Jeremiah Lowery

Jeremiah Lowery, a longtime advocate and community organizer, announced at the end of September that he plans to challenge incumbent Anita Bonds for the open At-large seat on the D.C. Council.

The 31-year-old is both a D.C. native and a young progressive (biographical details shared with the most recently elected At-large councilmember, Robert White). Lowery says he is running to ensure that residents don’t have to face the issues his parents dealt with as he grew up—homelessness and unaffordable childcare, among them—and was motivated to run by a speech that President Barack Obama gave near the end of his time in office encouraging young Democrats to run for office.

“There’s a lot of energy for change, with the Trump administration coming in, a lot of energy around resistance, for transformative solutions to issues that D.C. is facing,” Lowery says. “I believe that I can capture a lot of that energy.”

He has pledged to run a campaign free of corporate donations or money from PACS.

Anita Bonds was appointed to the seat on an interim basis in 2012 by the Democratic State Committee after Phil Mendelson vacated the spot when he became chairman. She narrowly won a special election the following year, and the general election in 2014.

Two other candidates, Marcus Goodwin and Justin Greene Sr., have also filed paperwork to run.

After growing up between the city and Prince George’s County and attending the University of Maryland, Lowery has spent the last decade working or volunteering on a wide variety of causes—campaign finance reform, food policy, programs for seniors, urban gardening, worker protections, bullying and violence prevention, and climate change among them.

As a policy coordinator for the Restaurant Opportunities Center, he helped push forth both the expansion of paid sick leave and the Fight for $15 in D.C. He serves as a climate justice organizer with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, was appointed to the D.C. Food Policy Council, and co-founded the Universal Childcare NOW D.C. Coalition, among a litany of other positions.

“I’m a community organizer. I eat, sleep, and drink community organizing,” he says. “Most people have their hobbies. Maybe they go painting, maybe they go to baseball games. For me, I got community meetings or I go find some reason to collect petitions.”

Lowery’s long history of activism would put him squarely in the camp of the D.C. Council’s influential progressive bloc. The council’s shift leftward has prompted handwringing from the business community, though it has yet to bear out in city coffers, which remain robust.

He says that the Council has passed bills that are a “good step forward, but we need to continue to look at ways to address inequality and what are some of the major costs there are on the books… there are so many different costs that are plaguing working families in the District.”

Childcare is among them, and one of Lowery’s chief concerns despite not having kids himself. He also wants to look at ways to lower utility costs and rents. His other priorities include moving the city to 100 percent clean energy and developing community land trusts.

Lowery declined to criticize Bonds, saying he has the “utmost respect for her” but simply has different priorities, and demurred when asked about how he sees the mayor’s policies.

“We’re not in this race because of Bowser. We’re not in this race because of Anita Bonds,” he says. “We’re just in this race because we believe that we have transformative solutions to address the housing crisis, education, inequality, and we can further push D.C. to be a leader when it comes to addressing climate change.”

He pledges to be an energetic councilmember, one who wouldn’t shy away from the same kind of grassroots work he does now.

“Not to sound like I’m rabble rousing, but one thing that sometimes councilmembers don’t do is generate a lot of enthusiasm and excitement from the community. If it may be a little difficult to get things done, it may be time to step outside the Wilson Building,” he says. “I’m always going to be a community activist and advocate. Whether I win or lose, I’m still going to be a community advocate.”