The five candidates vying for the Ward 5 seat on the D.C. Council squared off on Wednesday evening in the first formal debate of the 2022 campaign season, debating a range of issues and trying to stand out in what’s expected to be one of the more competitive contests of the cycle.

The five Democrats — Vincent Orange, Zachary Parker, Faith Gibson Hubbard, Gordon Fletcher, and Harry Thomas Jr. — are fighting for the only council seat without an incumbent in the running; Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie has opted to run for attorney general instead. And they seek to lead a ward that has seen significant development and the city’s second-highest population growth over the last decade, but still faces stark divisions and rising housing costs.

The race also presents a generational divide of sorts: Parker, Fletcher, and Hubbard are emerging leaders in the ward, while both Thomas and Orange have represented Ward 5 on the council in the past. Thomas is also making a return to the public eye after resigning from the council almost a decade ago after he was convicted of embezzling more than $350,000 in government funds for youth programs.

During the forum, which was hosted by D.C. for Democracy, a left-leaning group, all five candidates said they would focus their efforts on more evenly distributing gains from the city’s growth to a broader swath of its people, expanding the discussion on public safety beyond just policing, increasing options for affordable housing, and making streets safer for all users.

When asked to list a signature policy they would pursue, Orange, a longtime fixture in D.C. politics and former president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, said he would make the University of the District of Columbia tuition-free and provide all students with a laptop. Fletcher, an ANC commissioner in North Michigan Park, would reinstate the community-based “orange hat” patrols; Parker, the current president of the D.C. State Board of Education, said he would promote cooperative businesses as a means to build wealth in Black and brown communities.

On housing, Thomas said the city needs to focus on how property taxes could be driving displacement from the city, while Orange said existing agreements with developers to build affordable units have to be better enforced. Parker advocated for the expansion of the existing Home Purchase Assistance Program for low- and middle-income families, Fletcher said abandoned and vacant properties should be more quickly taken by the city and converted to affordable housing, and Hubbard pushed for more co-ops and better use of inclusionary zoning.

During a lightning round of questions, all five candidates said they would have voted for the tax increase on wealthy households the council adopted earlier this year, all agreed to abstain from lobbying the government for four years after leaving office, and all said they would support eliminating the tipped wage should voters approve a related ballot initiative next year. Only Orange said he opposed keeping police out of schools and a current bill to give all D.C. residents $100 a month for Metro, Orange and Fletcher said they would oppose a bill to let 16- and 17-year-olds vote, and every candidate spare Parker said they would vote against a current bill to bring ranked-choice voting to D.C. (Parker later said he wants it left to voters to decide.)

More distinctions between the candidates became evident when they were asked about the fate of two bills that would give more independence to the Office of the State Superintendent for Education and the State Board of Education, both of which have limited oversight over the public school system. Hubbard, a former official in Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration and one-time D.C. student advocate, said the city should “re-examine mayoral control [of schools] as a whole,” while Fletcher said he would push to end mayoral control altogether.

Orange showed moments of fiscal restraint, saying that “the dollars are there” in the city’s budget to help people who are at risk of eviction. Parker later agreed, saying “there is a great opportunity to spend money better than we already do.” And on a question about safe streets, Hubbard addressed the city’s extensive use of traffic cameras: “Automatic enforcement can be useful, but we want to make sure we are not causing anyone economic harm while we want to ensure we are getting the money we are owed,” she said.

Thomas also struck a populist note in addressing traffic safety, saying Ward 5 was being denied tools and measures used in other parts of the city. “It’s economic injustice in Ward 5… you can go in other parts of the city and you see these flashing stop signals and traffic control devices in the middle of streets which our ward has been ignored and not given,” he said.

On the longstanding issue of Ward 5 having the majority of the city’s industrial land, Orange said it would take more than complaints and protests to convert it to better uses. “When you look around the ward you can’t just say ‘I’m against that,’ you have to come up with an alternative and get the council to buy into it,” he said.

Hubbard said she would want to see more of the the city shoulder the responsibilities of providing space for bus lots and other industrial facilities that have long drawn complaints from many in Ward 5, and a recent lawsuit against the city by residents of Brentwood trying to stop a city school bus parking lot. “We need to make sure that… there are opportunities to move these things out of Ward 5,” she said.

All five candidates have said they will accept public financing under the city’s new Fair Elections program. The Democratic primary is on June 21.