WASHINGTON — Mayor Muriel Bowser has won re-election and will soon begin her third term serving the District’s nearly 700,000 residents, as the projected winner of Tuesday's midterm elections.
Bowser beat out Republican Stacia Hall, Independent Rodney Red Grant and Libertarian Dennis Sobin in the race for the role. Her mid-term Democratic win in June virtually assured her November re-election.
The D.C. native is the city’s eighth mayor and was first elected in 2015. She’ll be the city’s mayor for the next four years and could then be up for a fourth re-election, as D.C. mayors are not subject to term limits. She is one of only two mayors in District history to win three consecutive terms; the late Marion Barry also did so from 1979-1991.
Bowser has campaigned on her mission to keep DC safe and affordable and a commitment to putting resources toward enhancing public safety, reducing crime and investing in affordable housing. The mayor also highlights her efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic throughout her second term, which involved administering more than one million vaccines, safely reopening schools and providing rent relief to residents.
Bowser says she continues to forge a path toward DC statehood and fight to overcome the impacts of climate change.
Above all, Bowser has said keeping the city safe is her number one priority. She says that during her first two terms, she has increased investments in MPD to expand job training, provide accessible mental health support, worked to remove illegal guns off the streets and ensure MPD-wide body cameras for accountability.
The mayor most recently had a hand in the city’s Revised Criminal Code Act. Bowser expressed her opposition to a controversial provision calling to decriminalize public nuisances like drinking in public, public urination/defecation and noise at night. That provision was ultimately removed.
In its entirety, the revised code brings sweeping changes on everything from jury trials to sentencing.
In addition, the mayor specified her priorities of continued investing in housing and reducing homelessness, expanding city services, investing in the District’s economy and schools, making healthcare more accessible, increasing food accessibility in all eight wards and continuing efforts against COVID-19.
In 2018, the last D.C. primary that included a mayoral election, a total of 89,513 people voted in the city, which is only 18.66% of the total registered voters in the city. Data show that the majority of the votes were cast on Election Day (78.23%) and only 16.19% of votes were cast before Election Day.
Despite there being increases in voter registration since the 2020 general election, some areas of the city still are registering and voting at lesser rates. Wards 7 and 8 still have some of the lowest voter registration and turnout rates in the city.