D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser won’t run for reelection, ending months of speculation over whether she would seek a fourth term. She gave News4 an in-depth interview on her decision.
“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,” the mayor said in an interview with News4 at her home.
Bowser said she made the decision for her family. In the interview, she said now is the time to do something else while she still has a lot of energy, vigor and great 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,” Bowser said.
In a message Bowser posted on social media Tuesday afternoon, she wrote: “It has been the honor of my life to be your Mayor. Together, we have built a legacy of success of which I am intensely proud.”
Her message continued: “With a grateful heart, I am announcing that I will not seek a fourth term.”
“For the next 12 months, let’s run through the tape and keep winning for DC,” her message concluded.
Bowser told News4 she remains confident she would win reelection if she ran again.
“I’ve never lost an election,” Bowser said.
Mayor Bowser’s legacy
The mayor has spent the past year trying to strike a balance between her constituents and the Trump administration, trying to avoid a clash with the president, who has threatened to overturn the District’s Home Rule. That got even trickier with the federal surge of law enforcement in the District.
“We started this month, this year with a new president who was an avowed critic of the District, and we had to reset that relationship,” Bowser said. “We started with a president that clearly had a plan to move fast, and one of his targets was the District. And we also have a Congress that has pretty much given him carte blanche to do it.
“I think starting with even the most recent elections where we had just a good turnout and great wins for Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia and New York City,” she said. “This is going to be, the next 10 months are going to be different than the last 10 months. So, we see more of a check, more of a willingness to disagree with the president, so I think that bodes well for how the District and the president and the Congress will work together as we approach the midterms.”
Asked Monday evening whether residents should be concerned about President Donald Trump following through on his threats under a different mayor, Bowser said, “I believe that I am putting the District in the best possible place.”
“I think the public doesn’t see a lot of the hateful stuff that we’re getting as a result of the divisive rhetoric nationally,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said.
“I’ve heard from a lot of people that they love what I’m doing, they want me to run again, but they also understand that there aren’t that many four-term mayors,” Bowser said. “And certainly, I think I could be a four-term mayor, but I think most Washingtonians they don’t, they aren’t, they don’t kind of approach the future with fear of that. So, I think they are confident in their decision to select the right mayor.”
When asked whether she gave the White House a heads up about her decision not to run again, Bowser said: “I serve the residents of the District of Columbia. So, they’ll be the first to know.”
Bowser’s third term also is notable for two major sports deals.
The agreement to bring the Washington Commanders home to D.C. and redevelop the old RFK Stadium campus was a significant accomplishment for the mayor’s office – and the relationship warranted a heads up to the team about Bowser’s future plans. She said she made it clear in her first conversation with the Commanders that she would be getting out.
In addition, after Ted Leonsis’ plan to move the Washington Capitals and Wizards out of Capital One Arena and into Alexandria, Virginia, was rejected by the commonwealth, Bowser made a deal to keep the teams in D.C. for another 25 years and remodel the arena as she looked for a comeback from the downtown doldrums of the pandemic.
Other economic development the mayor had a key role in likely also sits high on her achievement list. She often touts her advocacy for small business and revitalization.
Her administration focused on underutilized sites around D.C. such as the St. Elizabeths campus, Walter Reed and The Wharf, turning them into communities with housing, shopping and healthcare.
“We have to respond to the shifts in the federal workforce and the changes in the federal government, and I believe firmly that the way to do that is to grow,” the mayor told News4. “We have to attract more businesses; we have to keep and attract more residents. And we have to generate the robust economy that bought us the fastest improving school district in the United States of America and other great services.”
As she celebrated a decade in office, Bowser pointed to her record with decreasing homelessness, which is down 30% since she took office. She points to her early closing of DC General Family Shelter, which once was the District’s single homeless shelter and plagued by problems.
She also spotlights her ambitious housing goals, like adding 36,000 homes ahead of schedule and helping blunt a rise in housing costs.
When Bowser first took office in 2015, crime was the No. 1 concern in D.C. Her record on that probably will be debated.
Violent crime is down 30% this year after reaching a 30-year low last year. That follows a huge spike in 2023.
But one critical point has been her efforts to curb juvenile crime.
Experts have criticized her commitment to streamlining resources to combat juvenile justice.
Complicating that debate is the impact of the federal surge that saw D.C. police working alongside federal agencies, including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
A decade in the mayor’s office
Bowser has served as D.C.’s mayor for more than a decade. Formerly the D.C. councilmember representing Ward 4, she was elected mayor in 2014 and took office in early 2015.
She’s now heading into the final year of her third term, only the second mayor in D.C. history, after Marion Barry, to serve three consecutive terms.
Bowser navigated the District through the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial reckoning of 2020.
Bowser faced criticism over her handling of Trump’s takeover of D.C. police and the federal surge in the District. She said she was grateful for the additional law enforcement and that it helped drive down crime in the city, while acknowledging that some people lived in anxiety because of the fear of ICE.
When a federal judge ruled that the National Guard’s deployment in D.C. was unlawful in November, Bowser said it was a move “in the right direction.”
She had been expected to announce over the summer whether she would seek a fourth term, but major events such as the announcement of the Commanders’ planned return to D.C. and the federal surge caused Bowser to delay her decision.
In that void, other names started to emerge as possible candidates. D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie previously told News4 they were thinking about running.
“Nobody has to wait on me to make any decision,” Bowser said in October when News4 asked whether she would run again. “… I’ve run for a long time, a number of times, and my process is always the same. If I want, I tell voters what I’m going to do when I know what I’m going to do and I’m ready to tell voters. And that will be my process this time.”
Lewis George released a statement saying, in part: “DC is a place that honors and celebrates its leaders. We will always be grateful for Mayor Bowser’s devoted public service and impactful leadership.”
In a statement from McDuffie, the at-large councilmember said, “From steering the District through a global pandemic to standing up for DC residents in the face of Home Rule attacks, day in and day out, Mayor Bowser has led the District through some of our most challenging times. Above all, the Mayor never took her eye off the ball when it came to making critical investments in housing, education, public safety, and economic development.”
Investigative Reporter Ted Oberg and News4 reporter Paul Wagner contributed to this report.
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