Washington, D.C., could see a dedicated “rat czar” position up for grabs in 2027 if Democratic mayoral nominee Janeese Lewis George wins the election in November.
Lewis George, the socialist councilwoman likely to replace current Mayor Muriel Bowser in the 2026 elections, announced Thursday that she would create a D.C. “rat czar” role, an official dedicated to getting rid of the disease-carrying rodents scurrying throughout the beltway. She announced the move while hosting a series of “listening sessions” with D.C. constituents, saying residents and voters across the district raised concerns about the rat population.
“Here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to upgrade our trash cans and expand composting,” Lewis George said in a video posted to social media Thursday. “Cause if rats don’t feed, they don’t breed. And we’re going to have a rat czar. Because we need someone to coordinate rat abatement across agencies so we can get this under control.”
Washington currently has a dedicated program manager for the Rodent and Vector Control Division, a position that is sometimes referred to as the “rat czar.” However, the program manager position, currently held by Andre Pitman, works within the district’s Department of Health. Lewis George specified that her “rat czar” role would work across government agencies.
“We’re going to focus on the streets and neighborhoods that have been taken over by the rats, because we got to start somewhere,” Lewis George said.
Washington has been ranked among the top cities worldwide facing a rat problem. An early 2025 study put D.C. as the city with the fastest-growing rat population out of 16 international cities.
Bowser has tried to tackle the problem, launching a rat “blitz” in her final year as mayor. Bowser’s “DC Health Rodent Abatement Pilot” uses tactics such as anticoagulant bait in rat burrows and nonlethal fertility control bait, or rat birth control, to gradually reduce the rat population.
But despite Bowser’s efforts, Lewis George said she has still heard from voters about the rat problem, playing clips from her town halls where people expressed concern about D.C.’s rodent population.
In New York City, another U.S. city with a notable rat problem, former Democratic mayor Eric Adams, who often repeated the sentence “I hate rats” while in office, appointed a rat czar and declared war on the rodents in the Big Apple.
Current New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has not appointed a rat czar during his administration, despite calls to reinstate a leader against the rodents.
Lewis George is expected to win her general election race in November in deep-blue D.C., with her main challenge coming from Robert Gross of the D.C. Statehood Green Party.