Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser defeats Republican Stacia Hall in Washington, DC's mayoral election

Democratic incumbent Mayor Muriel Bowser defeated Republican Stacia Hall in Washington, DC's mayoral race.

Bowser, first elected in 2014, ran for her third consecutive term as mayor. Currently, the mayor of Washington, DC, is popularly elected to a four-year term with no term limits.

The native Washingtonian previously represented Ward 4 for two terms as a member of the DC Council. She is the second female mayor of Washington, DC, after Sharon Pratt, and the first woman to be reelected to that position.

In 2018, she became the first mayor to earn a second term in 16 years when she won with 76% of the vote.

With the city experiencing increases in violent crime, crime and public safety emerged as leading issues on voters' minds. Bowser, who in 2020 had a section of 16th Street NW near the White House painted with the words "Black Lives Matter" and renamed a section of the street Black Lives Matter Plaza, pushed to increase the number of police officers, a point she touted during a television debate earlier in June.

"I'm going to make the tough calls when it comes to violent crime, including making sure we have the police that we need," she said.

Hall, Bowser's challenger, is a senior rental consultant and small business owner from Ward 3. According to her campaign website, Hall is a single mother who experienced homelessness. The primary focus of her campaign was public safety: If she had been elected, she said she would have put more police officers in schools and developed incentives to have officers live in the neighborhoods they police.

Independent Rodney Grant and Libertarian Dennis Sobin were also on the ballot in 2022.

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