Every Piece of the Puzzle: It's Janeese Lewis George's Time to Lead DC

Have you ever watched someone methodically learn every part of a complex system—not for personal gain, but because they understand that to transform something, you have to know it inside and out? That's Janeese Lewis George.

Janeese Lewis-George, DC's next Mayor, stands ready to meet the moment with pride and joy.

For nearly two decades, she's been collecting the puzzle pieces. Not random pieces. Strategic ones. Each experience, each role, each fight has taught her something essential about how power works in DC and who it serves. Now, stepping boldly into the race for Mayor, she's ready to put those pieces together to create something Washington hasn't seen in a generation: people-forward governance that doesn't apologize for choosing workers, families, and communities over corporate interests.

The Puzzle Pieces: A Lifetime of Experience & Preparation

1. Growing up Black and Union in Chocolate City. Janeese's mom, Ms. Diane, was a postal worker—a union member who showed her early on that workers' rights aren't abstract policy positions. They're about dignity, security, and the ability to afford to stay in the District, fulfill your potential, and live with a beautiful, diverse community. That foundation runs through everything she does. She always quotes her momma's values and a key lesson that as people and community members, we have to "Lift each other up as we climb." Workers' rights are in her bones and if you know me, that's the number 1 reason I F*cks with Janeese!

   
   

   

   Janeese Lewis George, next Mayor of Washington, DC, walks through Ward 4 with the people.

   
   

2. Leading as the student representative on the DC Board of Education as a teen. While most teenagers are focused on SATs and prom, Janeese was fighting for her peers' futures, serving on the DC Board of Education and as Youth Mayor for YMCA DC Youth & Government. She learned way back then what she still knows now: young people deserve a seat at the table and not just lip service. Quality, accessible, safe, equitable education for all isn't a slogan—it's a non-negotiable. As a mom now and as a graduate of DCPS, she's not playin' when it comes to doing the best for P J and all our kids and educators.

   
   

3. Slaying at Howard Law School. After earning her undergraduate degree at St. John's University, Janeese came back home to attend Howard University School of Law, while also working as a tipped server to pay her tuition. She left briefly to cut her teeth as a prosecutor in Philly— and then bringing that knowledge and experience back to the District. In other words, she's frickin' smart and hardworking AF. She's "THAT GIRL" as Beyonce sings.

   
   

4. Driving Transformative Solutions at the DC Attorney General's Office.

   Working in the Juvenile Section under AG Karl Racine, Janeese saw the data, worked with tremendously successful programs to reduce crime and violence in communities, and understood viscerally that crime is a symptom and needs a public health approach to solve. You don't solve symptoms by throwing more money at policing and jailing. You solve them by addressing root causes: poverty, hunger, lack of opportunity, trauma, abuse. She championed evidence-based practices and innovative programs like "I Belong Here" and served on the Human Trafficking Taskforce. She learned that real safety comes from mental health supports, food access, childcare, quality education, and after-school programs—not bigger jails.

   
   

5. Serving on the DC Democratic State Committee. When I met Janeese in 2016, my brilliant organizer friend Chioma recruited her and several other amazing leaders onto the Dump Trump Dems for Action slate. We were fighting corporate greed over people then within our party. We're still fighting it now on a larger level. That's the through-line of Janeese's entire political career: grassroots people, workers and families over corporate greed.

6. Legislating & Representing Ward 4.  Look at her record as Ward 4 Council Member.

Just look at it!!!

1. Housing as a human right: She introduced the Green New Deal for Housing to build publicly-owned, deeply affordable housing. She fought to extend the eviction moratorium during the pandemic. She passed the Housing with Integrity Amendment Act, barring landlords with repeated violations from getting new building permits. She introduced the Extreme Heat Eviction Protection Act, because housing isn't just shelter—it's survival.

2. Education for every child: Her first bill required DCPS to create a multi-year technology plan for digital literacy. She introduced the Conflict Resolution Education Amendment Act. She secured funding to ensure every DCPS school has a full-time librarian. She's consistently fought for fully-funded, safe, well-maintained schools in every neighborhood.

3. Workers and small businesses: She fought for living wages, stronger job training, and support for Ward 4 small businesses. When she voted for that shitty RFK stadium deal, she only did so because she was able to secure broader union protections for workers on the job first.

4. Public health approach to safety: She brought intensive intervention to Kennedy Street and Petworth. She fought to get DC's Crime Lab re-accredited. She co-introduced legislation expanding supports for crime victims. She pushed for accountability through coordinated prosecution while never losing sight of prevention.

5. Environmental justice: She fought for the Northern Bus Barn to become DC's first all-electric bus facility. She's advancing protected bike lanes and sustainable transportation.... something my environmentally conscious, intentional-city-biking-ass really appreciates.

6. Rat control (yes, grrrl!): She just introduced the Rodent Accountability and Transparency (RAT) Act because DC has the fastest-growing rodent population among 15 major cities, and she's not afraid to tackle unsexy problems that affect people's daily lives. And I know every single ANC in the city will thank her for this...IYKYK.

When she ran for re-election in 2024, the Green-Machine corporate-backed opponents tried to paint her as soft on crime. She won anyway. Because DC voters know the difference between tough-on-crime performance theater and someone who actually prosecuted cases, understands the data, and fights for solutions that work.

And Now Mayor: The People vs. Corporate Greed

This is Janeese's race. Period.

On December 1, 2025, she became the first major candidate to enter the wide-open 2026 mayoral race. Within five hours—FIVE HOURS—she qualified for DC's Fair Elections public funding program, raising over $700,000 from more than 1,000 DC donors. That's a new record for the District. This wasn't big business money. This is people power.

Whoever else enters this race, the choice is clear: Janeese versus the Green Machine. Janeese versus the status quo. The people of DC versus corporate greed and politics as usual.

Kenyan McDuffie may enter—representing stability, continuity, and the same playbook that's failed working families for decades. Vincent Orange is back again (you sly old dog, but no, this is not your time). Others will come and go. It doesn't matter. This race has one North Star and she's got her "foot up on the gas but somebody's gotta do it!" #TVOFF

When I watch some of these potential candidates perform their respectability politics dance for big business interests, it feels hollow. Fake. We don't need more puppet politicians tap-dancing for developers while families can't afford rent, workers don't feel safe getting to work, and kids don't feel safe getting to schools.

It's the Return of the Jedi

Janeese is my hero. Not because she's perfect, but because she's willing to walk through fear and fire to meet this moment. And what a CRAZY SCARY SPOOKY NOT-HILARIOUS moment it is! #ABOLISHICE #GTFO #TVOFF

We're living through the Empire Strikes Back in real time:

• Racist lies and violence against immigrants and citizens: ICE kidnapping our neighbors, terrorizing our communities, tearing families apart, literally murdering innocent people in broad daylight. And this shit is happening right here in the DMV too. Rest in Power Renee Good and all the people who've died in ICE custody.

• Funding cuts to essential services: Trump wants to eliminate the entire Department of Education. The entire thing!!!! The F*CKETY F*CK IS THAT?!

• Cost of living crushing working families: While wages stagnate and the cost of living keeps rising and rising consistently over the past 75 years, Democrats too often bargain against voters own interests on healthcare and wages - from the federal level to the local level including on the DC City Council. Janeese is the ONLY CONSISTENT voice of reason and vote on the City Council when it comes to increasing minimum and tipped wages for workers across the city and fully protecting and expanding safety net dollars and services for all! And she's not anti-business. She just sees when balance is needed and isn't afraid to say it.

• Ongoing genocide in Gaza: And weak ass leadership refusing to use our immense power to do everything possible to stop it. Meanwhile, Janeese and Free DC been out on these streets every week, every month speaking up for truth and freedom everywhere.

• Cop City expansion and authoritarianism: Training and jailing facilities spreading across the nation, more money for ICE including right here in the DMV and having to deal with the ongoing F*CKSH*T of the Trump Administration swinging their ugly dicks and flapping their botox-injected lips every forsaken moment. And now Trump's got us at war with Venezuela, bullying them for control of their oil and controlling their elections. I can't drop enough F bombs to convey how the whole administration is the F*cking Worst.

The woman who is already walking through this fire though, who is bringing the light of hope right in the middle of our nation's capital is Janeese Lewis -George.

She, and the people behind her, are part of the great pendulum swinging back against authoritarianism in this country right now. She's part of the the wave of grassroots great victories and leadership we're seeing and feeling across the nation - from Zohran Mamdani to Jasmine Crocket. Janeese Lewis-George is one of the ones not afraid to fight the federal government when they attack DC's autonomy. She's not afraid to stand with workers and immigrants when it's politically inconvenient because she doesn't play that dominant narrative bullshit. She's not afraid to tell developers no when housing should serve people first, not profit first. She's not afraid to tell Trump to get ICE out of DC and she's got people across this city and this nation who have her back no matter what.

I see patterns. I've been organizing for 20 years, and I know what a movement looks like when it's real. This is real. Soooooooo many people had been asking Janeese to run for mayor. She finally heeded our call with graceful intention. And because of her, because of the incredibly strong movement of people behind her, we are not afraid. This moment of transformation and massive grassroots mobilization is kismet.

I know this deep in my soul - We live through this fire, and we strengthen our democracy both locally and nationally. We fight back against authoritarianism. We re-build the city—and the nation—that we deserve.

And we get rid of the muhf*ckin'rats while we're at it.

It's totally Return of the Jedi energy.

What You Can Do Right Now

If you're reading this and you live in the DMV, you have a choice to make. Will you sit this one out and let the developers and the Green Machine and the business-as-usual politicians choose your next mayor? Or will you be part of building people power?

Here's what I'm asking:

1. Donate to Janeese's campaign: Visit janeese4dc.com and chip in what you can. She qualified for public financing through small donations—let's keep that energy going. Every dollar goes to paying for educational campaign materials, food for meetings and events, hard-working grassroots organizers across the city, critical communications infrastructure, and more.

2. Follow and share: Amplify her message. Talk to your neighbors. Share her platform. Make sure everyone knows there's a real choice in this race.

3. Get involved: Sign up to volunteer. Campaigns are won by people showing up—at doors, at phone banks, at community events. And Janeese's organizers have it on and poppin! You don't want to be left out. Next event is at Howard Theater this Wednesday.

4. Register to vote: The Democratic primary is in June 2026. Make sure you're registered, make sure your friends are registered, and make sure everyone votes.

5. Stay engaged: This isn't about one election. This is about building lasting power for working people. Stay in the fight and take good care of your mind, body, and soul EVERYDAY. If you're looking for a framework to help you remember what to do daily to care for yourself, follow me on YouTube and look for my drop this week on the R.E.C.L.A.I.M. framework... especially if you identify as neurodivergent. I got you!

   
   

The stakes couldn't be higher. Washington, DC deserves a mayor who will fight for us—not negotiate away our futures to appease authoritarians and corporate interests. We've had enough of that already. #ByeBowser

Janeese Lewis George is ready. The question is: are we?

May the Force be with us.

May The Force Be With You Star Wars Art from wallpapers.com