Trayon White (D), a former DC Council member who was banished by fellow councillors after being indicted on federal bribery, is the expected winner of the 8th District Election on July 15th.
With almost all votes counted by around 8:30pm on Election Day, with the exception of votes cast by mail 15 or a few days ago, and a relatively small number of absentees and “special” votes, the DC Election Commission announced that White had gone ahead of the three democratic enemies with 1,987 votes or 29.46% of the votes.
The number of votes announced by the Election Commission showed that Democratic rival Sheila Bang received 1,627 votes or 24.13%. Mike Austin received 1,584 votes or 23.49%. 1,405 votes or 22.17% Salim Adfo.
White pleads not guilty to the bribery charges filed against him by the FBI, and under the DC Act, he can seize a seat on the council if he wins the election until he is convicted. His trial is scheduled to begin in January 2026.
Political observers, including LGBTQ activists, say they believe that, like most, if not all, voters in District 8, LGBTQ voters are divided into which of the four candidates they support. Each of the four, including White, has expressed support for LGBTQ-related issues.
Preliminary results show that White is ahead of the van, which had the second highest vote count with 354 votes. He was ahead of Austin with 397 votes and ahead of Adfo with 492 votes.
With White’s three enemies splitting the opposition vote, it was unlikely that Bunn or one of the other candidates would win enough votes to surpass White.
Based on the number of preliminary votes announced by the Election Commission, White’s three opponents received a total of 69.79%, compared to White’s 29.46%.
“The true winner of this evening, other than Treyon, is an outdated election process where candidates can win with a small number of votes,” said Phil Panel, a longtime LGBTQ rights advocate at Ward 8. “70% of the people in the 8th district clearly rejected Treyon White,” the panel added that it referred to a slightly different percentage of votes reported by the Washington Post.
The panel said the outcome of the District 8 special election would be significantly different if the city introduced a ranked selection system approved by DC voters in the November 2024 election known as Initiative 83.
In particular, a ranked choice voting system allows voters to show who the second choice candidate is and will conduct an automatic leak election if the candidate receives at least 50% of the vote.
In a statement released Tuesday at 8:45pm, the Election Commission said it would resume vote counts on Wednesday morning, July 16th.
“DCBOE will continue to accept votes sent by USPS until July 25, 2025, as long as it is collected by mail by July 15, 2025,” the statement said. “Official election results will not be announced until mail, absentees, valid special votes have been processed, post-election audits are conducted and DCBoe’s board has certified the election results,” the statement said.
The post-election audit is scheduled to begin on August 5th, with the final certification of the results being tentatively scheduled for August 8th.
It was not immediately determined whether members of the DC Council could exercise their authority and take steps to expel White from its rank again. If White or one of the other candidates in the special election is officially declared a winner, they will serve an expired term created by White’s expulsion until January 2, 2029.
Exiled by his colleagues, Post-Treyon White first appeared in Washington Blade, LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights and Gay News.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
