Trayon White officially took back the Ward 8 seat on the D.C. Council Friday.
White was sworn in at 2 p.m.
Last month, White won a special election for the Ward 8 seat months after he was indicted on a federal bribery charge and his fellow legislators voted unanimously to expel him from the position.
“So we sent a message loud and clear to D.C. City Council that Trayon White is here to stay,” White said after he won the election.
In the victory speech, White thanked his supporters and described his return to office as a tale of resilience and redemption.
“So I am excited tonight that we restored power back into great Ward 8, and the people have spoken,” White told News4. “You know, we didn’t raise a lot of money, it was ridiculed the whole time, but I want to say that God can do anything with anybody when you let him, and it’s really about restoring the will to the power of people, and the people have spoken tonight.”
White was removed from the Council after he was indicted for allegedly taking thousands of dollars in bribes — a charge to which he’s pleaded not guilty. White’s federal trial won’t start until January 2026, but preliminary evidence includes videos of him pocketing cash-stuffed envelopes from a city contractor, allegedly in return for securing lucrative city contracts.
It’s unclear whether the Council will vote a second time to remove him. Earlier this month, Chairman Phil Mendelson withdrew legislation that would have made it easier for the Council to remove White, should he be reelected. Several councilmembers had raised objections.
Along with White, Salim Adofo, Mike Austin and Sheila Bunn were on the ballot to fill the empty seat. All three had experience either working as staffers for D.C. Council members or in the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.
All three challengers pointed to White’s legal troubles and emphasized a need to restore credibility and public trust to the Ward 8 council seat. White did minimal public campaigning or fundraising, skipped multiple candidate debates and left early from one debate.
How Trayon White campaigned to retake Ward 8 seat after arrest
White, 41, was arrested by the FBI last August. After an internal investigation, the remaining 12 D.C. Council members voted unanimously to oust him from the council. However, White was free to enter the special election because he had not been convicted of a felony. He won reelection just a few months later in an indication of a scandal-proof popularity that echoes his political mentor, former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry.
White came up in local politics as a protégé of Barry. And he has been channeling his mentor’s defiant, populist playbook since his arrest. White refused to cooperate with the internal D.C. Council inquiry. His lawyer, Frederick D. Cooke Jr., also served as Barry’s defense attorney. And White has sought to stoke lingering suspicion of the FBI among Black Washingtonians, many of whom believe Barry was unfairly targeted by the 1990 FBI sting that caught him on camera smoking crack cocaine.
Sam P.K. Collins, a reporter for The Washington Informer newspaper that is based in the heart of Ward 8, said White didn’t focus on his legal troubles when speaking to voters and spoke of waiting for his day in court.
“Former Councilmember Trayon White really talks about the investments that he says he has helped bring to Ward 8, he has experience in collaborating with other councilmembers, and he’s telling constituents that the job is not done yet, in terms of just making Ward 8 better,” Collins said.
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