primary, Lewis George’s statements are the most pro-housing: “In 1950, DC had more than 100,000 more residents than it does today. That was before all the buildings we’ve built near metros in the past 20 years. We know we can achieve at least that population again. Doing so could significantly improve equity, welcome new residents, and enable younger generations to afford homes in the neighborhoods they grew up in.”

But Lewis George will need to reconcile her campaign talking points with her in-office actions: Her 2022 Petworth News editorial backing the Dance Loft planned unit development—a new multifamily building abutting single-family row houses—may as well have been written by a different councilmember than the one who recently commented on a Board of Zoning Adjustment case, asserting that a proposed conversion and expansion of a single-family house to nine three-bedroom homes would “increase the strain on parking” and “drastically [change] the nature of the neighborhood.”

DC councilmembers do not have prerogative over individual developments’ fates; zoning decisions rest with the Board of Zoning Adjustment or Zoning Commission, so Lewis George did not have to weigh in on this matter. Her sharp, correct response to our questionnaire identifying “anti-growth activism” as one of the causes of “affordable housing [being] shoehorned into certain corners of the city” does not square with, when confronted with a real-life proposal for more housing in a pat of her ward that hardly sees it, her use of classic anti-growth talking points: “We have a drastic shortage of three- and four-bedroom apartment homes. While this development would create more of these units, they are so small that I’m not sure they will be able to serve the people who need this type of housing.”

One of our greatest considerations for Ward 4 is how much it must contribute to the District’s shortage of housing and income-restricted, subsidized housing. We’ve entertained the hypothetical of, “What if DC were all single-family homes?” and, in doing so, found that Ward 4’s density is so low that rezoning it to R-1B, or, single-family homes with more modest setbacks than the R-1A single-family zone, would actually result in an upzone. It’s critical that Lewis George be confident and steadfast in her support for housing production, because, should she win reelection, she’ll be in office during the District’s rewrite of the Comprehensive Plan, the council’s once-in-a-generation opportunity to make housing more attainable by increasing density.

Lewis George is a great candidate, and has proven herself to be a great councilmember. In our deliberation, we repeatedly noted the tremendous thoughtfulness in her every response to our questionnaire. It has been a delight to see her introduce substantial, systems-shifting legislation in her first term. Her inconsistency on development politics can and should be a mere footnote in her political career. We wholeheartedly endorse Lewis George with the belief that she is capable of incorporating a grounded approach to housing production into her urgent, genuine vision for making her constituents’ lives better.

For more information about how we’re making endorsements in the District in 2024, see our 2024 endorsements process post. On our 2024 Elections Hub, you’ll find information about GGWash’s political work this year, including resources about voting and candidates, candidates’ responses to our questionnaires, our endorsements, and how you can help our endorsed candidates win their elections. Access the hub anytime from the “2024 Elections” link in the upper right corner of our homepage.

Distinctly political work, like our endorsements process, is not funded by grants. We are only able to make endorsements with support from individual donors. If you value our endorsements resources, consider a contribution, of any amount, to support us in 2024 and beyond. You can do so here.