Politics
Muriel Bowser defeats incumbent Vincent Gray in Washington D.C. mayoral primary
Bowser pledged to unite the party following the divisive primary campaign. “The residents of the nation’s capital have always elected a Democratic mayor, a Democratic president, and in big numbers, and we are going to do it again in November,” she said.
In his concession speech, Gray told a subdued crowd at a downtown hotel that he would continue working hard during the last 9 months of his term.
“The amount of work that we’ve done over the last three-and-a-quarter years has been nothing short of phenomenal,” the mayor said. Many Gray supporters view U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen’s office with suspicion and said it was unfair for prosecutors to accuse the mayor of wrongdoing without charging him with a crime.
Some Bowser voters, meanwhile, said they backed her over other Gray challengers primarily because they felt she had the best chance to beat him.
Problems with electronic voting machines led to a delay in reporting results. Votes reported shortly before midnight Tuesday were almost entirely from paper ballots run through scanners, said Tamara Robinson, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Board of Elections. She said poll workers did not shut down a handful of electronic machines properly, prompting officials to take a second look at electronic results to ensure they were being counted correctly.
Bowser worked for the local government in suburban Montgomery County, Maryland, and served as an elected neighborhood commissioner in the district before election to the council in 2007.
Opponents said Bowser lacks experience to be mayor, saying her legislative record is skimpy. Her most significant accomplishment on the council was the creation of an independent ethics board able to punish officials for violations.
