Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White is going to run for D.C. mayor, joining fellow lawmaker Robert White (D-At Large) — who made his own announcement on Wednesday — in seeking the city’s highest office.

While Robert White opted for a more traditional strategy of notifying the press and public, the Washington City Paper — which first reported the news of Trayon White’s possible candidacy — notes that the two-term Ward 8 lawmaker opted for a more informal approach: Instagram. And even there, his announcement was unorthodox.

“I’m running,” he said in a comment on the popular Washingtonian Probs Instagram account’s post about Robert White’s candidacy. “Join me,” he said in another comment.

Tom Lindenfeld, an advisor and friend of White’s, confirmed the erstwhile candidate’s intentions to DCist/WAMU. “He has a tremendous amount of support coming his way because he is willing to speak out for and advocate for those who need the leadership the most,” he said in a text message.

Trayon White was first elected to the council in 2016, defeating LaRuby May, an ally of Mayor Muriel Bowser that he had narrowly lost to in a special election the year prior.

A former member of the D.C. State Board of Education, he has since focused his efforts on raising awareness of the violence in Ward 8; the area east of the Anacostia River is predominantly Black and has the lowest incomes in the city, and has suffered the highest number of killings in recent years. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, 60 of the 168 homicides to date in D.C. this year have happened in Ward 8. Earlier this year, White called for a state of emergency to be declared in response to the homicides and gun violence across D.C. He has also been critical of aggressive police tactics to search for illegal guns; in 2014, he was allegedly assaulted by a police officer during a traffic stop, resulting in a $75,000 settlement for the councilmember.

In his time on the council, White has also introduced bills to help curb gentrification, and co-authored legislation that ended the city’s practice of suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid tickets. He recently cast the sole dissenting vote on a bill that would mandate that all councilmembers and their staff be vaccinated against COVID-19; White said that while he was fully vaccinated, he did not want to force anyone else to have to get the vaccine.

Beyond his work in the Wilson Building, Trayon White is probably better known for his outreach to constituents. He’ll often travel the ward and use Instagram (where he has 51,000 followers) and Facebook to document meetings with constituents or highlight problems; last month he live-streamed a meeting with residents complaining about a new traffic island along Good Hope Road SE they say is making car crashes worse.

But his use of social media has also gotten him in trouble. Last year, White used Facebook to encourage residents to protest a development project in Ward 8; Latino workers there faced threats and insults. White later apologized for his role in promoting the protest. Also last year, White said he would not promote the COVID-19 vaccine to his constituents, and in 2018 he posted a video on Facebook claiming that a prominent Jewish family controls the weather. That led to internal fights among lawmakers, and an organized visit to the Holocaust Museum — which White left early.

The dynamics of White’s planned entry into the mayoral race could produce an interesting and dynamic contest. Both him and Robert White formerly worked for Attorney General Karl Racine. And should Mayor Muriel Bowser choose to run for a third term — she has not yet announced her plans — the two Whites could split votes across the city and ease her path to re-election. (Longtime Bowser advisor Bill Lightfoot tells DCist/WAMU that he expects her to run. “She’ll announce at the appropriate time. She’s just busy running the city,” he said.)

It remains to be seen what issues Trayon White highlights in the mayoral race, but he recently hinted that affordable housing could be one of them. In response to a recent audit that found that D.C. did not spend as much as it’s legally required to on building housing for the lowest-income residents, White took to Facebook to express his feelings.

“The administration doubled down on the misspending and a lot of people got richer while poor families remained homeless and hopeless,” he wrote, calling it an “intentional fraud.”

The Democratic primary is on June 21, 2022, should White choose to run as a Democrat. If he opts to run as an independent, he would have until the Nov. 8 general election.

In a follow-up posting on Washingtonian Probs about Trayon White’s impending candidacy, commenters were split on the news. “Letttsssssss goooooooooo,” said one supporter. “He already got my vote,” added another.

“He doesn’t stand a chance if we [being] real,” wrote a critic. “Same guy who said the Jews control the weather? Dc needs better candidates,” offered a third. “He’s cool but I think some of his past antisemitic comments will keep him from winning,” said yet another commenter. “I think it’s better if he just stay on the council.”

This story was updated with comment from Bill Lightfoot.