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In DC, all incumbents hold their seats

WASHINGTON — All incumbents on the ballot in Washington D.C. held onto their seats in Tuesday’s 2018 midterm election.

Both Democrat Anita Bonds and independent Elissa Silverman retained their two at-large seats on the D.C. Council. Bonds took 44.7 percent of the vote while Silverman, a frequent rival of Mayor Muriel Bowser, took 26.8 percent.

Five candidates vied unsuccessfully for those at-large seats, including Republican Ralph Chittams Sr.; Libertarian Denise Hicks; independents Rustin Lewis and Dionne Reeder; and David Schwartzman of the Statehood Green Party.

Bowser had given her endorsement to challenger Dionne Reeder, a restaurant owner and former staffer for former Mayor Anthony Williams.

The candidates differed on the now-repealed Initiative 77, which would have raised minimum base pay for tipped workers to a standard minimum wage. Reeder opposed the measure; Silverman supported it.

Silverman said she expected Reeder to “rubber-stamp” any of Bowser’s positions.

Mayor Bowser cruised to her first successful re-election bid Tuesday night with 79 percent of the vote.

Congressional Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton — who faced four challengers — won yet another term. Non-voting Sen. Michael Brown defeated Green Party challenger Eleanor Ory.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson won another term over Libertarian candidate Ethan Bishop-Henchman. Council seats were up for grabs in Wards 1, 3, 5 and 6, but no one was unseated.

DC’s Potomac Phil declares early spring but more political gridlock

As snow flurries descended down onto the Dupont Fountain in D.C.'s Dupont Circle Tuesday, a tradition unlike any other continued in a virtual way. Potomac Phil, the District's stiff yet mysterious groundhog, emerged from his slumber to give his annual prediction on the political and natural climates on Groundhog Day.
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