D.C. Council member Brianne Nadeau announces she will not seek a fourth term

D.C. Council member Brianne Nadeau announced Thursday that she will not seek a fourth term next year.

The Ward 1 Democrat called it a “very difficult decision” not to run again after 11 years representing several of the city’s core residential neighborhoods and serving as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner from 2007 to 2011.

“I have always believed that these positions should not be lifetime appointments,” Ms. Nadeau, 44, said in a statement. “That those in leadership should cultivate others to carry on the work. It’s not easy to step away, especially at such a difficult time for our community and our country. But I do believe that it is the right time for me, for my family, and for Ward 1.”

Ms. Nadeau noted that the 2026 election will be the first time in 43 years that the Ward 1 seat has been open. She highlighted her support for ranked choice voting in the election and teased an endorsement for a successor.

“In the coming weeks I will announce my support for a candidate who is a proud progressive Democrat with a proven track record in local government, who has worked with Councilmembers and the Mayor to get things done, and is deeply rooted in the community,” Ms. Nadeau said in her written statement.

Ms. Nadeau, a Michigan native, became active in Ward 1 politics and Jewish advocacy work after earning a master’s degree in public policy at American University in 2006.

The ward includes the neighborhoods of Adams Morgan, Meridian Hill, Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, Pleasant Plains, Park View, LeDroit Park, Kalorama, and parts of Shaw and the U Street Corridor.

During her first bid for the seat, she defeated former four-term council member Jim Graham in the 2014 Democratic primary. She then swept aside independent and libertarian candidates in the general election.

Ms. Nadeau easily won re-election in 2018 and 2022, raking in nearly 80% of the vote the last time.

The D.C. Republican Party, which hasn’t fielded a competitive candidate for her seat in years, currently holds no seats on the council.

But D.C. Republican Party Chairman Patrick Mara said Ms. Nadeau’s early retirement “comes as no surprise” to him. He said the GOP was already negotiating with possible candidates to replace her.

“Over the past several years, Ward 1 has suffered from rising crime, declining quality of life, and a lack of accountability from its elected leadership,” Mr. Mara, a former Ward 1 school board member, said in an email. “Any new council member would be an improvement over the status quo.”

An advocate of affordable housing and public transportation, Ms. Nadeau chairs the city Legislature’s Committee on Public Works and Operations.

As a lawmaker, she has frequently veered to the left of centrists and center-left peers on the Democrat-run Council.

Most recently, she voted in the minority this month against legislation to return the Washington Commanders to the District and to lift some pandemic restrictions on evicting non-paying renters. Democratic council members Janeese Lewis George of Ward 4 and Trayon White of Ward 8 joined Ms. Nadeau in voting against the RENTAL Act.

Only council member Robert White, at-large Democrat, joined Ms. Nadeau in voting against relocating the Commanders from Landover back to the former RFK Stadium site on East Capitol Street.

In social media posts on Thursday, local political analysts predicted a crowded and competitive field for the race to replace Ms. Nadeau in Ward 1, casting doubts on whether she’ll have the influence to anoint a successor.

“The endorsement she alluded to here is almost certainly Rashida Brown, a Park View ANC,” Alex Koma, a senior D.C. politics reporter for WAMU 88.5 FM talk radio, wrote in a post on X. “I’m not sure that’ll clear the field, though, with so many candidates eyeing this race.”