Robert White wins DC delegate primary

Robert White won the Washington, D.C., delegate Democratic primary, setting him up to represent the United States capital in Congress as its first new delegate in more than 35 years.

White’s victory begins a new chapter for Washington, which has been represented in the House by Democratic Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton since 1991.

He faces no major general election challengers in the deep-blue district and will ascend to a post that gives him a voice, but not a vote, to champion a city that has been roiled by President Donald Trump’s attempts to exert pressure in his second term.

White’s ascension caps off a long career for Holmes Norton — for whom he used to work. Holmes Norton was known as a behind-the-scenes operator in Congress who helped restructure Washington’s finances in the 1990s and brought major federal projects and jobs to the district. Holmes Norton’s signature project was D.C. statehood, elevating it from a Washingtonian pipe dream to a mainstream Democratic issue culminating in House passage of statehood bills in 2020 and 2021.

But Holmes Norton’s visibility and power waned in recent years, and questions about the 89-year-old’s acuity and ability to serve drew a steady stream of headlines in 2025. In October, D.C. police said that Holmes Norton was scammed out of more than $4,000, and an initial police report reportedly described her as having “early stages of dementia.”

A fifth-generation Washingtonian, White has served as an at-large member of the D.C. Council since 2016. He will be Washington’s third delegate since the position was reestablished in 1970.

White ran against primary challenger and fellow Council member Brooke Pinto on a platform focused on increasing affordability and public safety while defending the district’s autonomy — potentially setting him on a collision course with the president.

In an interview with POLITICO last week, White cast Trump’s crime crackdown in the city, including federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department and deployment of the National Guard and federal immigration agents, as “lawlessness” and “the opposite of public safety.” He also pledged to reintroduce a bill pushed for years by Holmes Norton that would grant command over the D.C. National Guard to the District’s mayor rather than the president.

The contest at times grew ugly. In April, Pinto’s campaign posted to her website a 67-page opposition research dossier about White, including information about his family and finances. White demanded Pinto withdrawal from the race, and Pinto’s campaign replaced the file with a new version that omitted information about White’s family, to whom Pinto apologized.