Robert White Jr. to run for Congress against an aging Eleanor Holmes Norton

D.C. Council member Robert White Jr. has announced his bid for Congress as the non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives, challenging the embattled incumbent, 88-year-old Eleanor Holmes Norton.

The two Democrats headline the list of declared candidates for the race, which serves as a microcosm of growing dissatisfaction with aging leadership in the party.

"I am stepping forward to serve my hometown in a time when families across D.C. are afraid and looking for hope,” White, 43, said in a statement announcing his campaign on Sept. 18, “where many parents are watching their government spend millions of dollars a week on National Guard troops, but their children can't play outside, while federal leaders are using Washington, D.C. as a political pawn.”

White, 43, also emphasized his humble roots and his track record of resilience on the District Council, which has faced increasing legal encroachment from the White House under the second administration of President Donald Trump. White has served on the council as an at-large member since 2016, taking office just months before Trump's first election to office.

An attorney by trade, White is the leading challenger to his former mentor in Norton, who has served as the district’s delegate to Congress since 1991 and is the oldest member of the House. This summer saw her in a protracted dispute with staffers after she told reporters she will seek a 19th term in office—a claim her team repeatedly denied thereafter. 

Norton reiterated her campaign intentions in early September, even as she showed signs of cognitive and physical decline during public appearances on the Hill.

Thus far in his nascent campaign, White has largely sidestepped the issue of Norton’s fitness for office, calling her a “lion in Congress” while highlighting the need for new blood as he seeks to defeat her in next summer’s primary.

“Sometimes history calls us to a different path, and this is one of those times. I have never seen my city more vulnerable than we are right now” said White.

“In this entire Congress, there is one person whose job it is to protect and stand up for our residents, and we need our strongest fighters. I’m ready to take this torch.”

Early this summer, White was mulling another run for mayor of D.C. before his wife Christy suggested he seek Norton’s seat in Congress. The idea came after the family of Black Catholics attended Mass in Washington.

“She said, ‘Robert, the way things are going, we won’t have a mayor in four years. You really need to consider running for Congress because that’s where the fight is right now,’” White told NBC4 in an interview in late September.

A growing chorus of Democrats has called on Norton to retire at the end of her term in 2027, when she would be one of the oldest congresspersons in history. Among those urging her to leave office is a Black Catholic in Donna Brazile, who served as Norton’s campaign manager for her original House campaign.

“She is no longer the dynamo she once was, at a time when D.C. needs the kind of energetic representation in Congress she provided for decades,” Brazile wrote in a September op-ed for The Washington Post.

“It’s in her best interest, and the interest of D.C., for her to serve her current term but then end her extraordinary service in Congress and not seek reelection next year.”

Norton, who serves on the House Committees for Oversight as well as Transportation and Infrastructure, said in early September she will “of course” seek reelection and sees her longevity as an asset to the Democratic congressional delegation.

“I say that my seniority is what is very important,” she told Axios on Sept. 4., “and I am not going to step aside.” 

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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