As the clock winds down to the end of yet another two-year period, the D.C. Council has nearly a handful of legislative meetings to complete what now D.C. Delegate-elect Robert White left undone when he resigned in accordance with federal law.
Carrying some of the burden along this journey will be D.C. Councilmember Jamal Holtz (D-At large), a Gen-Zer and native Washingtonian who was appointed by the D.C. Democratic Party to temporarily occupy the at-large seat.
“There’s a lot on the [Nov. 10 legislative] agenda,” a newly sworn-in Holtz told reporters Monday. “Everything from solar [energy] to noise complaints to stuff around education. I’m getting all trained up on everything for the agenda. I learned about this four days ago, so that’s my focus in trying to get caught up so I can meet my colleagues.”
Holtz recently took an oath of office before a standing-room only audience in council chambers. His swearing in, conducted by D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D), culminated a tug-of-war between the D.C. Democratic Party and D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large), the latter of whom attempted to change her party affiliation to Democrat on Election Day.
Henderson’s move, local Democratic Party insiders said, stood to usurp their selection of an interim council member. The D.C. Home Rule Charter, which gives the party this power, also requires that no more than three citywide council seats be occupied by a Democrat — meaning that Henderson’s change, if approved, would’ve brought the council to that threshold.
These parameters set off a race between Henderson and the D.C. Democratic Party to fill the vacant Democratic at-large seat. The local Democratic Party ended on top, by virtue of their temporary selection of Holtz on Nov. 5 before DCBOE solidified Henderson’s party change.
“When I was presented with the letter, I consulted with our general counsel, and I felt I had no choice but to go forward with his designation,” Mendelson told reporters earlier in the day. “And that is why on Friday I announced that I would be swearing in Mr. White today at 1 o’clock.”
When a newly sworn-in Holtz took to the podium in council chambers, he reflected on the greater meaning behind the events of the previous week.
“While circumstances that brought us here may feel like a sick season of ‘House of Cards,’ they also have reminded us that there’s a real and a very serious truth that we have to address,” Holtz said during his Nov. 9 swearing-in ceremony. “That the people of Washington, D.C. still [do] not have full voting rights in the halls of Congress. And that should trouble every single one of us in this room.”
The special election for the Democratic at-large seat, as announced by DCBOE, will take place on April 9, 2027. While the D.C. Democratic Party confirmed that its search for an interim council member continues, the party hasn’t specified how long that search would take.
Holtz, meanwhile, hasn’t specified whether he would stay beyond the end of 2026 or if he would throw his hat in the ring for interim council member.
“I have not applied for the position,” Holtz told reporters on Nov. 9. “I’m currently ensuring that the D.C. Democratic Party can … host their open process, and I want to leave the space for them to do that.”
A fourth-generation Washingtonian, Holtz most recently served as chair of the D.C. Young Democrats. He’s also an alumnus of Friendship Collegiate Academy Public Charter School and University of Rochester, the latter of which he attended as a POSSE scholar. Other feats achieved in his less than three decades of life include a stint as youth city administrator in the Marion Barry Youth Leadership Institute and chief of staff at LINK Strategic Partners.
As Holtz explained in his swearing-in address, life hasn’t always been a crystal stair.
“I’ve experienced the pain of losing my brother to gun violence. I’ve experienced homelessness, sleeping in my car many nights,” Holtz said. “I’ve experienced my mom [facing] pressure to put food on the table. But through it all, it was the people in this city, the community that raised me, the community that made me who I am today.”
Those in attendance at Holtz’s swearing-in were: all members of the council, except Ward 4 D.C. Councilmember and D.C. Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George. Others who packed the room included former D.C. Council members Harry Thomas Jr., Brandon Todd and Tommy Wells; D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb; D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation director Thennie Freeman; Markus Batchelor; Kemry Hughes; former city administrator Rasheed Young, former Ward 6 D.C. State Board of Education representative Ruth Wattenburg; Michael Akin of LINK Strategic Partners; Ward 7 Democrats Chair Tyrell M. Holcomb; and Friendship Public Charter School CEO Patricia A. Brantley.
Holtz’s orientation classmates — D.C. Councilmembers-elect Aparna Raj (D-Ward 1) and Dr. Oye Owolewa (D-At large) — also counted among those in the space. All of them watched as the Rev. Norm Nixon gave the invocation that set the swearing-in ceremony in motion.
For Brantley, Holtz’s elevation to the council was a prophecy fulfilled.
“From the time that he was in our school at Friendship Collegiate, he has said he wanted to represent this city,” Brantley told The Informer. “I can’t think of a better person than a native son of Washington, D.C., to sit on the council and bring the perspective of someone who lives here, someone who cares about being here, and someone who is a young person who has grown up knowing what it’s like to have opportunity but also to be denied it.”
Brantley said that, in his role, Holtz will pay it forward to the youth.
“To build that for other young people,” she said. “this city has gotten a great leader, and I am so happy for him and for us.”
