If you thought the Ward 2 D.C. Council race was contested enough, think again. Brooke Pinto, a 27-year-old Logan Circle resident who most recently worked as a lawyer for the District government, is running as a Democrat for the seat vacated last month by former longtime lawmaker Jack Evans, she announced Thursday.

Pinto, who worked on policy issues in D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine’s office and resigned last week to focus on her campaign, is the eighth Democrat in the race, including Evans himself. She says she was inspired to seek an elected position by her work with community groups at the attorney general’s office, where she helped draft legislation on small businesses, hate crimes, and data privacy and also served as a tax attorney. Originally from Greenwich, Connecticut, Pinto first moved to the District in 2014 to attend Georgetown’s law school and joined Racine’s office in 2018.

“I think voters who have traditionally supported other candidates for this seat will be excited to have a fresh face,” she tells DCist in an interview, pointing to her private and public experience. For her platform, she says she’s prioritizing small business issues — in part because of her educational background in hospitality at Cornell — as well as affordable housing and crime reduction. If elected, she would become the council’s youngest member by several years.

“Diversity in government is an important thing,” she says. “That includes age. This campaign, for me, though, is much more about the experience that I’m able to bring due to my time working on behalf of District residents for the last two years … than it is about my age.”

Pinto is running in both the June 2 Democratic primary and the June 16 special election for the rest of Evans’ term, which lasts through 2020. Unlike all the other candidates in the race, she says she will fundraise in the traditional way instead of through D.C.’s new public financing program, which matches small-dollar donations with government funds and has stricter limits on contribution amounts. Doing so will hopefully allow her to raise money quickly, she says, and build a broad base of support. News of Pinto’s candidacy was first reported by the Washington Post.

Candidates must submit 250 valid signatures to the Board of Elections by March 4 to qualify for the primary ballot, and 500 valid signatures by March 18 to qualify for the special election. Only registered party voters are eligible to vote in the primary (a Republican, Katherine Venice, is also in the race), but any registered Ward 2 voter, regardless of party, may vote in the special election.

Evans, who departed office days before his colleagues were set to expel him over a major ethics scandal involving his private business dealings, had served continuously on the council since 1991, making him its longest-ever member. He jumped in the race to replace him just 10 days after his resignation, triggering reproach from the remaining councilmembers and members of the public.

But given Evans’ deep roots in Ward 2 and the local business community, in addition to his nearly three decade-long record, it’s possible that his opponents could split the vote, allowing him to win reelection by a tight margin. But Pinto says she’s not worried about such an outcome, saying it’s a “false choice to fall in one of two buckets:” Evans or not Evans, who now has seven Democratic challengers.

Pinto isn’t the first former Racine staffer to seek a seat on the council. Current councilmembers Robert White and Trayon White used to work in his office — as did first-time Ward 4 candidate Janeese Lewis George, who’s challenging incumbent Brandon Todd.

Asked whether Racine encouraged her to run for office, Pinto says she was the one to bring up her potential candidacy to him a few months ago. “He was excited and encouraging of my desire to do it,” she says, calling him a “wonderful mentor.” She adds that it’s not surprising to see so many council hopefuls come out of Racine’s office, because it attracts people interested in public service and gives them opportunities to work directly with different parts of the community. (Racine told the Post he would support Pinto’s candidacy, praising her overall skillset.)

The other Democratic candidates in the Ward 2 race are Evans, John Fanning, Daniel Hernandez, Jordan Grossman, Patrick Kennedy, Kishan Putta, and Yilin Zhang. Two of them — Fanning and Grossman — have already dropped off their collected signatures for the primary, according to the D.C. Board of Elections. Ward 2 includes downtown, Dupont Circle, Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, and other center Northwest neighborhoods.