In a city whose voters, including LGBTQ voters, are overwhelmingly Democratic, D.C. Democratic elected officials – including four members of the D.C. Council and D.C. Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton – are considered the strong favorites to win re-election in the city’s Nov. 5 election.

Also expected to win is gay Ward 2 D.C. State Board of Education member Allister Chang, who is running unopposed on the ballot for re-election to a second four-year term in office.

Chang is one of two out gay members serving in a D.C. elective office other than Advisory Neighborhood Commission position. The other gay non-ANC elected official is D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), who won election to the Council in 2022.

Like all D.C. elections over the past 30 years or longer, nearly all candidates with any chance of winning have either a strong record of support for LGBTQ rights or have expressed support for the LGBTQ community.

The only exception to the city’s history of electing to office pro-LGBTQ candidates is the U.S. presidential candidates who are on the D.C. ballot every four years, including this year. Republican presidential candidates with a less than supportive record on LGBTQ issues, including Donald Trump, have won election as president, while losing by a wide margin in D.C

D.C. voters on Nov. 5 are expected to vote in overwhelming numbers for Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris and her vice-presidential running mate Tim Walz, providing the Harris-Walz ticket with D.C.’s three electoral votes.

Also on the D.C. election ballot on Nov. 5 is Initiative 83, a controversial proposal calling for creating a ranked choice voting system in D.C. and open primaries, which would allow independents to vote in the city’s primary elections that are currently open to only registered Democrats, Republicans, and Statehood-Green Party members.

LGBTQ activists, similar to voters in general, appear to be divided over whether to support or oppose the initiative. Among its strongest supporters is longtime local gay Democratic activist Philip Pannell, who is serving as treasurer of the committee leading the campaign in support of the measure called Make All Votes Count DC.

Among the D.C. Council seats up for election on Nov. 5 are the two At-Large seats held by Democrat Robert White and independent Christina Henderson. Under the D.C. Home Rule Charter, one of the two At-Large Council seats, cannot be held by a member of the city’s majority party, which is the Democratic Party.

Robert White and Henderson have been longtime LGBTQ rights supporters. Both were endorsed this year by the Capital Stonewall Democrats, the city’s largest local LGBTQ political group. The two are being challenged by Republican Rob Simmons and Statehood-Green Party candidate Darryl Moch. Under D.C. election law, voters can vote for two candidates on the ballot for the two At-Large seats, with the highest two vote getters declared the winners.

Council members Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) and Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4), who have also been strong LGBTQ community supporters, are running unopposed for re-election.

In Ward 7, Democrat Wendel Felder is running against Republican Noah Montgomery for the seat being vacated by incumbent Council member and former D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray (D), who LGBTQ activists consider one of the strongest LGBTQ supporters among city elected officials.

Similar to many city voters, LGBTQ Democrats have struggled over who to support in the Ward 8 D.C. Council race in which incumbent Trayon White (D) was indicted earlier this year on federal bribery charges. White’s indictment came after he won the Democratic primary by a wide margin. His only opponent on the Nov. 5 election ballot is Republican Nate Derenge, although five others are running against him as write-in candidates.

At an LGBTQ community candidates forum in September organized by Team Rayceen Productions and the Washington Blade, Derenge told the Blade he is generally supportive of efforts to ban discrimination against all minorities, but he opposes city government offices that he said are catering to “special interest groups.” 

Among the offices he would call for disbanding, he said, were the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and the other mayoral constituent offices such as the Latino, African American, Asian American, and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Affairs offices.  

The Capital Stonewall Democrats decided against making an endorsement in the Ward 8 race, with Trayon White becoming the only Democrat on the D.C. election ballot that the group has not endorsed, even though White has a record of support for the LGBTQ community. Political observers, noting White is a beloved figure in Ward 8, are predicting that White will likely win re-election, although by a smaller margin than his past election wins.

Chang, meanwhile, is among six candidates running for re-election or election to the D.C. State Board of Education, which is a nonpartisan body under the city’s Home Rule Charter.

The others running include the board’s president and Ward 7 member Eboni-Rose Thompson, who is being challenged by candidate Toni Criner; the board’s vice president and at-large member Jacque Paterson, who is also running unopposed; and Ward 4 member Frazier O’Leary, who is being challenged by candidate T. Michelle Colson.

“I will say every single one of the current members has been supportive of my efforts to push forward more inclusive LGBTQ standards, our educational standards,” Chang told the Washington Blade, referring to the incumbent members, including those running for re-election. He said Ward 8 candidate LaJoy Johnson-Law has also been a strong supporter of LGBTQ school related issues.

In the race for D.C. Congressional Delegate, longtime incumbent Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) is being challenged by Republican Myrtle Patricia Alexander, Statehood Green Party candidate Kymore Freeman, and independent candidate Michael A. Brown.

Brown, a former D.C. Council member and LGBTQ rights supporter, has said he has been a longtime admirer of Norton, and he believes she has done an excellent job representing D.C. in Congress on a wide range of issues, including LGBTQ issues. But he told the Blade he thinks a change is needed after Norton’s 33 years in office. Among other things, he said he would be more aggressive in representing D.C. interests before Congress.

Members of the Capital Stonewall Democrats, like many D.C. residents, have said Norton’s long record as a champion for D.C., including the LGBTQ community, merits that she be re-elected as D.C. Congressional Delegate.

Democrat Ankit Jain and longtime D.C. Republican candidate Nelson Rimensnyder are competing to replace Democrat Michael D. Brown as D.C. U.S. Senator, a position known as the city’s Shadow Senate seat. Incumbent U.S. Rep. Oye Owolewa, who holds the office known as the D.C. Shadow U.S. House seat, is being challenged by Republican Ciprian Ivanof.  

Jain and Owolewa, who have been endorsed by Capital Stonewall Democrats, are expected to win their races with the city’s “deep blue” Democratic electorate.

GLAA D.C, formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, has issued ratings this year for just four of the 10 D.C. Council candidates running in the Nov. 5 election. Under a recently adopted policy, GLAA limits its ratings to candidates that complete and return a GLAA questionnaire, which asks candidates to respond to mostly non-LGBTQ specific issues that GLAA says have an impact on LGBTQ residents like all other D.C. residents.  

But unlike GLAA, Team Rayceen Productions has conducted video interviews of nearly all the candidates on the D.C. election ballot, including D.C. Council, school board, Congressional Delegate, and shadow House and Senate candidates. 

The video interviews can be accessed at Team Rayceen’s YouTube channel. The GLAA questionnaire and candidate ratings can be accessed at glaa.org.