D.C. Council Funds Semi-Open Primaries

By: Miriam Edelman

In 2024, Initiative 83, which won with 73 percent of the vote, called for ranked-choice voting (RCV) and semi-open primaries. In RCV, “voters rank candidates in order of preference.” Semi-open primaries would allow people not registered with a political party to vote in D.C.’s primary elections. In order to implement the two voting reforms, the D.C. government would have to fund them. However, in July 2025, D.C. government funded only RCV. One of DCNOW’s blog pieces on Initiative 83 is “Initiative 83 is Law.” Almost a year later on June 23, 2026, the D.C. Council voted to fund semi-open primaries, which would begin in D.C. in 2028 assuming the reform clears Congressional review. This piece is about the D.C. Council changing its position on funding semi-open primaries.

2025 Vote on Funding Semi-Open Primaries

In 2025, D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto offered an amendment to the budget bill to fund semi-open primaries. The D.C. Council voted against it with a 6 No to 5 Yes vote, and one person voting present. The 13-member D.C. Council had a vacancy then as a result of the expulsion of Trayon White from the D.C. Council.

D.C.’s June 16, 2026, Elections

As a result of Pinto’s failed amendment, D.C.’s special and primary elections on June 16, 2026, used only RCV. D.C.’s closed primaries (when only people registered with a political party can vote in that party’s primaries) on June 16^th meant that almost 86,000 Independent voters (constituting approximately 17.6 percent of D.C.’s 482,968, registered voters, as of July 17, 2026) could not vote. The June 16^th primary elections are viewed as “D.C.’s most consequential elections” in over a decade because there were open-seat races for both Delegate to the House and Mayor. Since D.C. is primarily Democratic and Democrats tend to win general elections (except elections for the two non-majority D.C. Council seats), the inability to vote in primaries means that independents have very little opportunity to affect D.C.’s elections.

The Davis Center for Social Justice at Temple Sinai reported:

“Washington, DC, with its large population of journalists, academics, and nonpartisan nonprofits, has many residents who do not wish to publicly identify with a political party for either professional reasons or reasons of conscience. Nearly one in six DC registered voters has not expressed a party preference. Unlike DC, most states (red, blue, and purple) have opened up their primaries to independent voters.”

Make All Votes Count DC, which supported Initiative 83, also explained why people may be independent voters:

“Their jobs depend on impartiality (journalists, judges, etc.)

Young people are skeptical of the system

Incarcerated neighbors living in red states

Independent is the default option when registering at the DMV”

2026 Vote on Funding Semi-Open Primaries

D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson, who is an Independent and was one of the two D.C. Councilmembers who endorsed Initiative 83, offered a budget amendment to D.C.’s budget bill (B26-0659 - Fiscal Year 2027 Local Budget Act of 2026) to fund semi-open primaries. Most of the $1.1 million funding would come from D.C.’s workforce investment fund.

At a D.C. Council meeting, Henderson said:

“Independent voters are not spectators, we are District residents.”

“We all have constituents who are federal employees and cannot affiliate with a particular political party. We have neighbors who are judges, who are members of the military, journalists or simply residents who have chosen not to join a party. Regardless of the reason, they care deeply about the city and deserve a meaningful voice in shaping its future.”

Comparison of D.C. Councilmembers’ Votes in 2025 and 2026

In 2026, the D.C. Council voted for Henderson’s amendment by a 9 Yes to 2 No vote, with two people voting Present. The four new yes votes in 2026 came from D.C. Councilmembers who voted either no or Present in 2025. Democratic Mayoral nominee Janeese Lewis George, Democratic House Delegate nominee Robert White, D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker, and D.C. Councilmember Anita Bonds all changed their vote to Yes. Lewis George flipped from voting present, Robert White, Parker, and Bonds changed from voting no. Interestingly, most likely, three of the four (Lewis George, Robert White, and Bonds, who did not run for reelection in 2026) will leave the D.C. Council soon, Parker has a large chance of winning reelection to his D.C. Council seat in November 2026.

Between the D.C. Council’s votes in 2025 and 2026 on funding semi-open primaries, the D.C. Council’s membership changed slightly (affecting just two of 13 seats). However, the D.C. Council’s change in membership did not account for much of the variation of the D.C. Council votes in 2025 and 2026. Trayon White rejoined the Council. Months later, Kenyan McDuffie, who had voted no in 2025, left the D.C. Council and was replaced by Doni Crawford (as was discussed in DCNOW’s blog piece entitled “DCNOW Congratulates D.C. Councilmember Doni Crawford”). New members White and Crawford both voted Present on semi-open primaries in 2026.

The following table and graph show the difference in the 2025 and 2026 votes:

Robert White and Parker both thought about semi-open primaries differently because of independent voters. Robert White said, “In D.C. increasingly, in this federal administration there are people who are removing party affiliation just to keep their jobs.” Parker said:

“I saw this effort as an attempt intentionally or unintentionally to weaken the Democratic party.”

“But I have been most moved by the neighbors that I have had heartfelt conversations with.”

“This is also an opportunity for us as a District, as a city, to make perfect our own local democracy while fighting on a national level for statehood.”

D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson and D.C. Councilmember Wendell Felder opposed semi-open-primaries in the votes in 2025 and 2026. Mendelson remarked, “Democrats should be selecting who their nominee is, Republicans should be selecting who their nominees are.” He added, “Not non-Democrats or non-Republicans.” Felder said, “I just want to be mindful of where the money is coming from to support this initiative.”

In 2026, Crawford, an independent, and Trayon White voted Present. Like DCNOW, Crawford did not like Initiative 83 merging the two election reforms. She said, “Combining multiple subjects into a single ballot measure made it difficult for voters to express their views on each proposal.”

On June 23, 2026, the entire D.C. Council voted for the budget unanimously by a vote of 13-0. On July 15^th, the budget was transmitted to D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bowser and went through Mayoral review.

Local Statements about 2026 Vote

The July 2, 2026, edition of Henderson’s newsletter entitled “The Henderson Brief: Patriotism and America 250” said:

“On Tuesday, June 23, the Committee of the Whole held its thirty-second legislative meeting and the Council approved Councilmember Henderson’s amendment to fully implement the Ranked Choice Voting and Open Primaries Elections to Independent Voters Act of 2024, commonly known as Initiative 83. The amendment, adopted as part of the Fiscal Year 2027 Local Budget Act of 2026, provides the funding necessary to implement the initiative's open primary provisions, allowing registered independent voters in the District of Columbia to participate in primary elections. This would go into effect for the 2028 election cycle. Any elections that occur in 2027 would be Special Elections and therefore would not have a primary.”

Lisa Rice, who proposed Initiative 83, began her statement:

“This is a victory that is more than a decade in the making. In 2014, the first ranked choice voting and open primaries bills were introduced in Council – together – but languished for years. In 2023, DC voters took our fate into our own hands and launched Make All Votes Count DC. We kept those two reforms together and put Initiative 83 on the ballot, and in 2024 – after 10 years of inaction – a supermajority of DC voters chose to reform our elections.”

“Last year, Councilmembers Henderson and Nadeau led the charge to fund ranked choice voting. But the final budget vote left 85,000 independents disenfranchised for the most consequential elections in a generation. Today, we resolved that injustice.”

Future of Semi-Open Primaries in D.C.

For semi-open primaries to come to D.C., the budget bill would need to become law. It has to undergo Congressional review.