If you are a DC voter, you (hopefully) voted for an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner on Tuesday night to represent your neighborhood. Maybe you even used our endorsements as a guide! Here are the results of the 50 ANC races where Greater Greater Washington endorsed a candidate.

ANC candidate Scott Davies used our endorsement post for his campaign sign! Photo by Daniel Warwick.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) are hyper-local elected bodies. Compared to many other candidates you voted for on Tuesday, ANCs have almost no formal authority. In fact, as advisory bodies, officially they are pretty powerless. But when it comes to the decisions about the look and feel of your neighborhood, ANCs hold a lot of sway with zoning, preservation, liquor licensing, transportation, and other agencies and boards.

This election, Greater Greater Washington embarked on an unprecedented effort to engage and inform voters about ANC candidates. With 299 ANC seats in contest across the city, we crowdsourced a candidate questionnaire to ask questions about issues that mattered to each neighborhood. We sent this out to the over 380 known candidates running and received over 200 responses. Finally, we asked our readers to weigh in and then chose to endorse 50 candidates in contested races across all eight wards. We also endorsed several write-in candidates. All of that work is catalogued here.

While we are still waiting for the results from write-in candidates, here is how the 50 contested races turned out:

ANCOur endorseeWinnerWon by # votes
1A01Valarie BaronValarie Baron146
1A07Darwain FrostSharon Farmer164
1A10Amanda FrostRashida Brown230
1B01Jonathan GoldmanAnita Norman537
1D01Jon StewartJon Stewart177
1D02Paul KarrerPaul Karrer139
1D03Benjamin MannJack McKay136
2A03Marco GuzmanMarco Guzman92
2B05Teal BakerRandy Downs149
2B09Scott DaviesScott Davies425
2E03Greg MillerRick Murphy204
2F01Jason FormanJason Forman140
2F03Alex GrahamAlex Graham57
3C05Emma HershEmma Hersh203
3C08Chaz RotenbergMalia Brink326
3C09Bob WardNancy MacWood279
3D02Troy KravitzTroy Kravitz45
4A04Patience SingletonPatience Singleton162
4B06Natalee SniderNatalee Snider346
4B07James Gaston IIIJudi Jones61
4C01Charlotte NugentCharlotte Nugent325
4D06Amy HemingwayAmy Hemingway451
5A03Will GeeKeisha Cofield-Lynch335
5A08Gordon-Andrew FletcherGordon-Andrew Fletcher50
5B03Henri MakembeHenri Makembe112
5C02Carlos Dennis DavisKevin Mullone48
5C04Sumner Shaw, Jr.Jacqueline Manning278
5D03Adam RobertsJames Butler81
5E03Hannah R. PowellHannah Powell251
5E10Michael HendersonNancy “Darlene” Jones118
6A05Yair InspektorPatrick Malone260
6A06Stephanie ZimnyStephanie Zimny394
6D01Gail FastGail Fast140
6D02Cara Lea ShockleyCara Lea Shockley602
6D05Katelynd MahoneyRoger Moffat129
6E01Alexander “Alex” PadroAlex Padro244
6E04Lily RobertsLily Roberts435
7B01Debra WalkerDebra Walker34
7B05Villareal “VJ” JohnsonRobin Marlin104
7B07Jimmie WilliamsD.L. Humphrey41
7C05Joseph ThomasMary Gaffney192
7D01Bob CoomberBob Coomber2
7D04Cinque CulverJo-Anne Prue289
7E04Myron SmithTakiyah Tate73
7E06Dontrell SmithDontrell Smith59
7F01Maria (Mafe) JacksonTyrell Holcomb135
8A05LaTasha Nicole GunnelsTravon Hawkins203
8A06Greta FullerGreta Fuller41
8B06Diag DavenportMitchell Hawkins III378
8C01Kristal KnightKaren “Coach” Lucas30

Congratulations to the winners and all the candidates who ran this year. Involved and committed citizens like you are how democracy works.

Remember, Greater Greater Washington only endorsed candidates in competitive races this year (read about our full process here). If you want to see who won for your ANC, check out the DC Board of Elections website and read about the winner’s views at our ANC page, which includes the responses from everyone who answered our questionnaire.

A couple of key races to note

In ANC 3D (Palisades) long-time commissioner Tom Smith, infamous to many for obstructionism in the area, was unseated by challenger and GGWash endorsee Troy Kravitz by a narrow margin of 45 votes. Kravitz will have his work cut out for him on the ANC. If you live in the area, make sure to connect with Kravitz and support his work to change ANC 3D’s culture and bring positive improvements to the neighborhood.

Farther east, in ANC 1D (Mount Pleasant), three people were running against incumbents in races that partially revolved around whether to add a playground on some public land. GGWash endorsed the challengers, and two of the three, Paul Karrer and Jon Stewart both won by solid margins. We are excited to see what ANC 1D is able to accomplish for the neighborhood!

In Brookland, Henri Makembe won a seat in 5B, an area that has had some strong opposition to changes in the neighborhood of late. Henri seemed like a much more positive and forward thinking candidate, and we are hopeful about his addition to the ANC.

Finally, in 7E Dontrell Smith pulled off an impressive feat, winning by 59 votes in a three-way race that included incumbent Lakeshia Lloyd-Lee. He is will join another newcomer, Ebbon Allen, who we also like a lot (we didn’t endorse here because he was in an uncontested race). This could be an exciting time for neighbors in 7E,

By the numbers

Of the 50 candidates Greater Greater Washington endorsed this election, 25 won their races.

Some GGWash candidates won by close margins. We were very happy to see that in seven of the ten closest races where the victor won by less than 60 votes, GGWash endorsees won their seat. It doesn’t take much to tip many ANC elections. One dramatic case is in 7D01, where GGWash endorsee Bob Coomber won by just 2 votes.

See, we told you, your votes really count in these local elections!

Other races weren’t as close. Out of the 25 races our endorsed candidates won, seven were won by over 300 votes - a high margin for an ANC contest. Cara Lea Shockley stood out with a pronounced victory in 6D02, winning by 602 votes.

How did incumbents do?

ANC commissioners serve two-year terms without pay, and the position is a lot of work, It is not uncommon for a commissioner to step away from the position after one or more terms. In the 50 races we analyzed and endorsed, 30 had an incumbent on the ballot.

On Tuesday night, the story of incumbents really depended on your neighborhood. For example, in the Ward 5 races we analyzed incumbents did particularly poorly: 5/8 races had an incumbent running and only one won. This suggests a real appetite for change throughout this ward.

The opposite was true in Ward 6, where 4/7 races we analyzed included an incumbent and all four defended their seats. Seems like residents in Ward 6 are generally okay with the direction of their neighborhoods!

Finally, Ward 7 had an incredibly high number of contested seats and candidates this year. What is more, incumbents remained on the ballot in 8 out of the 9 races we focused on. In this case, half of the incumbents held their positions, while the other half were beaten by challengers.

Our endorsements included eight incumbents this year throughout the entire city, and four won reelection. On the other hand, GGWash candidates unseated 10 incumbents this year in different neighborhoods. We hope these candidates bring about some positive changes in your area soon.

What’s next

We will publish another post when write-in candidate results are available, as we did endorse a few candidates for empty seats this year where no one was on the official ballot.

Of course, there are a number of fantastic commissioners out there that we did not endorse simply because they were in uncontested races this year. We are excited that these commissioners will be joined by our 25 winning endorsees, and we look forward to continuing to work alongside ANCs across DC to make our city greater.

Greater Greater Washington’s endorsements are made possible because of financial support from our readers. Our 501(c)(4) nonprofit status enables us to bring you information and analysis about political candidates, but this work is not supported by our foundation grants. If you found this year’s ANC or other endorsements a valuable service, please consider making a donation today.