It’s easy to see why some people in Washington are worried about a second Trump administration. Vice President Kamala Harris won 93% of the vote in the nation’s capital, and Congressional Republicans have shown a willingness to intervene in Washington, D.C., politics in recent years.
But Mayor Muriel Bowser’s willingness to work with the incoming administration proves that the relationship between the federal government and local governments is not necessarily controversial.
I began my 15-year career in D.C. government during the Adrian Fenty administration, where I saw firsthand how residents benefit when the federal and local governments work together. The Connect.DC program, which I have led for nearly a decade, was started with a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
We leveraged federal and local funding to provide technology training and information about affordable internet services to low-income adults, ex-offenders, seniors, and K-12 students. The program also transformed bookmobiles into technologymobiles, providing digital access to public housing residents.
There is no reason that intergovernmental partnerships cannot work today, especially to benefit working-class residents of Washington, D.C., who vote Democratic but are not partisan ideologues.
>>> DC City Council fails criminal justice reform — Congress needs to fix it
Education is one area where bipartisan agreement may be possible. The district already has a strong system of public charter schools, but its only federally funded voucher program, the DC Opportunity Scholarship, has been a target of the past two Democratic presidential administrations. President Trump pushed for the program and restored funding for it during his first term. For low-income families who are watching vouchers being used as a political football by politicians who are parroting the National Education Association’s anti-choice rhetoric and sending their children to elite private schools, this is You’ll probably feel better if you do it again.
Another area of potential cooperation is public safety. I spent my last year working in the Washington, D.C., government’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, where I saw firsthand how violent crime affects every corner of our city. Violent crime will be down in 2024, but it was only a year ago that sitting members of Congress called on the National Guard to quell violence that claimed the lives of their constituents.
The Biden administration launched its own Gun Violence Prevention Agency in 2023, but it is unclear whether the incoming Trump administration will maintain it. What is clear is that mayors, city councils, and residents are nothing like the “defund the police” activists who ignore the plight of law-abiding citizens because of racial disparities in the criminal justice system. That means no. That means there needs to be an opportunity for conservatives and progressives to work together to reduce violent crime in the district.
Finally, the incoming Republican majority and the Washington, DC government need to find a way to work together to keep families together. Progressive policymakers often focus on “root causes” such as systemic racism, mass incarceration, and gentrification to explain persistent differences in group outcomes. But for some reason, family structure is not on the list.
However, family structure clearly contributes to within-district disparities. Approximately 80 percent of infants in Ward 8 are born to unmarried mothers, while 90 percent of infants in Ward 3 return to married mothers and fathers. New programs focused on improving student achievement and preventing violence will not last long unless elected officials actively acknowledge that the outcomes measured in school buildings and courthouses are all downstream from the inputs they provide at home. effects will be limited.
>>> How the elites got the election wrong — and ignored those predicting a Trump victory
Now is the perfect time to try new approaches to strengthening families in D.C., especially now that the federal government has grants earmarked for that purpose. One idea that addresses the financial needs of families and emphasizes the importance of a child’s home environment is a marriage “boot camp” for cohabiting couples with children. These types of programs are run by local churches or nonprofit organizations and may cover important topics such as financial management, chastity, and conflict resolution.
The program may culminate in a mass wedding where all couples who successfully complete the training are married at the same time. Couples can also be paired with an older mentor couple. But the biggest innovation will be financial incentives for couples to get married and stay married. For example, couples who complete the program can choose to make a $10,000 gift on their wedding day or a $20,000 loan that is fully forgiven after 10 years.
The city has already shown a willingness to help families by announcing a pilot program that will give low-income mothers $10,800 in one-time or monthly payments for a year. Family policies that supplement household income are well-intentioned, but lack a long-term vision and do not specifically focus on marriage and family structure. If Republicans come to the negotiating table with sensible reforms like the ones I proposed above, I’m sure Democrats will be willing to agree.
The nation’s capital should serve as a model for how Democrats, who govern the largest cities, and Republicans, who increasingly represent the working class, can come together on behalf of the voters who put them in power. It is.
Readers should have no illusions that this bipartisan cooperation will magically emerge in a second Trump administration, but policymakers and residents of Washington, D.C. alike, should keep cooperation, not confrontation, in mind. It would be wise to approach the next four years with this in mind.
