The Barras Report Blog

There’s no denying this fact: At-large DC Council candidate Darryl Moch is heir apparent to the District's original progressive movement. That seems an impressive political marker.

“Radical DC Democrats want to solve their spending problem by reaching deeper into taxpayer pockets and driving farther on the path to socialism,” Comer argued at during a recent committee markup session.

Don’t you love corporate statements that say nothing as they dodge the truth?

The Democratic Party's biggest challenge is not democratic socialism. The Democrat's real challenge is that too many Americans no longer see them as a vehicle for meaningful change in their daily lives.

“[Besides], this problem isn’t going away,” continued Evans. “There is no prediction — none — that next year is going to be any better.”

"Georgia underscores a political truth that should not be ignored. Voters are still willing to trust Black women at the ballot box despite failed bids from Harris and Abrams. "

All roads lead to Mendelson.

“The public policy behind these laws is to prevent actual and apparent corruption in our candidates and our elected officials, who must serve the public trust,” Kevin Sobkoviak wrote in his campaign finance complaint.

A diverse crowd of nearly 300 people squeezed into the auditorium at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library on Monday evening (April 20); it was a standing-room-only setting at the latest DC mayoral forum, one sponsored by The 51st, The Washington Informer and SpotlightDC. Six Democratic candidates participated in this week’s forum: Gary Goodweather, Rini Sampath, Hope Solomon, former at-large DC Councilmembers Vincent Orange and Kenyan McDuffie, and current Ward 4 Coun

IN DC, many people have asserted that the June primary will usher in a generational shift in the city’s political class. What does that really mean? Is it simply that several politicians who have been around for decades are finally leaving the arena, as in the case of the pending retirement of DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton? Perhaps the essential question is this: Will the incoming delegate be capable of effectively breaking the creative and political rigor mortis that set in

When DC for Democracy, a far-left-leaning local political advocacy group, held a virtual forum earlier this year, candidates for DC delegate repeatedly used the words “fight” and “statehood.” Were they simply tapping into a key policy pillar of the sponsoring organization whose endorsement they hoped to win? Or were they channeling incumbent Eleanor Holmes Norton , who has been called the “warrior on the Hill” and has announced plans to retire at the end of her term this year

The can has met the end of its road.

Elected officials seem satisfied with marginal missions and mediocre pursuits when it comes to fragile families or vulnerable residents.

THEY were imported in chains, sold on the streets at auction blocks, forced to work from sunup to sundown, made to serve as breeders before being castrated or raped, hung from trees for sport, relegated to the most menial jobs, denied the opportunity to own homes or to receive a quality education, subjected to mass-incarceration and other manner of injustice--and yet, they slipped through the cracks, jumped the obstacles and barriers, succeeding along the way, building stron

LAST year, during the city’s annual budget deliberations, Ward 5 DC Councilmember Zachary Parker was on the hunt for money to fund a local child tax credit ; undoubtedly, he hoped it would be the signature legislation for his first term, allowing him to comfortably campaign for reelection. However, even with the possibility of an end-of-the-year surplus, the city’s economy was on the ropes, making it difficult for him and the legislature’s other spendthrifts to satiate their

Democrats must remember we back Black and Brown working-class voters by becoming more relevant to daily life.

DEMOCRATS ended 2025 with important victories that steadied a rattled party still reeling from Donald Trump’s return to power. Yet even after those wins, Democratic approval ratings remain stubbornly low. A recent Quinnipiac University poll found only 18 percent of voters approve of the way congressional Democrats are handling their jobs. A record low of 73 percent disapprove. In stark contrast, congressional Republicans have a 35 percent approval rating while 58 percent dis

I kept thinking of the Bamiyan Buddhas as I watched Donald Trump engage in an aggressive campaign of cultural cleansing the last 12 months.

It’s truly a cart-before-horse world in the District.

FORMER DC at-large Councilmember Bill Lightfoot declared during an interview with me that this moment in the city’s political life is “an opportunity.” Is that an understatement? After all, Mayor Muriel Bowser and Councilmembers Anita Bonds and Brianne Nadeau have all announced they won’t seek reelection. The ambitions of other officeholders, including Ward 4’s Janeese Lewis George, Ward 2’s Brooke Pinto, at-large member Robert White and Council Chair Pro Tempore Kenyan McDu