Wendell Felder projected to win D.C. Council Ward 7 nomination

Because of the relatively thin margins, the race took longer to call, as ballot-counting proceeded slowly at the D.C. Board of Elections after initial tabulations Tuesday night. Declaring victory at his watch party before the race had been called Tuesday night, Felder acknowledged the big shoes to fill as he thanked Gray, who endorsed Felder to succeed him.

“As the next Ward 7 council member, I have a lot of hard work ahead of me, and look forward to building on his legacy,” Felder said.

The crowded Ward 7 race was the banner contest in an otherwise low-key election year for D.C., which had just a few other local lawmakers on the ballot along with nonvoting federal representatives. Yet at a time when two other council members are facing recall efforts — and as residents have voiced escalating concerns about crime or issues such as education disparities — voters broadly opted for the status quo as incumbents coasted to victory. Council members Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8), Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) and Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large) held off challengers, while council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) was unopposed. Ankit Jain, a voting rights attorney, is likely to join the federal delegation after his projected victory in a competitive Democratic nominating race for shadow senator against Eugene Kinlow, a former Bowser administration federal lobbyist.

The Ward 7 seat was open after Gray, the former mayor and council chair who has held public office since 2005, announced in December he would not seek reelection amid ongoing health challenges. Gray had a stroke in 2021, and another in late April, and has generally been less visible in the ward as a result of mobility and speech difficulties.

For some voters, Gray’s endorsement sealed their vote — especially as they were otherwise bombarded by mailers and campaign ads and calls and texts from the candidates.

“I just felt like with Vince Gray’s endorsement, it kind of leaned it more in his direction, especially given how crowded the field was,” said Larry Evans, a 50-year-old social worker who said hearing Felder discuss initiatives to reduce crime — a top issue for Evans — “resonated with me.”

Several voters who selected Felder said they believed he had the political connections needed to be effective on the council and described a retail politics style that felt personal.

Colleen Kincaid, who has lived in Hill East since 2016, said that after a shooting on her block in February, Felder showed up on her doorstep to see how she and her husband were doing. It was one of a number of shootings in her neighborhood this year, and their cars were pocked with bullet holes, she said.

“People were scared, looking for support, looking for ideas. He was the first one to show up,” she said at Felder’s election night party, blocks from her home. “That’s not just good politics — that’s good people.”

Felder’s campaign was not without stumbles. He raised eyebrows among Democrats and home-rule advocates when he told the ACLU in a questionnaire that if the D.C. Council passed a law with which he disagreed, he’d advocate for Congress to overturn it. Felder later called the response a mistake, while insisting in “no way, shape or form do I support congressional interference” — but overall, the flap didn’t prove consequential.

In an interview at his election night party, Felder cited aggressive canvassing and relationship-building as key to his victory, with a message that blended focusing on turning around public safety problems, boosting economic development and improving neighborhood schools. He said he had “a pair of shoes with a hole in them” due to hours spent door-knocking each week in the lead-up to the election.

Felder had previously worked in the administration of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) as a community relations representative and in project management in her economic development office. Those roles, combined with some of the flashiest endorsements, made Felder the closest thing to the establishment candidate in the race, and moments after Felder declared victory, Bowser arrived to congratulate him Tuesday night.

But Felder’s win is far from decisive. He was projected to win with significantly less than 50 percent of the vote, according to unofficial returns from the D.C. Board of Elections — indicative of a highly splintered electorate that Felder will need to get behind him. Felder said the work to unite the ward was “just beginning,” adding he would also be reaching out to each of his opponents.

Ebony Payne, the founder of a medicinal herb business and a Kingman Park advisory neighborhood commissioner, and Eboni-Rose Thompson, president of the State Board of Education, were each trailing Felder by several hundred votes, according to unofficial returns.

For Ward 7 voters eager for change, some weren’t yet sure what to think about Felder but were willing to hear him out.

“For Wendell, I wondered if are there ways in which he’s an extension of Gray,” said Erin O. Crosby, a newer Ward 7 resident. “I think about my community and the changes that I would love to see, and I wonder if the community that I have is the result of past representation. Would Wendell be a changemaker, or an extension of that?”

Jasmine Hilton and Omari Daniels contributed to this report.