Mayor · District of Columbia

Is protecting the safety, rights and access to city services for immigrant communities the responsibility of elected officials? Why or why not?

DC is a sanctuary city, and I will work to uphold that. Our immigrant neighbors are part of the fabric of our community and play an important role in our economy and all aspects of our city, and have the same right to peace, prosperity, and safety as anyone else. I will work to embrace and defend them. When the DHS raids started last summer, I joined my community in the streets as a legal observer. I called on the mayor to end DC’s cooperation with DHS and the White House and to introduce a bill that significantly curtails MPD’s cooperation with ICE. My opponent declined to support the bill. He didn't seem to share my outrage at the treatment of our fellow Washingtonians.

Is protecting the safety, rights and access to city services for immigrant communities the responsibility of elected officials? Why or why not?

Yes. Immigrant communities help to strengthen our local economy, and they have contributed greatly to DC. Abandoning their families would be a betrayal of the city's core values of inclusivity, compassion, and shared prosperity. Although we find ourselves at a political crossroad, we must unite and fight together. As a human-rights designated city and the nation's seat of governance, I believe that we must be the example for the rest of the country by ensuring that our municipal systems remain safe and fully accessible to all residents. We are DC! Forward we will march together.

What are four things you will do to help DC residents now in prison and those who are returning home?

I am committed to doing more to improve conditions at the DC Jail. That includes largely banning the use of solitary confinement and improving the abysmal quality of food and replacing the jail with a more humane facility. I have consistently voted against expanding the presumption of pretrial detention. There are too many obstacles that prevent returning citizens from successfully reintegrating into the community. Not only does this make their lives harder but also means that the government is missing out on workers who would do a terrific job. I’m committed to being a leader in hiring DC residents who have been justice-involved. To make the path to employment and housing a little easier, I recently included language in a bill that would streamline criminal record sealing and expungement for returning citizens. I’m hoping to fund this provision in the upcoming budget.

Do you have further thoughts on the Justice System?

I will implement a comprehensive public safety strategy that addresses prevention, intervention, and enforcement. It’s an approach I took as Ward 4 Councilmember when addressing crime on Kennedy Street and in Petworth. And it’s the approach I took when I was a prosecutor at the DC Office of the Attorney General. As mayor, the entirety of my government will play a role in public safety, not just one agency. You can read more here: https://janeesefordc.com/platform/safe-communities-for-all/

What are four things you will do to help DC residents now in prison and those who are returning home?

As Mayor, I will assemble an executive team to partner with external oversight bodies, internal senior level officials, and ANC leadership inside the DC jail to enforce higher standards for behavioral, mental, and medical healthcare. I will push the DC Council for solutions-based legislation to address core issues raised by jailed residents, including the psychological impacts of extended solitary confinement, poor meal distribution, suspended contact visits, and infrastructure failures. Additionally, I will work to end youth mass incarceration by investing in accessible social services, workforce development, and community resources as real alternatives to imprisonment. My administration will audit the existent community level and government funded reentry programming to ensure that adequate housing, healthcare, jobs, and resource allocation are properly managed to avert recidivism.

Do you have further thoughts on the Justice System?

The local DC justice system is plagued by its inability to appoint its own judges, lack of expanded local prosecutorial power, failed oversight of its crime lab, a severely aging & unsafe DC jail facility, understaffed correctional personnel, lack of "Home Rule", congressional overreach, as well as failed strategies for addressing youth & juvenile rehabilitation. Fixing the problems within our local justice system will require fixing the leadership in DC's local government & putting an end to the federal & congressional overreach into DC's local affairs. The public safety & well-being of DC's residents' rests with electing a new leader that is committed to fighting to move DC forward not offering more of the same. Vote Hamilton 4 DC Mayor!

How will you use this job to protect our rights and keep Congress and the President out of our local government business?

We need to stand up to Trump instead of trying to placate him. I’m a former prosecutor who has experience holding dangerous people accountable. DC needs to fight back and fight back. How we choose to act now will have a long-term effect on our ability to protect Home Rule and win Statehood. I’ve been walking the halls of Capitol Hill and working to build a congressional coalition to defend DC’s rights and values, and I will continue to do that as mayor. I am the only candidate in this race who has succeeded in moving members of Congress to our side. I've done it through meetings, national partners, and more.

How will you use this job to protect our rights and keep Congress and the President out of our local government business?

While continuing to support the lobbying efforts for statehood to eradicate the Congressional and federal government's overreach, as Mayor I will protect DC citizen rights by ensuring home rule autonomy, safeguarding our local budget control, securing local command over public safety, pursuing legislative avenues to reform or amend the Home Rule Act in favor of DC government's legislative independence, as well as rescinding the executive emergency order that established local agency coordination with federal law enforcement to immediately eliminate the over policing of DC residents, harmful separation of families, and threats to the mental well-being of school-aged youth.

Should DC be a state? Yes or No? If yes, what are the two most important steps you would take to make statehood happen? If no, what is your plan for achieving full voting rights for DC?

Advancing DC Statehood requires real relationships, and I am proud to say that mine are active and proven. 1) I'll continue my work with Democrats in Congress to shore up support. I am the only candidate in the race who has flipped votes in Congress from against DC to having our back. 2) I already work closely with key partners who share the vision for DC Statehood. First, Attorney General Brian Schwalb is using every legal tool to defend DC’s autonomy, and I will collaborate closely with his office. 3) I will also work with DC’s Delegate in Congress and other congressional offices that I’ve formed relationships with during my visits to Capitol Hill. 4) I will work with grassroots organizations like Free DC that are building toward bold acts of noncooperation to defend Home Rule and win Statehood.

DC is required under Law 24-176 to reduce harmful gas emissions resulting from DC government activities. What are the top two measures you would take to comply with this law?

As Chair of the Committee on Facilities and Family Services I prioritized funding for the Greener Government Buildings Amendment Act to require all major new or substantially improved DC government buildings to be constructed with net zero energy standards when feasible. My opponent worked for Washington Gas to gut the bill. The DC Smart Street Lighting Project recently came to Ward 4 and is expected to eliminate 38,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year and generate 50% in energy savings. School modernizations are another important way to do this, too. And after advocacy in partnership with residents, WMATA’s Northern Bus Garage in Ward 4 will be home to DC’s first all-electric fleet.

Should DC be a state? Yes or No? If yes, what are the two most important steps you would take to make statehood happen? If no, what is your plan for achieving full voting rights for DC?

Yes, DC should be a state. I would continue to support lobbying efforts to pass the "Washington, DC Admission Act". In addition, I would pursue the reframing of Statehood as a Civil Rights and Tax Equity issue and solicit the continued support of our allies and the United Nations in these efforts.

DC is required under Law 24-176 to reduce harmful gas emissions resulting from DC government activities. What are the top two measures you would take to comply with this law?

I would call for transparent and accountable oversight of DPW's expansion of government, commercial and residential composting programs. This would not only help the District to comply with this law, but it would also help to combat the District's current rodent crisis. Additionally, I will plan to review the current actionable strategies for phasing out fossil fuels in government buildings as well as review the status of the District's transition to a zero-emissions municipal fleet to assess and ensure accountable compliance with this law.

Working families

I fight for working families because I know firsthand what working people in DC are up against.

What are your top 2 priorities and how will you accomplish them?

1) Affordability (especially housing and utility bills) 2) Standing up to Trump We need a more affordable city. We'll make housing mor accessible and affordable by overhauling zoning, the building code, and the permitting process to allow us to build 72,000 new homes. You can read how we'll do it, how it will help more people afford to stay in DC and why that's all so important here: https://ggwash.org/view/102946/im-running-for-dc-mayor-to-build-more-housing-to-lower-costs All Washingtonians should be able to afford everyday needs like electricity and other utilities. Read my 10-point plan to make bills more affordable here: https://janeesefordc.com/platform/affordable-utilities-for-all/ I'll keep standing up to Trump as I have been!

What are your top 2 priorities and how will you accomplish them?

My plans are to improve DC's Public Safety, & Housing Authority systems. These systems share systemic failures in leadership, chronic understaffing as well as they ae contributing to a deteriorating public infrastructure. I will improve the operational standards of each with investments in staffing & capital repairs, as well as conduct a complete audit of each system & overall agency’s performance to identify the intersecting challenges of inadequate management, budgetary accountability, & investigatory public responses to help shape immediate reforms such as review, training or removal of senior staff, elimination of fraud, & expansion of the independent civilian oversight boards' subpoena powers to increase policing accountability.