The spring semester will start Jan. 25 for students on the main campus and end on May 19. 最新蜜桃影像 200 hybrid courses will be offered for graduate students and seniors, President John DeGioia said . Most of Georgetown鈥檚 almost 20,000 students will attend classes online. DeGioia also said the school will partner with WeWork, a chain providing shared workspaces to students who no longer want to work from home but cannot return to campus.

The spring 2021 calendar has been altered to discourage students from traveling in the midst of the worsening pandemic. Instead of a 10-day spring break in March and a six-day Easter break in April, as the university offered this year, the spring 2021 semester will have one compressed break lasting nine days, from March 26 to April 5. For undergraduates, however, classes will begin Jan. 25 to provide extra time between semesters.听

Daniella Sanchez, a student senator in the (GUSA), said students are 鈥渙utraged鈥� about the lack of breaks throughout the semester.

鈥淎fter seeing the burnout of this semester, the administration chose the least preferred option by over 500 students who took a survey,鈥� said Sanchez, who is director of COVID response for GUSA. 鈥淲e are expected to go three straight months without a break. Then, straight through to finals after spring break.鈥�

Sanchez said the administration failed to address the shortcomings of the fall semester in the spring semester plan. She also said the university has not acted to improve mental health resources despite 鈥渞epeated testimonies about the declining mental health of all students鈥� during the pandemic.

鈥淕eorgetown’s administration not only fails to communicate with students but with each other,鈥� she said.

Some graduate students feel that they have been treated unfairly compared to undergraduates. While undergraduates not living on campus have received a 10% tuition discount, graduate students have received only 5%. After disseminating surveys and meeting with the university administration, , the graduate student government at Georgetown, passed a resolution calling for the administration to provide a tuition discount equitable with that of undergraduate students as well as improved transparency in planning for the spring semester.

鈥淕radGov finds it unacceptable, but not surprising, that Georgetown is continuing to implement an inequitable tuition discount,鈥� said Henry Watson, president of GradGov in a statement emailed to 最新蜜桃影像. Watson said the difference in the tuition discount was 鈥渇or no justifiable reason.鈥�

Watson said GradGov would continue to advocate for equity on the tuition issue.

鈥淲e also look forward to more clarity and transparency on access to campus facilities and study spaces, which are of great importance to graduate and professional students. It is crucial that graduate students can safely access the campus resources they need to succeed,鈥� Watson said.

The (GAGE), a labor union of graduate student workers, is trying to protect the rights of teaching assistants by guaranteeing the right to remote employment as the worsening pandemic makes in-person teaching a serious risk.

鈥�GAGE affirms its commitment to ensuring that no graduate teaching assistant will be forced into teaching in-person,鈥� the union said in a statement provided by communications director Ellen Jacobs.

鈥淒ue to our organizing, Georgetown admin have indicated that all graduate teaching assistants will be given a choice about whether they want to teach in-person,鈥� the statement said.

GAGE said the union will continue to advocate for pay and health insurance for workers, guarantee remote teaching and research work for international graduate students abroad, and demand emergency medical leave for all graduate workers who have symptoms of COVID-19.

The union said it wants graduate work at Georgetown to become 鈥渋nclusive, accessible and equitable.鈥� The discrepancy in tuition discounts is inequitable, they said.听

鈥淢asters students are making difficult decisions about finances and housing concerns, with insufficient support from the Georgetown administration. GAGE stands in solidarity with the Masters students doing important organizing work to demand a fair tuition discount.鈥�

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鈥淵ou won鈥檛 be surprised that makes me very happy,鈥� Mayor Muriel Bowser said about the results at a press conference Nov. 4. Bowser is only the second woman to serve as mayor of D.C. and the first woman to be reelected.听

Christina Henderson, a former aide to outgoing member David Grosso, will join Janeese Lewis George and Brooke Pinto as the newest members of the council. Each of the women replaced a male predecessor.听

In Pinto鈥檚 case, she is the first woman to hold a seat in Ward 2. Henderson overcame a crowded field of 22 other candidates to win one of the at-large council seats with 15% of the vote. Janeese Lewis George, a Black democratic socialist, defeated incumbent Brandon Todd in the Democratic primary and sailed to victory in the general with more than 94% of the vote.

George Derek Musgrove, a professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said her win was among the most significant of the night. Musgrove is the co-author of the book Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation鈥檚 Capital.听

He said 鈥渨e have seen a whole lot of motion鈥� on the D.C. Council 鈥渨ithout too much movement.鈥澨�

Musgrove can鈥檛 speak to an overarching trend pointing towards female politicians making greater gains on the D.C. Council. He鈥檚 also not sure that this indicates a sea change in D.C. politics.

鈥淐ertainly the number of women on the Council has jumped but that does not appear to be part of a larger trend in the District,鈥� Musgrove said.

This isn鈥檛 the first time women have held the majority on the governing body. Women held the majority of the council seats in the 1990s, but haven鈥檛 held a majority since.

Regardless, a demographic shift in city politics has at least one precedent in recent years. Last year in Boston, female and nonwhite candidates for city council broke a glass ceiling by for the first time in history.

But some voters took notice.听

Sara Aguiniga cast her ballot for Brooke Pinto at the School Without Walls at Francis Stevens Nov. 3. Pinto was outside of the polling place campaigning at the time.听

Although Aguiniga said she was mostly there for the national ticket, Pinto鈥檚 presence on the Ward 2 council ticket also piqued her interest.听

鈥淚 like that she is a younger woman,鈥� Aguiniga said. 鈥淚 appreciate her concern for the city.鈥�

Throughout her campaign, Pinto battled perceptions that she is an outsider in D.C. politics. Pinto moved to D.C. six years ago to attend law school at Georgetown University. Aguiniga, however, didn鈥檛 care about those characterizations.听

鈥淪o few people are from D.C.,鈥� Aguiniga, who grew up in Maryland, said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a city of people who are new to the city. We support people who want to make the city a great place and keep it a great place.鈥�

This was Pinto鈥檚 third campaign in 2020. She won a special election to the council after her predecessor Jack Evans resigned due to an ethics breach. She then won the Democratic primary in the summer and won reelection to her Ward 2 seat Tuesday with more than 60% of the vote.

鈥淚t鈥檚 all about connection with voters and with constituents,鈥� Pinto said outside of the School Without Walls on election night. She said due to the pandemic she wasn鈥檛 able to knock on doors. She and her campaign had to make phone calls, sometimes hundreds of them a day, to local voters.听

鈥淭hose phone calls really helped me connect one on one with voters,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat experience through the campaign has made me the most effective councilmember I can be.鈥�

听Although there is no available data on women鈥檚 strides in local politics, Pinto, Henderson and Lewis George鈥檚 success do mirror the national success for female candidates in their 2020 races.听

According to the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University, 135 women will serve in the 117th Congress, a new record.

鈥淪uccesses like these don鈥檛 just happen,鈥� said CAWP director Debbie Walsh. 鈥淭hey require the dedicated attention of parties, donors, activists and voters.鈥�

听

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Prominent polls had Democrat Joe Biden winning the presidential race by a double-digit margin and congressional races leaning blue. But today, the presidential race is still too close to call. Democrats have lost seats in the House and they look likely to remain the minority in the Senate.

According to a report, trust in the media has already been on the decline in the country; experts say that decline is tied to polls.听

鈥淧olls can be granted the aura of invincibility,鈥� because they appear as hard, fast numbers, said W. Joseph Campbell, a professor at American University and author of Lost in a Gallup: Polling Failure in U.S. Presidential Elections.听

However, 鈥渂eneath the surface, there is a good deal of ambiguity; there鈥檚 a good deal of art rather than science,鈥� he explained.听

But this doesn鈥檛 make polls less valuable, he said.听

Campbell has studied the history of polling in American elections and concludes that while polls can provide important information for the democratic system and, more often than not, are accurate, they should be viewed with skepticism.听

鈥淚 think that polls should not be ignored or dismissed or rejected because they might be wrong,鈥� said Campbell. 鈥淚 think polls should be treated warily. And that voters and polling audiences, if you will, should be a bit more skeptical about polling … Maybe they will be now.”

Pollsters such as Republican strategist Frank Luntz has said the credibility of polling had been damaged beyond repair. He was quoted in Axios Wednesday, calling the political polling profession

This sentiment is echoed by voters who feel duped by polling in back-to-back presidential elections. Zack Colston, 26, an actor living in Los Angeles, said that he was wary of polls after the 2016 election but had hoped the problem had been fixed. Now, he says he won鈥檛 trust polls ever again.

听鈥樷�樷�橣ool me once, fool me twice, etc., etc.,鈥欌�� Colston said.

Polling failures can be traced back to the 1940s when polls incorrectly predicted Republican Thomas Dewey would beat Harry Truman in the . And it is not the first time that polling for consecutive presidential elections has turned out to be wrong. However, the landscape of survey-taking has changed.听

鈥淭he new reality 鈥� is that voters are not waiting for a pollster to call them on landlines or even on cell phones,鈥� said David Colton, formerly executive editor at USA Today. 鈥淣o, voters live on social media now; they exchange views online with friends in the comments sections on Facebook, and we are all suspicious of surveys, scams and phone calls for privacy and other reasons.鈥澨�

Data seems to back this up. According to a 2019 study by the , only 6% of people called in telephone surveys are willing to talk.

While some observers such as Colton believe that current polling methods aren鈥檛 reflective of the 21st century, Campbell argues that the industry is too big to fail. Field survey research is a multi-billion dollar industry and election polling is only one small piece.听

He says not to count out the professionals just yet.听

鈥�If polling were that fragile to be disrupted and doomed by a single national election, that would have happened long ago 鈥� It鈥檚 a resilient industry. It鈥檚 a big industry. It goes much beyond election polling,鈥� Campbell said.听

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The legislation, which had a record 227 co-sponsors, carves a new federal district out of a small section of what is now Washington, with the rest of the District becoming a state. The vote on the bill was divided along partisan lines, with only one Democrat opposing it and no Republicans supporting it.

This year, the movement to turn D.C. into the 51st state has become viable for the first time in decades. The last time a statehood proposal reached a House vote, in 1993, it failed 277-153, with most Republicans and many Democrats opposing it.

Since September, Republicans in the House of Representatives have proposed alternative bills that would 鈥渞etrocede鈥� the District into neighboring Maryland, or limit the representation a new state would have in the U.S. Senate. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to create new states, although the president must approve of legislation creating a new state or states.听

Statehood has popular support among D.C. residents and prominent Democratic politicians including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Joe Biden. In the 2016 election, 79% of Washingtonians voted for a ballot initiative to petition Congress to pass an act creating the 鈥淪tate of New Columbia.鈥� Nationwide, a September 2020 poll by progressive groups Data for Progress and YouGov Blue found that 43% of Americans support statehood, while 34% are opposed.

Opposition to D.C. statehood is particularly strong among Republican lawmakers. On the floor of the Senate the day before the House vote, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark) described the prospect of D.C. statehood as 鈥渋nsane鈥� and compared the Black Lives Matter movement to the violent unrest of the French Revolution.

鈥淭he Democrats are committing an act of historical vandalism as grotesque as those committed by Jacobin mobs roaming our streets,鈥� Cotton said.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called the statehood bill 鈥渁 continuation of the efforts by the Democrats to alter the way America operates,鈥� and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has vowed to block debate on the issue in the Senate.

Two of the three proposed Republican bills support retrocession to neighboring state Maryland, which, along with Virginia, donated land to be used for the federal district established by Congress in 1790. The Virginian portions were retroceded in 1846. showed that 36% of Maryland residents supported retrocession, while 57% opposed it.

Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced H.R.51 in January of 2019.听 Norton, who has served as a non voting delegate to the House since 1991, said in a statement that Republicans鈥� efforts to retrocede the District demonstrate their 鈥�fear of the momentum our D.C. statehood bill is rapidly achieving.鈥�

One of the most outspoken advocates for D.C. statehood is Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has clashed with President Donald Trump in recent months. Amid the protests for social justice over the summer, Bowser invoked the statehood issue in her rebukes to Trump鈥檚 deployment of federal law enforcement and the military against protesters in the District. The mayor echoed the language of the civil rights movement in her support for the cause, telling MSNBC鈥檚 Andrea Mitchell,

鈥淲e know that the District becoming the 51st state is the only way that 700,000 taxpaying Americans are fully represented and become full Americans,鈥� Bowser said.

Trump has waffled on the D.C. statehood issue. As a presidential candidate in 2015, Trump said and promised that 鈥渟omething would be done that would make everybody happy.鈥� During the 2016 Republican primary, he said on the issue and would form one later. Earlier this year, President Trump said that because Republicans would not allow it.

Pro-statehood organizations like have framed the issue in terms of racial equality, partnering with social justice groups such as . The organization is trying to change the rules of the Senate so that a simple majority of 51 votes would suffice to pass a statehood bill. (The Senate鈥檚 cloture rule requires 60 members to end debate on most measures and move to a vote.)

鈥�Across the country, people are recognizing that 700,000 mostly Black and Brown people living in the nation’s capital without a vote in Congress is pure injustice,鈥� said Stasha Rhodes, campaign director of 51 for 51.

鈥�We’re hopeful that now is the time that our goal to build a stronger, more equitable democracy will finally be accomplished,鈥� Rhodes said.

Tom Sherwood, a veteran local journalist and political analyst for the WAMU Politics Hour, observed that prior to the House vote in June, the Democratic Party never seriously advocated for statehood, even when it had the power to pass it. But he said the current political climate could motivate Democrats to implement change if they gain control of the White House and the Senate.

鈥淕iven the Trump era rollback of environmental, housing, social service and other federal programs supported by Democrats, and given Trump’s Supreme Court picks and other issues, the Democrats鈥攊f in charge鈥攈ave more incentive than ever to push along statehood to gain two more votes in the Senate,鈥� Sherwood said.

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The exhibit is called 鈥渞ise up.鈥� and will run through Nov. 1. An online version of the exhibit will run until Jan. 12 of next year. The photographers showcasing their work include a junior in high school and a retired television executive.

鈥淚 wanted to highlight and support my colleagues that have been out there right alongside the protestors and activists and organizers, day in and day out,鈥� said Shedrick Pelt, a Black photographer and Dupont Underground Ambassador.

In the last year, Dupont Underground has struggled to stay afloat financially, and the coronavirus pandemic only made the organization鈥檚 situation more dire.听

The arts nonprofit, which is housed in a system of former streetcar tunnels underneath Dupont Circle, was on the verge of closing at the end of last year after a missed payment of $150,000. Then in March, the COVID-19 outbreak shut the space down for months. The lease expired in April and has not been renewed.

听The Deputy Mayor鈥檚 Office for Planning and Economic Development said there are ongoing discussions with Dupont Underground to extend the lease.

听鈥�We remain committed to keeping this unique space activated as part of DC鈥檚 creative economy,鈥� said Interim Director of Communication Kate Hartig in an email.

Amid the pandemic and the lack of a current lease, Pelt said that the mood at Dupont Underground has been 鈥渦ncertain and a little anxious.鈥�

听鈥淎s a space, we want to be able to look towards the future,鈥� Pelt said. 鈥淭hat question of the lease is really hindering our progress.鈥�

Dupont Underground is the most recent reinvention of a subterranean space where streetcars operated from 1949 to 1962. Chief operating officer for Dupont Underground Nora van Trotsenburg said when she first visited the tunnels, it was reminiscent of urban art spaces in cities like Berlin and Amsterdam.

The tunnels were used as a nuclear fallout shelter in the 1960s and 1970s, and in the mid-1990s, housed a short-lived food court.

Over the course of half a century, government officials and developers have proposed wildly different uses for the space, including a shopping mall, a burial site and most recently,.

Dupont Underground reopened during the coronavirus pandemic in September with an exhibit showcasing photographs by military veterans. During the pandemic, it has maintained a maximum capacity of 50 people and requires guests to wear masks and practice social distancing.

Pelt emphasized the significance of 鈥渞ise up.鈥� being in the nation鈥檚 capital, which has been a center of Black Lives Matter activism.听

In June, Mayor Muriel Bowser renamed a stretch of 16th Street NW in downtown Washington amid substantial protests against racial inequality this summer.

听鈥淲hen you look at the nightly news, there鈥檚 always Seattle, there鈥檚 always Portland, there鈥檚 always New York and then there鈥檚 always D.C. We鈥檙e definitely a very important part of the conversation,鈥� Pelt said.

听The 鈥渞ise up.鈥� photography exhibit runs at Dupont Underground through Nov. 1 and on www.dupontunderground.org until Jan. 12, 2021.

听Hours in person are Fridays 3-7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays 11 a.m.-7 p.m.听

听

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听 (GAGE), the first union to represent Ph.D. and master鈥檚 students at the university, said the Georgetown administration has denied its contractual right to bargain.

GAGE secured a three-year contract with the university on May 1 after 13 months of negotiations. The agreement covers more than 1,000 workers and guarantees 2% annual raises for all graduate student assistants as well as health benefits and other rights.

But the agreement doesn鈥檛 guarantee protections such as paid sick leave for graduate workers who contract COVID-19, or remote work regardless of the employee鈥檚 location.

The administration said that GAGE does not have the right to bargain over the impact of the coronavirus. GAGE said on its that leading up to the contract, 鈥淐OVID-19 was itself not substantively discussed as a factor to consider when writing contract language,鈥� and that at that time, neither side anticipated that the outbreak would worsen.

听鈥淲e shouldn’t have to be putting our energy into asking an arbitrator to reaffirm our right to collective bargaining, but here we are,鈥� said Jewel Tomasula, a doctoral candidate in biology and president of the union.

GAGE is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which represents more than 32,000 graduate employees nationally.

For months, GAGE has pressed the university to sign a letter of agreement on COVID-19.

听Separate from the contract, the letter of agreement would guarantee remote work for all graduate student employees regardless of location and provide sick leave to employees who contract the virus. The letter would also require the university to cover the cost of COVID-19 testing.

听In July, university administrators and GAGE began 鈥渋mpact bargaining鈥� sessions to set policies for the duration of the pandemic. As negotiations stalled, GAGE held two rallies in August to demand that the university guarantee health and economic protections for graduate student workers.

听By September, the union announced it would seek arbitration.

听An arbitrator from the American Arbitration Association (AAA) will make a decision. The AAA previously supervised the GAGE election in 2018.

听GAGE is pursuing 鈥渆xpedited arbitration,鈥� a faster process that would only consist of documents, as opposed to a series of hearings with witnesses.

We are preparing for arbitration in response to the Georgetown admin's disrespect for our union rights. We write this letter to ask you to join our call for a fair COVID-19 agreement.

— GAGE (@WeAreGAGE)

听Ari Janoff, GAGE鈥檚 grievance officer, said the university has 鈥渃ooperated fully鈥� with the grievance process and will reply by Oct. 8. (Georgetown University did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

听鈥淭hey indicated that their forthcoming response would agree to a documents-only arbitration,鈥� said Janoff, a doctoral candidate in linguistics.

听Daniel Solomon, vice president of GAGE and a doctoral candidate in government, said that universities have responded to the pandemic using different approaches.

听鈥淢any have unintended consequences for graduate workers that universities have not consulted them on,鈥� Solomon said.

听鈥淭here have been significant changes to university policy that we feel compel us to respond in the way that we have,鈥� Solomon said.

听In a statement published on Sept. 22 in the Georgetown Voice, a university spokesperson said, 鈥淕eorgetown is currently responding to GAGE-AFT鈥檚 concerns through the grievance process and continues to make efforts to resolve this matter short of arbitration.鈥�

听Solomon said that GAGE expects to resolve the dispute through the arbitration process.

听鈥淲e鈥檙e confident that the formal process that we have for resolving disputes with the university is adequate,鈥� Solomon said.

听Janoff said that GAGE will continue to advocate on behalf of graduate student workers even if the outcome is unfavorable.

听鈥淩egardless of the arbitrator’s decision, our next course of action will be to organize and ensure that the administration hears the concerns that graduate workers have about the impact of their policies on our health, safety, and livelihoods,鈥� Janoff said.

听GAGE President Jewel Tomasula said that while the pandemic poses obstacles for organizing in person, more graduate student workers are getting involved.

听鈥淕rad workers are seeing that we stand up for each other during a crisis, and a union is an effective structure for this,鈥� she said.

听Last month, more than 2,000 graduate student employees at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in opposition to the university鈥檚 proposed plans for reopening in the fall.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused more students to organize nationwide, according to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College, City University of New York.

听鈥�The economic and health and safety crisis resulting from the pandemic has already led to increased collective action across the country by faculty, graduate students, and other campus workers,鈥� said William A. Herbert, the center鈥檚 executive director.

听Brad Sommer, president and CEO of the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students, said that 鈥済rad student workers were almost universally left out鈥� of discussions about fall reopening plans.

听鈥淔or a group that historically lacks agency on the campus but is absolutely essential to its success, this oversight, intentional or otherwise, was likely distressing,鈥� said Sommer, a doctoral student in history at Carnegie Mellon University.

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The seat in Ward 2 was vacant for five months after the resignation of longtime Democratic councilmember Jack Evans in January. Evans was on the verge of when he stepped down.

In June, political newcomer Brooke Pinto won both a crowded Democratic primary and a special election to fill the seat until the end of the year. The last candidate to join the primary race, Pinto fended off seven opponents, including Evans, ultimately winning with about 28% of the vote.听

On Nov. 3, Pinto will face off in the general election against two former Democrats running as independents and a candidate from the D.C. affiliate of the Green Party. Republican nominee Katherine Venice withdrew from the race earlier this month, citing the need to vigorously oppose President Donald Trump鈥檚 presidency.

Here are the four contenders:听

Brooke Pinto

Political affiliation: Democratic Party
Age: 28
Neighborhood: Logan Circle
Education: Cornell University, Georgetown Law Center

Pinto moved to the District from her home state of Connecticut in 2014 to attend law school at Georgetown University, after which she worked as an assistant D.C. attorney general. Her election this June broke two demographic barriers: she became the first woman to represent Ward 2 and, at 28, the youngest councilmember in D.C. history.

Pinto has the support of the Democratic Party establishment, including D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. published in April said 鈥�she is steeped in reality and would hit the ground running with grit and smarts.鈥� Opponents have suggested that she is not established enough in the District. portrayed her as an outsider who 鈥渉ad no business winning the Ward 2 Democratic primary.鈥澨�

Pinto is making the case that her experience as an attorney and councilmember demonstrates a proven track record. Her campaign touts her experience on the council, such as passing $50 million to fund public housing repairs.听

鈥淲ard 2 residents need a Councilmember who can get things done, and I am that Councilmember,鈥� she said.

Randy Downs

Political affiliation: Independent
Age: 34
Neighborhood: Dupont Circle
Education: East Central College, Southeast Missouri State University听听听听听

Downs started his political career working in Democratic campaigns in his home state of Missouri and moved to the District in 2011 to work for the Sierra Club.听

He is currently serving his second term as an elected advisory neighborhood commissioner for single member district 2B05, which includes parts of Dupont Circle, Logan Circle and Downtown. Downs鈥� campaign said he believes that voters鈥� values will outweigh party loyalty in this election.

Downs, who is openly gay, is a member of the LGBTQ Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners Rainbow Caucus. He recently co-sponsored an ANC resolution calling on the D.C. Council to ban the 鈥済ay panic鈥� legal defense in court cases. His campaign pointed to the absence of LGBTQ representation on the council, saying that 鈥�this community needs a seat at the table.鈥�

Veteran local journalist Tom Sherwood, resident analyst for the WAMU Politics Hour, said in an interview that incumbent Brooke Pinto 鈥渟hould not take Randy Downs lightly,鈥� citing his active involvement on issues such as bike lanes and development battles.听

鈥淭o me, the basic question in this race is, will Downs鈥� hyper-local experience overcome Pinto鈥檚 basic draw among Democrats?鈥� Sherwood said.

Mart铆n Miguel Fern谩ndez

Political affiliation: Independent
Age: 29
Neighborhood: Thomas Circle
Education: Syracuse University, Binghamton University (SUNY)

Fern谩ndez has a background in biomedical anthropology and works at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also an established local DJ who had a residency at the Eighteenth Street Lounge in Dupont Circle before it closed this summer.

Born in Lima, Peru, Fern谩ndez moved to D.C. with his family as a child, and he has emphasized his lifelong connection to the District. As he put it, 鈥淚鈥檓 from here, and Brooke Pinto isn鈥檛.鈥澨�

Fern谩ndez launched his campaign after being disappointed with the outcome of the Democratic primary in June. Like his opponent Peter Bolton, Fern谩ndez has pointed to a campaign finance complaint lodged against Pinto after the Democratic primary to compare her unfavorably to her predecessor, Jack Evans.

Fern谩ndez鈥檚 platform outlines a number of progressive policies to address social and economic inequities, including a 14-point plan to reform policing in the District that would reallocate funds from the Metropolitan Police Department鈥檚 budget to community services promoting mental health and violence prevention, among others. He said he is confident that his campaign poses a serious challenge to Pinto in the general election.

鈥淭his is not a protest campaign,鈥� Fern谩ndez said.

Peter Bolton

Political affiliation: D.C. Statehood Green Party
Age: 33
Neighborhood: Dupont Circle
Education: Durham University (U.K.), American University

Bolton, a journalist and first-time candidate, is originally from the United Kingdom and holds dual citizenship with the United States. A contributor to The Guardian newspaper and CounterPunch magazine, Bolton is offering what he calls 鈥渁 radical alternative to the putrid status quo on offer from both of the mainstream parties.鈥� His platform calls for major reforms of the electoral process, like banning corporate contributions and political action committees known as 鈥渟uper PACs鈥� in city elections.

Bolton also proposes 鈥渁ggressive tactics鈥� to compel the federal government to grant D.C. statehood, a goal he wants to achieve within five years. Like Fernandez, he supports defunding police, 鈥減articularly redirecting money that is currently spent on police militarization to social services.鈥�

Bolton has proposed to counteract the effects of gentrification by enacting citywide rent control and a permanent moratorium on evictions, and by lifting the property tax threshold to $500,000. He said that he is financing his campaign 鈥渙n a complete shoestring budget.鈥�

In the 46-year history of the D.C. council, voters in all eight wards have exclusively elected Democrats to represent them. Only in the citywide at-large races have Republicans, independents and third-party candidates ever won a seat.

In the Ward 4 Democratic primary election this summer, incumbent councilmember Brandon T. Todd, an ally of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, lost his reelection bid to Janeese Lewis George, a democratic socialist. What remains to be seen in Ward 2 is whether a progressive insurgent can pull off a similar coup in November鈥檚 general election.听 At stake is the question of authenticity: will Ward 2 voters prefer a newer candidate from the politically dominant party, or will they look to an outsider with deeper local roots?

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