Janeese Lewis George, Ward 4 Councilmember, announces run for DC Mayor

Lewis George will be focused on making DC safe, affordable, and creating a government that listens and delivers.

Washington, DC — Today, Councilmember Janeese Lewis George announced she is running for Mayor of the District of Columbia. 

Lewis George currently represents Ward 4 on the DC Council, where she has led the charge on lowering housing costs and raising wages for working people. 

Lewis George released the following statement about her campaign launch:

“I love our city and am lucky to have grown up here. DC truly raised me. My mother, a union postal worker, and grandmother, a Deal Middle School lunch lady, taught me the value of hard work, public service, and to lift others as we climb. Our shared values as a city, including the ongoing fight for statehood, is rooted in the belief that every person is deserving of representation and dignity. It’s why I’ve stepped up every chance I get to serve my community,” said Councilmember Janeese Lewis George. “But too many residents still feel squeezed financially, from unaffordable housing to childcare, and feel unsafe in their neighborhoods. Residents face uneven access to opportunity and a city government that on its best days feels unresponsive, and on its worst, is leaving residents out in the cold all because leaders have chosen to prioritize the needs of the well-connected over us. That’s wrong, it’s not the DC we should be and that’s why I’m running for Mayor. I will work with anyone to improve the lives of people here at home, and I will stand up to anyone who gets in our way.”

About Janeese

Janeese Lewis George is the DC Councilmember for Ward 4. The daughter of a union postal worker, she is a third-generation Washingtonian who was raised in Ward 4. She is a proud graduate of DC Public Schools (Cuno H. Rudolph Elementary School, Alice Deal Middle School, and School Without Walls) as well as Howard University School of Law. Starting in 2014, she served as the DC Assistant Attorney General in the Juvenile Section of the Public Safety Division under DC Attorney General Karl A. Racine. 

Lewis George fights for working families in DC because she knows firsthand what working people in DC are up against. As a Councilmember, she has been fighting to save tenant protections and make housing more affordable because she knows what it feels like to be priced out of her childhood home. She’s strengthened worker protections because a good union job with a fair wage was the difference for her family growing up. She expanded paid family leave because she personally knows how important it was to take time off of work to care for her father when he was sick.

As a Councilmember, Lewis George has a clear and consistent track record of choosing the side of DC residents, workers, and families. She passed legislation to raise wages for early childhood educators, create good jobs for construction and retail workers, end the subminimum wage for restaurant workers, increase SNAP food assistance for families and seniors, and improve traffic safety around schools. As Assistant Attorney General, she fought to secure justice for victims of violent crime and built programs that put young people in DC back on the right track. As Mayor, Janeese will side with the people to make DC safe and affordable, and create a government that listens to and delivers for residents in all eight Wards. Janeese understands the urgency of the moment and the power of the District to make life better for everyone.

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