Vincent Gray Announces Run for D.C. Council

Former D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray announced today that he is running for his old District Council seat—ending the guessing game on the least-kept secret about one of Washington’s local election campaigns in 2016. He will be vying to be Ward 7 Council member against incumbent Yvette Alexander.

Seeking reelection in 2014, the former mayor lost the Democratic primary to now Mayor Muriel Bowser amid indictments and guilty pleas of several of his political associates for what U.S. Attorney Ron Machen called a “shadow campaign.” Gray himself was never indicted and has always maintained that he knew nothing about any illegal activity done in his name. Two months ago, federal prosecutors said they were formally closing the case.

The 73-year-old Gray made the announcement on WAMU’s “Kojo Nnamdi Show” Feb. 4. “I’ve made a decision . . I’m going to run for the Ward 7 seat,” said the longtime Ward 7 resident during the interview on the radio show. “Ward 7 is home.”

Gray said after the WAMU interview that he did not make his decision to run as part of a strategy against Mayor Bowser. “There’s no way I would do this to seek retribution,” he said. It was the decision by Walmart not to build its store in Ward 7, as previously agreed to when he was mayor, that has caught Gray’s ire. “It was a dastardly act to do to the people of the District of Columbia,” he said. “Folks on the east end got shafted.”

Ward 7 lies east of the Anacostia River and borders Maryland on its east. It is north of and borders Ward 8 along Nicholson and 25th stress and Naylor Road. Its population in 2010 was 71,000. The highest poverty rates in Washington, D.C., are in Wards 7 and 8, where one-in-three residents lived below the poverty line in 2012.

D.C.’s Democratic Primary is June 14. While behind Alexander in fundraising, Gray’s new website—VinceGray2016.com—went live yesterday and is seeking donations.

See the Georgetowner’s Jan. 13th column on Vince Gray by Mark Plotkin for additional insight.