The fight for voting rights, self-governance and eventual statehood for the nation’s capital has had one consistent national face for nearly three decades: House Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Now the 88-year-old Democrat is retiring after having been a diminished presence in recent years, and the candidates to replace her in Congress are debating how to redefine a job that comes with little concrete power but a significant public megaphone.
They are seeking to balance the need to be an aggressive national advocate as President Donald Trump chips away at the District of Columbia’s autonomy with the delegate’s historical role as a behind-the-scenes operator who works inside the halls of Congress to get things done on the city’s behalf.
Norton, who came of age in the Civil Rights Movement, saw success on both fronts. She helped engineer aid for the city in the 1990s and secure local control of key federal property, among other lobbying triumphs. She also occasionally garnered national attention for the city’s status — including multiple viral appearances on “The Colbert Report.”
But Norton has hardly been a cable-news fixture or social-media standout, and many of the younger candidates to replace her are hoping to change that.
“I believe that, where we are in history, the delegate needs to have a higher national profile,” Robert White, one of two D.C. Council members in the race, said in an interview. “Because people can’t support an issue that they don’t understand, so I need to make sure the rest of the nation understands D.C.”
Brooke Pinto — the other local legislator who, like White, is considered a front-runner — played up the communications demands while also saying the more prosaic parts of the job cannot be neglected.
“This seat has to be held by someone who can manage that legislative process and build those coalitions,” Pinto said, “but also can be an effective and authentic messenger to people across the city, across the country and across the world.”
Pinto, 33, and White, 44, are battling ahead of the June 16 election for the Democratic nomination — which tends to guarantee victory in the deep-blue District — alongside former federal nuclear regulator Greg Jaczko, former Norton aide Trent Holbrook and former Justice Department and DNC official Kinney Zalesne. It is the first time since 1990 that Norton won’t be on the ballot.
The victor will inherit what is both one of the most consequential political offices in the District and one of the least inherently powerful. Delegates do not get a vote on the House floor, denying them the foundation of political clout in the House, but Norton was able to carve out spheres of influence on the Oversight and Transportation committees and as a key intermediary on matters involving the city.
“Most of the power is not in law, it is in tradition,” White said. “If the next person stepping into the role doesn’t know where the power is, it’s gone, and it will take at best several decades to reaccumulate it.”
But Trump’s recent hardball moves — including commandeering the D.C. police department for a time and sending in National Guard troops to patrol the city, not to mention undermining the city’s economy by decimating the federal workforce — have put more emphasis on resistance tactics than backroom operating.
Pinto said she would bring D.C. residents into other states to educate them on the city’s unique issues, arguing there must be electoral consequences for lawmakers who fail to support D.C.
“We have to really support our friends who are pro-D.C. statehood,” she said. “And we have to make clear to people who are not supportive that they are not on this team.”
Statehood has long been the north star for D.C. activists, but it has not been a front-burner issue for national Democrats. Norton spent years pursuing efforts to gain only partial congressional voting rights for the city but later engineered a pair of successful House votes backing statehood, which was also added to the 2024 Democratic platform.
While D.C. statehood would mean adding two likely Democrats to the Senate as well as a full member of the House, party leaders have not fully embraced the issue — even when they last controlled Congress and the White House under former President Joe Biden.
Several candidates said they would be pushing their fellow Democrats to put the District closer to the top of the party’s priority list.
“D.C. issues are on the list of Democratic priorities, but they’re never at the top,” Zalesne, 59, said. “So in order to elevate our issues, we have a lot of relationship-building to do and a lot of advocacy and persuasion to do.”
Holbrook, 40, said in an interview he would “be a little bit more aggressive in calling out people who attack our home rule, especially the Democratic side.”
Zalesne is leaning heavily on her party-insider cred in her campaign, touting endorsements from Democratic Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia and Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.
White has the backing of PACs affiliated with the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus, as well as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), while Pinto has the support of Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.).
White has also talked about campaigning in swing districts and targeting lawmakers who have gone after the city. But he is also making the case that Democratic Party leaders should embrace D.C. statehood as a way to offset recent GOP political hardball: If Democrats can invest in redistricting to gain a political edge, he argued, why shouldn’t they also promote statehood?
The new delegate will have to build close ties with a relatively new House Democratic leadership team fronted by New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who has consistently voted to protect D.C.’s autonomy but said little about expanding it.
The irony is that many of the District’s biggest congressional wins in recent decades have come only with the participation of Republicans. A longtime Norton goal — transferring the land under RFK Stadium to city control for development — occurred in 2024 with the backing of scores of GOP lawmakers.
That has candidates like Pinto appreciating the tightrope Norton walked for so many years, even as they pledge to inject more energy into the office she held.
“I really want to build on that legacy, and I also recognize that in 2026 … with a hyperpartisan political environment, we also have to do things a little bit differently,” Pinto said.
