Council of the District of Columbia
Adrian Fenty, member of the Council of the District of Columbia representing Ward 4, ran for mayor of the District of Columbia. Bowser was his campaign coordinator for Ward 4. When Fenty was elected mayor in 2006, a special election was called to fill his council seat. Bowser, among many others, announced her candidacy.
While an ANC commissioner, Bowser had voted in favor of a zoning variance for a condominium development to be built by a developer who had contributed several hundred dollars to her campaign, which some critics derided as a conflict of interest. Bowser maintained that she had supported the development project before running for council.
The editorial page of The Washington Post favored Bowser in the election. The local councils of the AFL–CIO, Service Employees International Union, and the Fraternal Order of Police also endorsed Bowser in the election, but the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees endorsed her opponent, Michael A. Brown.
Bowser won the special election with 40% of the vote.
In 2008, Bowser announced her reelection campaign for the council. Three people ran against her in the Democratic primary: Baruti Akil Jahi, former president of the Shepherd Park Citizens Association; Malik Mendenhall-Johnson, then serving as Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner of 4B04; and Paul E. Montague, who had been Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner of 4B07 before being recalled in 2004.
No candidates' names were on the ballot for the Republican or D.C. Statehood Green primaries. The Washington Post's editorial department endorsed Bowser's candidacy. The Gertrude Stein Democratic Club also voted to endorse her reelection.
Bowser won the Democratic Party primary election, receiving 75% of the votes. Jahi received 19%, Montague received 3%, and Mendenhall-Johnson received 2%. With no one else appearing on the subsequent general election ballot, Bowser won the general election with 97% of the vote.
In 2011, Bowser was appointed to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority board of governors, a position she held until 2015.
Bowser ran for reelection in 2012. She said she would accept donations from corporations. Candidate Max Skolnik criticized Bowser for receiving campaign contributions from developers, corporate bundlers, and lobbyists, saying that she would favor the interests of these corporate donors. She said she was not in favor of banning corporations from making political donations altogether, saying that doing so would make it more difficult to track where campaign donations come from. She also said that corporations are banned from donating to federal elections, but that corporations still find ways to give to campaigns.
Bowser's candidacy was endorsed by the editorial board of The Washington Post recognizing her qualifications and vision for the district. She was also endorsed by the Washington City Paper. Bowser won the Democratic primary with 66% of the vote, to Renee L. Bowser's (no relation) 13%, Max Skolnik's 9%, Baruti Jahi's 5%, Judi Jones' 3%, and Calvin Gurley's 2%. Unopposed in the general election, she was elected with 97% of the vote.
On March 23, 2013, Bowser announced that she would run for Mayor of the District of Columbia in the 2014 election. Her campaign's chair was former council member William Lightfoot.
Bowser emphasized that she could connect with longtime residents concerned about the rapid changes occurring in the district, while still celebrating the changes. She disdained business-as-usual and corruption in the District's government. She favored free Metro fares for students. She was against increasing the minimum wage only for employees of large retailers. Bowser was criticized for being too inexperienced for the position, with too few legislative accomplishments while on the council, and for having a platform that was short on details. She limited the number of debates by only agreeing to participate after the field of candidates had been set, which postponed the first debate until August.
Bowser was endorsed by EMILY's List and the editorial board of The Washington Post. She won the Democratic mayoral primary election with 43% of the vote. To raise funds for her campaign she accepted contributions in excess of legal limits, for which she was fined after winning the election. Lightfoot, Bowser's campaign chairman, called the excess campaign contributions mistakes and said the mayor was accepting responsibility and would not appeal the fines.
In the general election, Bowser was on the ballot with Independents David Catania, Nestor Djonkam and Carol Schwartz, D.C. Statehood Green Faith Dane and Libertarian Bruce Majors. No Republican filed. Bowser won the election with 80,824 votes (54.53%) to Catania's 35% and Schwartz's 7%, and took office on January 2, 2015.
