Posted on 10/12/2025 5:48:18 AM PDT by Libloather
WASHINGTON (AP) — Troops patrol train stations and streets in the nation’s capital. Masked federal law enforcement agents detain District of Columbia residents. Congress passes bills that further squeeze the city’s autonomy. And the one person who could act as a voice for Washington on Capitol Hill has been a rare sight.
Even longtime allies say Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, the district’s nonvoting delegate in the House, has not risen to the challenge of pushing back against the Trump administration’s intervention into her city. They cite her age, 88, and her diminished demeanor.
That has raised questions about the 18-term lawmaker’s future in that office and has led to calls for her to step aside and make way for a new generation of leaders. The race to replace her has began in earnest, with two members of the D.C. Council, including a former Norton aide, announcing campaigns for the 2026 contest.
“D.C. is under attack as at no other time in recent history, and we need a new champion to defend us,” Donna Brazile, a onetime Norton chief of staff, wrote in a Washington Post opinion essay.
Brazile acknowledged Norton’s legendary service and why she might wish to continue. “As I’ve told her in person,” Brazile said, “retirement from Congress is the right next chapter for her — and for the District.”
Norton has so far resisted that call. Her office declined to make her available for an interview and her campaign office did not respond to requests for comment. The oldest member of the House, Norton came to office in 1991 and has indicated she plans to run next year.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
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Holmes has been an NPC. Soon the ASSociated Press with be.
You elected her, DC. She’s yours.
It's not her city. It's OUR city, the American People.
Trade stocks with inside information, get her friends and family lucrative government contracts and employment and steer whatever government contracts she can to donors and other people that pay her.
I would say this what she does on a daily basis.
Nonvoting or not she has an unconstitutional position.
Why would I give up such a cushy Job.
I am somebody you know.
First question - how did we ever end up with 700,000 people in DC in the first place? It’s a swamp, and a reserve for federal government buildings. Why is it now used as a dumping ground for welfare-types that Maryland and Virginia don’t want?
I think it was created as a non voting delegate position, precisely, because it would be unconstitutional for her to have a voting position in Congress.
There are also non voting delegates from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Good point!
That has raised questions about the 18-term ‘lawmaker’s’ future.
Above that they said she was non-voting. Great reporting.
I don’t view those as constitutional either!
They’re lobbyists with a fancy title on taxpayer payroll.
Thanks for clarifying lol!
Maybe it is a good time to think about term limits?
How does she afford such expensive clothes?
She has no purpose, so I’d say she’s doing her job.
“Washington is under attack like never before…” True, it was, by criminals. Trump freed them.
She gets the full wages of a House member, $174,000 .
I imagine she has some side hustles going on . Wetting her beak. Not sure if she gets 10% like the big guy .
She is long in tooth and probably knows some of the tricks of the DC Swamp as far as graft and grift are concerned.
They did it that way because they wanted to avoid an imperial city like Rome.
In Rome, everything they did was to do the best thing for Rome, and places like Pompeii could go pound sand, and the Romans didn’t give a crap what they thought.
Sounds like Washington DC today.
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