Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is watching from the sidelines as voters prepare to select a new — and likely more confrontational — delegate for the District of Columbia.
After more than three decades, Norton announced she would not seek reelection to a 19th term as the district’s nonvoting delegate. She did not endorse a successor in the race despite two former staffers running for the position.
Whoever that successor is, they are likely to embrace a role as a White House antagonist as President Donald Trump looms over the race and the district.
As recently as last week, the president entertained invoking the Home Rule Act in Washington, D.C., which allows the federal government to control the Metropolitan Police Department for up to 30 days during emergencies. Trump previously invoked the rule in August 2025, declaring a public safety emergency.
“Well, I wouldn’t like it, and maybe we’d take back Washington and run it on the federal basis,” Trump said of mayoral front-runner Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist. “We won’t put up with it. We’re not going to lose our businesses. By the way, Washington, now, is a safe, beautiful place.”
Trump’s Oval Office comments drew sharp rebuke from Brooke Pinto, Robert White, Kinney Zalesne, and Trent Holbrook, the Democratic candidates for Norton’s seat.
“No President should threaten our right to govern ourselves based on how we vote,” they wrote in a joint statement. “Threatening to override an election before it happens is exactly the kind of federal interference DC residents have fought against for generations.”
While the federal takeover of the city’s police department ended last September, the National Guard remains in Washington at Trump’s order. Republican governors have also sent some of their National Guard troops to the city.
Norton, 89, has served as a nonvoting delegate in Congress for over 34 years, but faced pressure to step down amid questions over her mental acuity. The younger candidates are set to usher in generational change in the position, an issue that has plagued the Democratic Party since former President Joe Biden’s decision to run for reelection in 2024.
The push for D.C. statehood, an issue Norton long championed, will also hang over the next delegate as Trump’s threats of federal intervention haunt the campaign.
White, an at-large member of the D.C. Council and former legislative aide to Norton, has emerged as a front-runner in the race to replace Norton. The 44-year-old has made it clear he wants to increase visibility for the position as well as advocate statehood.
“I would keep statehood visible through hearings, media engagement, public education, and coordination with D.C.’s shadow delegation and regional partners,” White told WTOP. “Statehood cannot fade from the national conversation between votes.”
Pinto, also a city councilor and the other front-runner in the race, has raised over $1.5 million in the race compared to White’s roughly $700,000.
The 34-year-old has focused on public safety throughout her campaign. She has talked about how crime was down 50% before Trump’s takeover last year, claiming Congress and the White House slashed police budgets.
Pinto’s approach may differ from her council colleague’s. She said she will focus on relationship-building as Washington, D.C.’s congressional advocate.
“I will be our full-time quarterback on ensuring that all of those relationships are tightened and strengthened, so that they know who we are in D.C.,” Pinto said at the debate.
Zalesne, who moved to Washington to work for the Clinton administration, is a former local school board chairwoman and also worked for the Democratic National Committee. She is running on her prior national political experience.
Holbrook, Norton’s former senior legislative counsel, is also running and has indicated he would aim to strip the president’s power to declare an emergency takeover in the nation’s capital, calling Trump’s actions “illegal.”
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Norton won overwhelmingly in 2024, bringing in over 80% of the vote, meaning the winner of Tuesday’s primary will be the favorite in November.
The primary will take place on June 16, but the results may not be immediately known, as the district uses ranked choice voting after voters approved the system in 2024.