The socialist Lewis George could be the Democratic candidate for mayor of the capital, Washington

Following the victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York, Washington DC could also have a socialist mayor, who would face an exceptionally complex coexistence with Donald Trump. With over 60 per cent of the votes in the Democratic primary counted, Janeese Lewis George, a current city councillor who describes herself as a ‘democratic socialist’, is well ahead with over 50 per cent of the vote, whilst Kenyan McDuffe, a centrist Democrat like the outgoing mayor Muriel Bowser, who has led Washington for 12 years. “What seemed like a distant dream not long ago is already history unfolding before our eyes today,” Lewis George told her supporters as the first results of her victory came in. “This moment is for those of us who refuse to give up hope of a government that works for all of us.”

In reality, it may still take some time before the final results are known, given that the vote was held under a new system; if, at the end of the first-choice count, no candidate has secured a majority, the second-choice votes will be counted. In any case, Lewis George has such a clear lead over McDuffie that the prospect of becoming Washington’s first socialist mayor in November is well within reach. A prospect that Trump, of course, does not like at all: “Perhaps we’ll take Washington back and run it at federal level; we won’t accept this,” said the president in response to a question about Lewis George’s possible victory, referring to the fact that the capital has only had a mayor elected by the citizens since 1974, following the passing of the law that granted the city – which until then had been governed by federal commissions and, from 1967, by a ‘mayor’ appointed by the president – a form of self-government.

The Democratic Socialists of America assumed a prominent position within the party in 2018 when several of its members, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, were elected to Congress. But it was undoubtedly the two unsuccessful presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders – the veteran senator regarded as the father of the Democratic left, who stood for the White House in 2016 and 2020 – that mobilised the young electorate. Mamdani’s triumph in New York last year then ushered in a new era of success for Democratic socialists in the primaries ahead of the November election, when not only in Washington but also in Los Angeles a Democratic socialist, Nithaya Raman, the city councillor who will challenge the incumbent mayor, Karen Bass, after defeating Spencer Pratt, the former Trump-era reality TV star who had thrown considerable resources into securing the nomination. Should both Lewis George and Raman ultimately win, then three of America’s major cities – New York, Washington and Los Angeles – will have ‘socialist’ mayors.