After a final vote count of absentee and provisional ballots on Friday, D.C. Councilmember Vincent Orange was the winner of the at-large Democratic primary on April 3, over challenger Sekou Biddle. As a former Councilmember, Biddle had been trying to return to the job post Orange snatched away from him in the special election last April. Before the provisional and absentee ballots were counted, 10 days ago, Orange led by 543 votes. After the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics counted the outstanding ballots, Orange surged to a 1,746-vote lead.
On Friday, Orange said, “It’s good we are going to put this behind us and move forward. It’s good to be the Democratic nominee and push forward the Democratic agenda.” Orange’s victory concludes that five District Councilmembers up for election in the primary won their races, a sign that city voters were relatively unbothered by the ongoing federal investigation of political city campaigns. Orange said, “I never had an ethics problem,” and noted that he wants to ban second salaries for Councilmembers. Biddle, who congratulated Orange “on a hard-fought race,” noted that three challengers in the race had won a combined majority vote. “What we saw was significant numbers voting for candidates other than the incumbent. People are saying pretty clearly with their votes that they want and need something they have not been getting.”
