Community

Gray Courts Young Voters in Re-Election Bid

WASHINGTON INFORMER — There has been widespread speculation whether D.C. Councilmember Vincent Gray will seek re-election to his Ward 7 seat in 2020. Some political observers say he has grown tired of the District’s political games and may want to do some other things in his life.

Published

7 years ago

July 31, 2019

Oakland Post

By James Wright

There has been widespread speculation whether D.C. Councilmember Vincent Gray will seek re-election to his Ward 7 seat in 2020. Some political observers say he has grown tired of the District’s political games and may want to do some other things in his life.

Otherwise, while a growing number of young Ward 7 residents clamor for his position and influence, some surmise that the veteran councilmember and former mayor has served his time. However, Gray knocked down those summations on July 18 at Sala Thai restaurant and bar, where he announced his intentions to serve four more years as a city politician.

“I am running again because I want to serve the people of Ward 7,” Gray, who first served as the ward’s councilmember from 2005-2007, said. “I want the ward to prosper and I would like for your help in order to do that.”

In making the informal declaration, Gray addressed an audience of primarily young adults that included Ward 7 activists-Eboni-Rose Thompson, Erica Harrell and Chioma Iwuoha, who-acted as co-roundtable moderators. For his part, the councilmember who was queried on a broad range of topics, also requested a moment of silence on the death Sterling Tucker, first chair of the D.C. Council.

When Iwuoha asked about economic development, Gray who also served from 2007 to 2011 as council chair, responded on point.

“We have to bring more economic development to the ward and to neighborhoods east of the [Anacostia] River,” he said. “In Wards 7 and 8, we have about 150,000 people and we have only three full-service grocery stores. There are wards west of here that have six, eight or over 10 grocery stores and we have two in this ward and about to add another one and one in Ward 8 and still that’s not enough.”

Lidl, a German grocer, which will anchor the Skyland Town Center site in Ward 7, had made its official announcement earlier on July 18 with Gray and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) in attendance.

After Thompson asked Gray’s view on education, the councilmember stated pointedly that the conversation regarding the ward’s schools needs to change.

“We want people from across the city to come to Ward 7 schools and not for Ward 7 children to go other places,” Gray said, referencing his work on the recently passed budget to get more money for schools in his community.

Afterward, Gray spoke about his signature educational issue: pre-Kindergarten education. When Gray served as the District’s mayor from 2011-2015, he worked to formulate the nation’s first comprehensive pre-Kindergarten education program where three-year-old children start school at taxpayers’ expense.

Gray expressed pride in that achievement and spoke disparagingly of 2020 presidential candidates who want to take credit for his efforts.

“John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado who is now running for president, said he started the first pre-K program in the nation when he was mayor of Denver,” he said. “That’s not true and we are calling him out on it.”

Gray spoke about the need for more police officers in Ward 7 to combat crime and for workforce housing for police officers, firefighters and teachers who work in the District.

Harrell questioned Gray about “when will he pass the baton” so that a younger person can represent the ward. Gray responded that he loved being a public servant and wanted to continue doing so, despite the increased number of young challengers posturing in hopes of taking over his post.

While Veda Rasheed, an advisory neighborhood commissioner for 7E01, has formed an exploratory committee on whether to seek the Ward 7 council seat, Anthony Lorenzo Green, 7C04 commissioner has already declared Gray’s seat.

“Too many times we have leaders that don’t seem to hear them [Ward 7 residents] when they speak, stand up against injustice or be an advocate for solutions to problems that affect us everyday,” Green stated in a post on his Twitter account.

In addition, James Jennings, a political activist in the ward, appears poised to run and Villareal Johnson, a commissioner for 7B05, has been rumored to be interested in as well.

Ambrose Lane Jr., chair of the D.C. Health Alliance Network and a Ward 7 resident, has also been mentioned by political observers as a candidate. There are whispers that former D.C. Councilmember Yvette Alexander, who served on council from 2007-2017, may want a rematch with Gray after losing in 2016.

This post originally appeared in The Washington Informer.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

COMMENTARY: Media Responsibility and Accountability in the Era of #MeToo

Don't Miss

Bowser Tour Exemplifies Changes in Congress Heights Community

Oakland Post

Click to comment

#NNPA BlackPress

Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

22 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

2 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

#NNPA BlackPress

Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke