DC Mayor Bowser Says She Won’t Seek Fourth Term

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced she will not seek a fourth term, ending months of speculation and setting up a wide-open 2026 race in the nation’s capital. She confirmed her decision in a social media post and subsequently gave an interview with NBC Washington’s News4, saying that “it was time for me to pass the baton onto the next set of leaders who are going to take our city to the next level.”

Bowser said the decision was shaped largely by her family and her sense that a new chapter was overdue. “It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve had to do – to walk away from a job I love. But I know we’ve accomplished the things I’ve set out to do,” she told NBC Washington. She added that now is the moment “to do something else while I still have a lot of energy, vigor and great ideas.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Bowser released a public message reflecting on her tenure. “It has been the honor of my life to be your Mayor. Together, we have built a legacy of success of which I am intensely proud,” she wrote. “With a grateful heart, I am announcing that I will not seek a fourth term.” She urged residents to stay focused on the work ahead: “For the next 12 months, let’s run through the tape and keep winning for DC.”

Despite stepping aside, Bowser insisted that she would have won if she entered the race. “I’ve never lost an election,” she said.

Her final year in office comes after a turbulent period that included clashes with the federal government, an influx of federal law enforcement in the city, and public anxiety over ICE activity and other conflicts that rattled parts of the capital. Bowser said the balance she struck with President Donald Trump was deliberate, as Trump continued threatening to overturn the District’s Home Rule authority. She credited the additional federal law enforcement for reducing crime but acknowledged that many residents lived “in anxiety because of the fear of ICE.”

Asked whether Washingtonians should worry about Trump following through on those threats under the next mayor, Bowser told NBC Washington, “I believe that I am putting the District in the best possible place.” She emphasized that she did not notify the White House ahead of the announcement, saying, “I serve the residents of the District of Columbia. So, they’ll be the first to know.”

Bowser’s third term saw significant sports negotiations as well. She secured the deal to bring the Washington Commanders back to D.C. and redevelop the RFK Stadium site, noting that she made clear to team leadership early on that she would eventually be stepping away. She also reached an agreement to keep the Capitals and Wizards in the District after Virginia rejected owner Ted Leonsis’ plan to relocate the teams to Alexandria.

The mayor, first elected in 2014 and one of only two in D.C. history to serve three consecutive terms, guided the city through the COVID-19 pandemic, the unrest and racial riots of 2020, and later, the period when a federal judge ruled the National Guard’s deployment to the District was unlawful. Bowser called that ruling “a move in the right direction.”

Her delayed decision created space for new political names to emerge. D.C. Councilmembers Janeese Lewis George and Kenyan McDuffie have both said they are considering a run. Bowser stressed that potential candidates need not wait on her: “Nobody has to wait on me to make any decision,” she said in an earlier NBC Washington interview. “If I want, I tell voters what I’m going to do when I know what I’m going to do and I’m ready to tell voters.”

Bowser now heads into her final year with a full agenda, determined, as she told NBC Washington, to “run through the tape” and leave the city steady for the next mayor.