A special agent. A public servant. A Jackson-Reed mom. Lisa Gore is running for DC Council At-Large in order to ensure justice for all Washingtonians. Endorsed by the DC National Organization for Women and Greater Greater Washington, a nonprofit organization committed to making DC a walkable urban community, Gore’s campaign focuses on combating systemic injustice and alleviating the economic and social pressures that affect DC’s most marginalized. Her fight for equality can be organized into the following categories: 

• Housing For All: Gore plans to equitably distribute affordable housing across the city and reverse previous policies that have criminalized homelessness in DC. She will utilize tools such as community land trusts and rent stabilization policies to assist the unhoused and provide safe spaces for victims of domestic violence and LGBTQ+ youth.

• Environmental Justice: Gore endorses a Green New Deal that is conscious of Black communities in DC, which are simultaneously the most vulnerable to pollution yet the least protected from its effects. She supports the decarbonization of all public housing to have net-zero emissions and the creation of green jobs that provide workers a liveable wage.

• Education: As students, we should know what Gore has in plan for us. In order to ensure the efficacy of our education system, she is fighting to reestablish the City Council’s Education Committee and create an oversight structure for DC’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) that is independent of Mayoral control. Additionally, Gore finds it exceptionally important that schools reconstruct their views on discipline and invest in restorative justice techniques that are trauma-informed and researched.

• Worker’s Rights: For student workers, Gore’s plan is centered around ending wage theft by supporting Initiative 82, which would end the tipping system for service workers and increase their minimum wage to match the city’s minimum wage. Additionally, she plans to expand the legal protections for excluded workers such as street vendors, domestic workers, and construction workers.

• LGBTQ+ Priorities: With the highest score out of all the At-Large candidates from the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA), Gore has an informed plan to address queer issues in DC. She intends to establish quadrant-based harm reduction centers for LGBTQ+ residents and increase protections for queer Washingtonians through the expansion of free or low cost HIV/AIDS protections. She will also increase the budget for the Office of Human Rights so it is equipped with the means to investigate abuses against citizens.

It is our civic duty to know who our candidates are, especially as students who are often overlooked because of our age. With the primaries coming up, Lisa Gore has demonstrated that she has the interests of DC’s marginalized at heart, and she will fight until the very end to ensure that the same basic human dignity is afforded to all regardless of color, creed, or class. •