In heavily Democratic D.C., the “R” label on a ballot has long been a difficult political sell. But Republican Katherine Venice, who is throwing her hat in the ring for Jack Evans’ Ward 2 seat on the D.C. Council, argues its time for “a different approach and innovative thinking.”

“We have to go back to the drawing board and really seek within ourselves what is the right path ahead,” says Venice, who has a background in investment management and advising.

Six Democrats have already announced their candidacy for the June primary. Because Evans has resigned from his role amid an ethics scandal, there will also be a special election two weeks later. The winner of that election will serve through the end of Evans’ term in January 2021.

Venice tells DCist that she plans to run in both the November general election and the special election. At least five of the Democrats say they will also run in the special election on June 16.

Originally from England, Venice says she lived in several other countries before settling into D.C. She describes herself as a “relative newcomer” to Ward 2 and declined to specify how long exactly she has lived there.

Venice serves as the CEO of The Ethical Capitalism Group, which she says is a social enterprise group that advises investors to focus on innovation rather than cost-cutting as a strategy for increasing returns. She doesn’t have previous experience in public office.

Given her background in finance, Venice says that fiscal issues and spending are her biggest priorities as a potential councilmember.

“We are gong to be moving into a stage of slower growth the next several years, and I don’t think there’s enough discussion about that on the council. The last ten years of robust economic growth, we can’t assume that’s going to continue,” she says, echoing concerns that Mayor Muriel Bowser and CFO Jeffrey S. DeWitt have voiced. “Now is the time to husband our resources responsibly, or else the most vulnerable people in the city are going to face the consequences, and we can’t allow that.” She says that the District should be focused on lowering spending in preparation for an inevitable economic contraction.

And in the race to replace the council’s biggest ally for the business community, Venice says she considers herself a business-friendly candidate.

But she also aims to address the city’s economic inequities. “The council has frittered away an important opportunity [during an economic boom]. It failed to deliver on inclusive economic growth,” she says. Her plan for decreasing inequality would center around creating more opportunities for “homegrown entrepreneurs” to open businesses that in turn create more jobs. Pressed about how she would go about creating these opportunities, Venice said she will be releasing detailed plans on her website in the coming weeks. She declined to detail the plans further in an interview.

Venice says that affordable housing and homelessness would also be major focuses of her office, as well as public safety, especially as it relates to issues of domestic violence.

Asked about the difficult political reality of running as a Republican for a local D.C. office, Venice says she was inspired to learn that the local Republican chapter was founded by abolitionists and that Frederick Douglass was a member. “If the D.C. Republican Party is good enough for Frederick Douglass, it’s good enough for me,” she says. Her campaign materials call her a “fiscally responsible, socially progressive Republican.”

Venice also argues that partisan politics created a lack of will on the D.C. Council to hold Evans to account for his ethical lapses, a problem she says she wouldn’t have.

Still, Republicans have had a difficult time passing muster with D.C. voters. The last Republican elected to the D.C. Council was David Catania, who served from 1997 to January 2015. But Catania changed his party affiliation in 2004 and became an independent because of the Republican position on gay marriage.

In 2018, only two Republicans ran for a D.C. Council seat, and both were handily beat. In an op-ed that year, the Washington Post accused the D.C. GOP of “punking out,” essentially giving up in its quest for any influence in the city. The last Republican to win a citywide race was Ashley Carter, who was elected to the D.C. State Board of Education in 2016 (Carter is a Republican, but SBOE seats are nonpartisan and she did not run with a party affiliation).

Venice says that political parties evolve over time, and that she believes women can lead another party and political transformation.

“Women don’t typically think of ourselves as political leaders. We’re in a time where we have to stop and say, ‘wait, why am I a bystander observing?'” she says. “I’ve never been politically involved and I would never have expected I would be doing this, but frankly I felt compelled. When you have a sense of community, you say, ‘What can I do to make my community a more inclusively thriving place?”

The D.C. Democratic primary is on June 2, 2020; the special election for the Ward 2 seat will take place on June 16; and the general election is on November 3. There are also elections happening in Ward 4, Ward 7, Ward 8, and an At-large seat.

This story has been updated to reflect that Venice said “husband our resources,” not “husband our expenses.”