Longtime Washington congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton garnered her most serious political challenge in 35 years Thursday when Robert White, a third-term D.C. Council member and former aide to Norton, announced he would challenge her in next year’s Democratic primary.
Norton, 88, has faced mounting questions about her ability to serve in Congress that have been heightened in recent weeks by her absence from the public eye as President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans targeted the District of Columbia for a federal law enforcement takeover.
She has made some public appearances in recent weeks, including at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Thursday where D.C.’s top elected officials testified about the city’s crime record. But she has largely stuck to reading written statements in an often halting voice. Amid doubts about whether she’s up for another term — including a public plea for retirement this week from her closest political adviser — Norton has repeatedly said she will seek re-election in 2026.
White, who was attending the House hearing, praised Norton’s political legacy in a brief interview. But, he added, “like most people in D.C., we recognize that she can’t do the things that she once did.”
“Right now, the District is vulnerable, and we’re losing ground,” White continued, “and with only one elected member in this entire Congress, we need somebody with the fight, the energy, and the know-how.”
Norton is already facing a primary challenge from former DNC official Kinney Zalesne, and additional candidates are expected to enter the race if Norton steps aside. But White is the first credible opponent with a citywide political profile to challenge Norton since she was first elected in 1990.
Norton’s congressional office and campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
White has occupied the progressive lane in city politics, staking out political ground to the left of Mayor Muriel Bowser, whom he challenged in the 2022 Democratic primary. White fell just over 10,000 votes short in a four-person field and had been widely seen as likely to launch another mayoral campaign in 2026.
White sat in the back row of the Capitol Hill hearing room during the four-plus-hour House Oversight hearing with D.C.’s top elected officials: Bowser — who called Norton as “mighty warrior” in her prepared testimony — as well as D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb.
Norton, during her questioning time, defended the District’s right to self-government and asked the three officials to weigh in on why the city deserved statehood.
Most Republicans, however, pressed the city officials on their handling of crime in the District. GOP lawmakers have joined Trump in painting an image of the nation’s capital as rife with crime to justify an August presidential order commandeering the city police and flooding federal agents and National Guard troops into the city.
As local officials came under siege from Republicans on the Oversight panel, Norton sat silent at her dais. She entered and left the hearing room several times flanked by an aide, sometimes appearing to lean on the person for support.
Speaking outside the hearing room, White said that he had informed Norton of his intention to run for her seat, although he declined to detail Norton’s response in what he called a private conversation.
“We in the District who love the congresswoman and respect the work that she’s done — we know that she can’t fight the fight that we need right now,” White said, adding that he had met with 30 congressional offices since the presidential enforcement surge to discuss the need for a nationwide fight on behalf of the city.
He struck similar themes in a launch video he posted shortly after the hearing ended: “We need our best fighters right now,” White said. “I’m ready to take this torch.”
That message largely echoes what Norton’s longtime adviser Donna Brazile wrote in a Washington Post op-ed this week urging her not to run. Norton, Brazile wrote, “is no longer the dynamo she once was, at a time when D.C. needs the kind of energetic representation in Congress she provided for decades.”
Asked after the hearing if she supported another term for Norton, Bowser said, “I don’t believe she’s filed for re-election.”
Mendelson also sidestepped the question, telling reporters, “Eleanor Holmes Norton has done a lot for the District over the years, and I respect her, and I’m going to leave it at that.”
