Washington, DC Will Get a New Mayor Next Year

Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington DC, announced on Tuesday that she will not be seeking re-election next year, a decision that came as she has had to confront a federal law enforcement intervention into her city launched by President Trump.

• Bowser announced her decision in a video posted to social media, where she did not mention Trump or directly address his steps against the city, the AP reports. She applauded the cooperation with residents to make the city a better place to live and called on them to "summon our collective strength to stand tall against bullies who threaten our very autonomy while preserving Home Rule. That is our North Star."

• Bowser has served three terms since being first elected in 2015, none more tumultuous than the last year, when she found herself walking a fine line between staying in Trump's good graces and responding to the concerns of constituents who said she should have pushed back more on actions taken by the president.
• She was at the helm of a city that has long been reliant on the federal government. The district is granted autonomy through a limited home rule agreement passed in 1973, but federal political leaders retain significant control over local affairs, including the approval of the budget and laws passed by the DC council.

• The federal government involvement in local affairs hit another level in August after Trump issued an emergency order that federalized the city's police force and sent hundreds of National Guard troops there for what the administration called a crime-fighting mission. Although the emergency period has lapsed, the federal law enforcement presence is still in the city, along with National Guard members from the district and several states, despite legal action against the military deployment.
• Bowser in many ways cooperated with the administration's efforts, including having city workers clear homeless encampments and work more closely with federal immigration agents. She acknowledged that the intervention had helped reduce crime in the city, which was already on the decline, but also criticized the deployment of the National Guard, saying those resources would be better spent on other matters. She also said the city would not cooperate with immigration enforcement operations in DC.

• The mayor, a former city council member, also spent a large part of the year trying to get the House to release about $1 billion of the city's funding that was frozen during battles over the federal budget. The city also bore the brunt of significant cuts to the federal workforce by the Department of Government Efficiency.
• Bowser's decision opens the door for a number of possible candidates, although at least two of them, DC Council members Robert White Jr. and Brooke Pinto, have already announced they are running for the district's US House delegate seat. Fellow council member Janesse Lewis George remains a potential candidate.
• "It was time for me to pass the baton on to the next set of leaders who are going to take our city to the next level," Bowser tells NBC Washington. The 53-year-old says she made the decision for her family, and because she wants to try something else while she still has energy and fresh ideas. "It's probably the hardest thing I've had to do—to walk away from a job I love. But I know we've accomplished the things I've set out to do," she says.